Tommy Collison

Why does cycling rock more than, say, walking or jogging?

Cycling rocks purely because you cover more ground. Yesterday, myself and Dad went for a cycle around the back roads of nowhere. A nice round trip by Abbington and Barringtonsbridge for an hour and a quarter.

But what’s the appeal of cycling?

Photo owned by philippe.charles9 (cc)

For one, it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining. If you were simply standing outside having a smoke, you’d be complaining, but when you’re in the saddle, it feels oddly refreshing and cools you off. The only bad thing is when you wear glasses (like me) because it gets harder to see. Ah well. What’s that Harry Potter spell that makes glasses immune to getting wet? Impervius, that’s it. Remind me to try it next time I’m going out.

The second cool thing about cycling is that you do indeed go places. When walking, you see a hill up ahead but it never seems to get closer, while with bikes you see it and a minute later, you’re at the top, ready to go whizzing down the downhill.

…which brings me onto the third point: for every uphill, there’s a downhill, and I’m coming to the stage where I can’t decide which one I like more. Downhills are cool because you go fast and you have a chance to stretch your legs, while uphills provide a challenge and requires a burst of faster peddling.

It’s all good, chief!