Commuter Cycling : ' Fixie' or Scooter?

My son was in the mood for a means to get to and from a place of likely employment. The option being railwaying and riding the distance there and back.

In Queensland bikes are not allowed on trains during weekday peak periods -- morning and   afternoon -- unless  they folded and  bagged.

Between 7:00am - 9:30am towards the CBD
Between 3:00pm - 6:30pm outwards from the CBD

So what it the best tool for the job?

I was thinking through this as a problem solving exercise  and for my money scootering with a folding Mibo  came ahead of  the usual standard bicycle options.

That's how I'd rule on such a commuter  challenge: getting from 'a' to 'b'. So let's look at the principles I think are important for commuting as the properties relate to both bike and scooter.

#1 Light Cycling

If you are going to be using public transport you want to travel light. You'll need to not only carry your machine up stairs and in and out of carriages, but you'll need to support it while the train is in transit. So lighter is so much better than heavy.

#2 Shaped to Fit

If you are going to carry your machine on public transport you want to keep a low profile. So  the smaller your 'bike' the better. The smallest packaging is gonna be folded of course, but if you aren't folded keep your length down if you can. Nonetheless, the most cumbersome feature of cycling the railroads is the bike peddle which can be a weapon in crowded carriages. Peddles stick out to scrape passing heels -- and if bikes were more train friendly they wouldn't have peddles (hint: they' be scooters).

#3 Function Rules

If you are  going to commute how far are you going to ride? It's not worth the extra weight and outlay if you are going to be riding for less than 10 km. Don't overdo it. You won't be mountain biking or negotiating the Tour de France. Consider that what you want to do is get to work quicker than walking or some other transport option. So hone in on your basic needs and keep it simple.

#4 Price and Value for Money

Bikes can be expensive items to purchase, especially light ones. If you can spare yourself the hype the core fact is that you want value for money and a machine that won't be so attractive 'parked' that its going to be stolen while your working your shift at the coal face. If your bike is a theft option would you prefer to lose $1300 plus or $350? I paste up my scooters with stickers so that they are marked goods, less re-salable and more easily identified. But you don't want to be driven crazy by anxiety if you fear your expensive machine is a theft waiting to happen. Better to keep your outlay in the low figures so that you can keep going from 'a' to 'b'. It may happen that you don't ride your bike home from work one day and want to instead 'store it' by locking it up nearby. You want the confidence  to be able to walk away from your bike  knowing that (a) it's cheap enough not to be big time theft bait; and (b) it's cheap enough that you can wear the loss, and replace it, if it is solen. 

#5 Footpath or Road?

I really appreciate the ease with which a scooter can mount and transit  the pavements as well as the roads.Maybe it is because I'm not confident in traffic and a scooter has such slow pickup. But my travelling style is always opportunist as I utilize road and pavement to get around. Bikes can do this too except the jumping on and off isn't so straightforward and with the larger wheel diameter maneuvering on footpaths isn't as easy as scootering can be. With scooters dealing with foot traffic issues are simple: you hop off the scooter and walk around the pedestrian obstruction in your path, then hop back on again.

#6 Gears are for Whimps

As I say: keep it simple. Unless you are pushing great distances or climbing the Alps gears are extra weight you'll need to carry around on your bike. If you want to get exercise then the gears are going to make your life too easy for sweat.  Take up the purity challenge and ride your ride in the raw without these indulgent extras...luxuries.

So weighing up he evidence I think that if you don't want to scoot your best commute option is a  Fixed Gear Bicycle -- a "Fixie". 

• Light
• Cheap
• Simple
• Reliable
• Less prone to theft
• It's exercise plus
• Does the job: gets you from 'a' to 'b'.
• ...and it is ever so cool to be seen in the company of a fixie. Coolest dam thing on two wheels.

Click on image to enlarge view

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HIIT,HillFit, Hardware: the exercise 3 H's rule

I suspect that I have made a turning along the three meals-a-day yellow brick road of life.

A turning such that I have quickened my pace.

But I need to add, my turning isn't a shortcut nor  detour, nor a high or low road...

Henceforth, to celebrate,  I shall refer to myself as  'Dorothy' and wear  red shoes when in the company of Munchkins. 

 Becoming Dorothy

Auntie Em: Help us out today and find yourself a place where you won't get into any trouble!

Dorothy: A place where there isn't any trouble. Do you suppose there is such a place, Toto? There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or a train. It's far, far away. Behind the moon, beyond the rain...

[begins to sing "Over the Rainbow"] 

HIIT

After years of deploying many exercise regimes, experimenting with a range of approaches, I have now settled upon a creative mix that seems to have more impact upon my person than of yore.

The key element is to defer to the principles of High Intensity Interval Training 

HIIT exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is an effective form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 9–20 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.

For me the baseline was/is the Tabata Method

20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise (at an intensity of about 170% of VO2max) followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated continuously for 4 minutes (8 cycles)

That set off bells in my head. Gave me a comprehension of what I was missing (and missing out of in way of pain!).

I doubt that  my Tabata-ing reaches 170% of VO2max but it's the thought that counts.

HillFit

I guess the  h's rule!

HillFit is a little ebook put together of Chris Highcock.

It's a simple set of only four (that's right, only four) exercises packaged in a thoughtful essay on exercise.

HillFitting anchored me and more so than related literature gave me a comprehension of the why and the how. I mean my routine was no longer routine. It had meaning. 

HillFit also bought me back to the importance of technique: it is not about repetition or 'grunt'. Easy does it, slow as you go. 

It's Tai Chi without Mr Yin and Ms Yang. High Intensity Interval-ing for the sake of an exercise Zen.

HillFit and related inputs also changed my attitude toward frequency and duration.

This was a Wow! moment.

Instead of forcing myself to keep to an unrelenting routine of obligations I simply  'exercised' every second day. 

And these every-second-day sessions are no longer than 5-10 minutes.

Hardware

Another 'h': hardware. 

I've been a long term kettlebell user. And I love my kickbiking. I also box and own gloves and a heavy bag. In the present mix I make use of these resources. I've recovered an old cheap rusty set of dumbbells and put a sandbag in a torn old back pack. I got myself some cheap sandals I can run the tidal flats in...

So I put all this stuff to work.

1. Every Second Day: I keep to a every second day schedule of focused exercise. One day I do HillFit. Two days later I do Kettlebells. And two days after that I do a dumbbell session. We're talking 9-12 minutes each time...with Tabata finishers (either Tabata boxing or squats: all of 4 minutes). If I'm a bit challenged that day -- ie: ill -- I skip a day or only do Tabata boxing if only for the pump up 'high'.
2. Other times: Kickbike + Running.  Elsewhere in my week I take off on the kickbike as has been my long term norm and instead of simply going for a walk when I reach my destination, I run -- I run the tidal flats. Strictly speaking this isn't supposed to be exercise . It's supposed to be 'fun'. At least it will be once my running improves. I don't have a schedule for this, I simply do what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it.
3. Spontaneity: Running Stairs. Since I live on flat terrain and can only yearn about the elevations in the far off distance, I've taken up the impulse to run up things -- usually stair cases -- when the opportunity presents itself. I'm working on a few stair running routes to tackle when I'm in the vicinity. But every train journey is going to offer me a chance to run stairs at most railway stations. I am also much taken with Jacobs Ladder here in Brisbane town. If I have an ambition -- a goal -- then 'running stairs' or sandhills or mountains is it. 

So far so good. My body is now ordering weight reduction  after plateauing for 12 months. I expect my bood sugar will also roll back a bit. I've done some dietary tweaking which I'll explore in a later post. I feel the best I've felt in a long time -- despite my ready penchant to be relapsing hither and yon. (Can't do much about that unfortunately esp in the current weather conditions: wet and humid). I also do urban soul line dancing but that is fun and more a mental challenge.

---

Bipedal, two wheeling bi-athleticisim on and off the (kick)bike with beach running.

From the Captain's log:

Scooted to Park then ran the flats.On foot, getting better/lasting longer. Tide in a bit too much -- I was three hours before low tide -- so I had to plunge into the waters more often than not. The tide moves around the clock faster than I'd like.

So I'm combining running with my kickbiking. That's the neewiest news. Tide willing, it seems to work.

Hop on the bike. Scoot off tra la. Hop off. Jog up the 'beach'. Jog back. On the bike. Homeward bound.

By Googling my options...

10 km along the Tidal Flats

...word has it that on the foreshore with the tide out I have on hand 10 kilometres of 'trail'running.

"Your mission Dave, should you decide to accept it is to run those 10 ks."

But this is a trail with no markers whatsoever except a generic 'run with the sea to one side and the land to the other' until you reach the river (southbound) or the seagrass beds (northbound). Between land and sea at low tide you have maybe a 400 metre wide highway.

Warning!Warning!

• Watch out for shell middens as they'll cut you up;  
• Don't trip in an unseen stingray hole (samples left/above);
• Don't enter a seagrass bed  as you'll damage it. 
• Give sea birds a wide birth as you may disturb them.

Under foot the surface varies depending on how much water has  been absorbed by the sand. The lower the tide, the dryer the sand and the firmer the surface -- depending on your route. Stingray holes come in clusters after each tide-in feed and you can place your footfall within a hole easily enough just so you know you are doing it.

So concentrate on where you put your tootsies...

Mapping ahead it is all a business of incorporating as much mounded sand as you can manage and avoiding  as many  pools as you can as some can be 15 cm deep where there is a lot of water  draining from the shore.

This morning I ran north with two sea eagles at my shoulder and plunging through the shallows was like wading through claret as the wetlands, due to all the rain, are offering up rich burgundy tannin stains to their run off.  Out to sea the rain clouds were clasping the sand hills of Moreton Island 30 kms away.

---

Chasing the tide.

Where  I live, outdoor life is ruled by the tide and when the tide goes out -- as is its daily want -- it goes out a long way.

Only when the tide falls do we get our beach back.

This extra landscape is a wonderful resource. I walk the dogs upon it almost every day, but today was the first time I ran upon it.

I'm not into running as I'm a kickbiker by preference -- but of late the prospect of maybe getting into trail running has sparked my interest in setting the pace. 

I had thought that I'm still carrying too much weight to pound the pavement -- but running on sand -- wet sand -- is really something else altogether.

Coincidentally I got myself a new pair of sandals which -- wonders of wonders -- stay on my feet no matter how much suction there is from water and sand . So I can run with footwear upon my footsies. I could run barefoot but the shells here are brutally sharp and will gather in hollows in midden numbers.  Its' like negotiating razor blades. Even today I could feel their sharp edges through my sole.... such that running barefoot would be lacerating.

That and the stingrays in the shallows....!

So now with my new shoes I can leg it and the dogs have to keep up.

I ran in intervals for maybe 3 kilometres. Each burst of speed I ran until I fatigued. I'd then walk to recover and then would jog off again. 

Strangely no one else does it. Of all my time out and about here the only runners I see pound the pavement. Low tide running is not de rigueur. 

But then I'm a low tide aficionado -- the dogs and I. We chase the ebb tide around the clock. High tide means no beach and King Tide means the Pacific Ocean comes ashore. Low tide moves the shoreline boundary another half a kilometre eastward -- towards Latin America.

Kickbike running

Since low tidal sand flats are such a great surface to run upon it is easy to monitor your technique. 

I wrote earlier about kickbike walking. Since that meditation I've been considering the ways and means I deploy to move myself forward. And it is remarkable how much better I walk when in 'kickbike mode' than if I let myself default to bad habits. 

I'm straighter. My head and shoulders are several inches back. My eyes are cast upwards more.  My chin is horizontal. My footprints in the sand tell a tale of efficiency and ... grace. The weight of my tread doesn't fall on the heel.

And when I run I get the same properties working for me. It's as though I'm barefoot because the sands don't lie. 

Running on sand -- wet sand which is a firmer surface than dry --  with the sea to one side and mangroves to the other -- is my  version of running a trail. Of course there are no pathways. I navigate my route by choosing which shallow pools  I am going to run through and which exposed shoals I am going to mount.

For now I'm thinking: stingrays -- so I need to make sure that the water depth is too shallow  for them as the water here can be turbid -- and there is nothing so exciting as having a big Estuary Stingray a metre across rise  up in a whirl of sand and silt at your feet.

Always, always: let them know you're coming.

---

Glycogen and 'the wall'

I had a moment of thought the other day during my morning kickbike scoot. After pushing outward bound, coming back was hard. But not hard as in strenuous. It was hard as in weak. 

You think, "maybe I should get off and walk?"

There's no pain or seeming strain just the absence of strength.

Am I talking about a phenomenon unique to myself or is this a norm?

It wasn't until I had raised this question that the obvious hit me.

The depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, manifests itself by sudden fatigue and loss of energy -- hitting "The Wall".

In my case I suspect that because I have reduced -- further -- my carbohydrate intake recently,  I'm promoting this response. On the morning in question I had scooted off without having breakfast. (So I was asking for it, right?)

That's why the symptom stands out for me as being novel. I don't make it a habit of running out of fuel.

The advantage is that supplying the body with fewer carbohydrates during exercise teaches it to burn fat instead. This is the first principle of ketogenic diets. So while I may be entering a ketosis I am suggesting to my body that it should look elsewhere for fuel.

There is going to be a period of transition, maybe a rough ride for a while.

To make sure I'm not losing muscle for fuel I need to eat plenty of protein.

So either I'm doing myself damage by being ketotic on exertion (and this is a symptom) or I'm remaking my metabolism to better effect...

For this reason it is usually recommended to long distance runners and cyclists that they up their carb intake in order to generate easily accessible fuel in the form of glycogen.

But in one study aerobic endurance exercise by well-trained cyclists was not compromised by four weeks of ketosis. This was accomplished by a dramatic physiologic adaptation that conserved limited carbohydrate stores (both glucose and muscle glycogen) and made fat the predominant muscle substrate at this submaximal power level.

But the research work is ongoing.... I just didn't expect that my own body would be so much a lab rat. So what I have to watch is how much further (and with whatever intensity) I can go before hitting the wall.

If I faint during a scoot -- and make it back -- I'll let you know. If I faint and don't return, my absence from this forum should be word enough.

Kickbike scooting : Kickbike Walking

I don't know how I got to this -- another novel/out there -- consideration but I was reviewing 'barefoot running' science -- such as it is. I was thinking barefoot kickbiking because barefoot is an easy jump on.

No shoelaces to worry about.  

But when you review the barefoot running rationale there's really no point to go barefoot on a kickbike as your foot strike is not  heel based. It's way up front and a lot lighter than a runner's stomp. So injuries on a kickbike from pronation or twist ankles or achilles tendonitis or whatever are zilch.

So for kickbiking I wear my beloved Dunlop Volleys  (and will continue to wear) -- and mine are from the cheap end of the catalogue: purchased from Big W or Target.

The irony being that for barefoot runner wannabes the Volley is recommended as a transition or beginner shoe.

As for more general wear I have monitored my experiments and $ outlays and find that the Volleys will cross train' both on the kickbike and in the water and still last me maybe one year at a stretch with several pairs in use. The only drawback -- as with any shoe -- is those odd times when you get the shoe heel caught under the scooter's back wheel. This usually grinds the shoe back or rips the canvas.

So do I want to go barefoot....? Why? Also as a diabetic maybe it's not a good idea afterall. In fact it is a contraindication.

But the whole question got me thinking about my continuing preference for light simple footwear and barefoot is as light as you can get.

But then, since I've used this an an excuse to read  Christopher  McDougall's barefooter's bible -- Born to Run -- I've got to think a bit more about what I'm doing on/with a kickbike -- and why I abhorred all the cross trainer hype that are used to sell these scooters.

I know I have talked about this before -- the difference between EXERCISE and RECREATION -- but I am now much enamored with the perspective being offered from HIIT adherents like Chris Highcock -- who's HillFit I've discussed before.  

Hillfitery has been a bit of a major revelation for me.

It's about doing less but doing it well and then seeing, in my case, kickbiking as primarily recreation without having to make demands of the scootering.

That said I now do interval sprints on the kickbike and am now experimenting with a 40 second exertion followed by a 20 second coast x 8 times -- rather than angsting over distances. It's like hill climbing. I have 'interval music' in my mp3 player and sprint full on along a straight, wide, and low traffic road. Since it is so flat here my sprints are my make-believe typography topography. 

These intense pushes really focus my attention on my technique -- such as getting as much drive a I can from each kick. Then a few minutes later , sprints completed, I'm back in recreational mode.

This is how the option of barefooting came up in my head: foot strike. But as I say, it's a false issue on a kickbike as you do strike so lightly compared to running.That raises the question of 'natural kickbiking' -- like natural running -- and begs the other question of how much does kickbiking impact on your walking or running gait and style?

Since you don't kickbike like you run...but what if you run or walk like you kickbike?

That may seem silly but just for an experiment get up and walk around the room like you are pushing a kickbike as though you are scootering. Then break back into 'normal stride'.

Note the difference and how your pelvis is aligned in with each move. Your gait is wider and your hips are rockier left and right. You are a little shorter and there is more work demanded of the abdominals. You also walk with less immediate strike or weight falling directly on the heel.

So is this good for walking or not?

I wonder...

If I wanted to walk better or differently all I'd need to do is whisper to my brain: "switch to kickbike mode". And since kickbiking gives you such a cute ass --- well maybe if you wanted to strut the walk this is the way.

Out in the laboratory: I spent a good part of  yesterday walking in kickbike mode for maybe 4-5 km. I had no difficulty keeping it up as the simple directive 'kickbike mode' ruled my brain. The drawback however, is that today I feel I have been hit by a truck. Maybe too much too quickly? Experiment or not. Is my walking posture bad and my kickbike posture better?

I'm reading: Esther Gokhale at the moment and she has some interesting concepts about natural ways to move which seem to support this gait.* In my past lives I was an exponent of the Feldenkrais Method as well as a Tai Chi practitioner.  So Awareness Movement  is a subject  I'm familiar with and am keen on.

But then after plying through such an inspiring read as the one that McDougall offers in Born to Run I have to wonder how much transposition is possible to engineer Born to Scoot. 

If I was going to take up running again I'd never consider pounding the pavement as fun. But beach running or trail running is something else. 

I used to run everywhere before I fell ill -- to and from work, across town, along so many secret routes and shortcuts. It was my way of embracing a region...and getting around. While I now walk hither and yon the complication is that you can only walk so far in any one hour. Now I kick scoot when I can and proceed forward in above jogging pace . So kickbiking/scootering is a great trade off from running especially if you begin to scoot over weight. 

My current weight is a full 20 kgm heavier than my lowest running weight -- 30 years ago. Pick up a 20 kgm weight and try bouncing that on your knees!

Those extra kilograms bearing down on your knee or ankle while you pound asphalt is a bad business. They do say that exercise is not a sure fire way to lose weight -- contrary to all the hype of course. It may be worth 20% of the weight loss ratio. Even on caloric expenditure you are better off lifting weights:

In terms of calorie expenditure riding a regular bike at about 16-18 km/hr. will burn about 450 cal./hr. The calories burned on a footbike at the same speed will be about 700 cal./hr. Of note: walking will burn about 300cal./hr. (link)

But then there are other issues that suggest that it is preferable to utilize your kickbiking for many more reasons than  fat reduction. Kickbikes  for instance make for great cardio.

However, what I'm also trying to get at here is a consideration of kickbiking for movement awareness and posture change. 

I'll tell you why this is so much of interest to me: I began my recent exercise focus walking with a cane and while I later swapped the cane for one then two trekking poles -- my next adaption was to get my self a scooter. This was a homemade heavy thing cannibalized from two BMX bikes -- but with superb glide. I chose to scoot primarily because I didn't think mounting a bike was going to be so easy. So I'd put my walking stick on the handle bars (for later post-dismount use) and scoot off.

It was liberating.

And now, here  I am, several years later without crutches or canes of any sort, running up stairs, dancing and considering trail jogging...

The cane created a me that was bent over. The trekking poles forced me upright. The scooter lengthened my stride and pulled my body upwards....and gave me back mobility I had lost.

In like mode, and for all foot users, here is an excellent exploration of form from the Natural Running stable:

Stability and Mobility for healthy Running

*What Gokhale calls 'Glidewalking' -- " a series of smooth forward propulsions, challenging the muscles of the lower body and sparing the weight-bearing joints throughout the body" -- parallels much of the kickbike scoot. The key difference is the fact that the kickbiker is astride a device and the legs go out on consecutive sides so you won't get, while riding, a straight line foot fall. However I notice that if you throw your leg forward while walking -- in a true kickbike swing -- there is a medial shift before the foot strike. But as Gokhale notes in her book when you start doing this 'walk' you get buttock pain. You bet.Those gluteals  are working for you big time.

Kickbike Journeys: Swan Lake at dawn

I hadn't been back to Swan Lake for some months -- what with one thing (weather) or another. 

To call it "Swan Lake' as I do is currently a misnomer as the Black Swans that nest there have now raised their chicks and flown off to lakes and billabongs unknown.

It's now 'Duck Lake' I guess. Boring brown ducks. 

But there I was just before dawn with the street lights still alighted scooting myself northward over a road surface still wet from an overnight shower. Exerting myself in order to reach Swan Lake as a point of destination where I could observe the sunrise. 

I usually turn back half way at the Conservation Park  but today was my day to go to the road's end.Past more horse farms and the property where the sheep dog pup got swallowed by a Python....all the way to the northern end of Swan Lake where I dismount , walk through the dense Malaleuca and Mangrove scrub to the sandy beach on Deception Bay.

Golden sands. Tide up. 

And this morning with showers falling over Moreton Island and a dense cloud covering the high sand dunes --  there the island vista to the east  30 kilometres away was , you know,  very  ab fab. I sat on one of the chairs that belonged to a shoreline house there and mused about existence and the rhythm of life tra la. 

What the place needed was a barista so that I could get a double shot  Expresso. But then I was the only human there awake and out and about. Just me, the sea, a few shore birds and a couple of mosquitoes (female)  -- who have since 'gone to God'. 

Suitably imbued with  organic transcendental enrichment and tree huggyness, I mounted my Kickbike and pushed homeward. This may be a 15 km ride there and back but it sure feels longer on a scooter. 

When you commune with nature you have to pay the entrance fee: work hard and build up a sweat (eg: hike, row, etc) so that you can come visit.

After I came  around one corner there seemed to be a figure up ahead standing still watching me. As I approached it held its ground and as I got closer, it turned out to be  a kangaroo -- a pair in fact -- on the road verges. Kangaroos I can see most mornings in paddocks by the road side but near and on the road like this is exceptional around here. (But not in Toorbul 25 km to the north on Pumicestone Passage where the kangaroos have the free run of the township.)

Eastern Grey at Toorbul (Source: Qld Birder)

So we had a stare and stand off for 5 minutes. Me observing and the two being both wary while eating breakfast at their feet.

Then I guess I lost interest before they did. After all, if you've seen one kangaroo -- one Eastern Grey Kangaroo -- you've seem em all.

Here's  a sunrise we prepared  earlier:

Dawn.Low Tide. Deception Bay. from Dave Riley on Vimeo.

HIIT: The times they are a changin'

Since I am studying High Intensity Interval Training in a quest to transcend the hype I'm keen to fiddle with what I currently do.

After reading Hill Fit by Chris Highcock (review pending in later post) I'm inspired to experiment.

Nonetheless, I suspect that my current version of HIIT sessions -- short, intense and sharp -- is the form that best suits me and better serves what I seek to achieve. 

However, while I love boxing the bag and kickbiking under strict HITT protocols, lifting kettlebells is not so user friendly. To achieve the max you need to lift fast and sharp -- squeezing as many reps into your 20 second window of effort as you can.

The problem is that this is dangerous. You trade form for effort. You maybe don't lift correctly or consciously,  and you open yourself up to the chance of  injury. 

Since I still want to lift dem bells and make kettelbelling a key part of what I do, I've tweaked the kettlebell session times by doubling them.

40 second effort/20 second rest. That is: [40:20] x 8

I may have to play around with this regime a bit in order to get it right -- but the main game is to do slower and more  controlled lifts which require a more careful muscle engagement.  That's the intention, anyway -- the plan. So my session on the bells will last 9 minutes rather than 4.5. I may have to extend that timing, but we'll see. 

Once a week should see me doing this and on the 2 day separation between HITTs I'll do boxing one day,  and kickbike sprints on the other perhaps. And follow that with a longer session on the  kettlebells.

Just to complicate things further it may be better to run my kickbike interval according to the Little Method: [60:75] x 12 . But that requires much more time --  27 minutes -- to complete.

Three sessions per week: roughly 5 minutes : 5 minutes : 10 minutes -- totalling 20 minutes/week.  And that may even be over training! 

Among that I'd like to be able to include a long kickbike ride each week -- because I enjoy that so much . At the moment the limit of my range is 15 km (Swan Lake and back) but maybe I can extend this. The complication is that I love Swan Lake so much because it is such a great commune with  the local environment -- often as not, when I do it, at dawn or soon after. 

This isn't exercise so much as something else and one of the great things about deploying HIIT principles is that you can separate 'exercise' and 'fitness' from this other inspirational and lifestyle stuff. My preference you see and my aspiration -- depending on my health that day -- is to kickbike every morning.

That's been so very important to me these last two years. That physiological window first thing in the morning enables me to do more regardles of what the rest of the day may be like inside my body.

Kickbike Tabata : visit Utopia

 Izumi Tabata

 If you Google "Kickbike Tabata" you'll get this blog wall to wall. I guess I occupy a training niche.

Ironically I've never done Tabata style exertions on a kickbike and I was thinking that maybe my one option while on board would be to simply add a few interval sprints to my scoots. Say, 500 metres  to one  kilometre in length.

But my Tabata sweats on the kettlebells have caused my tummy navel based hernia to pop up  and that presented a complication I hadn't planned on. It will pop back in soon enough but I don't want to give it a further shove.

So lifting is deferred for the time being as I searched for low-stress-on -the -abdomen work outs.

Thus: kickbiking tabata.

There are a few plusses with kickbike mounted Tabata.

1. The scoot out is a warm up. You can scoot for as long as you want to heat up the old bod until you get to a road you want to burn rubber on.
2. Select a road that's straight and low on or without traffic. No potholes but smooth asphalt. Lose concentration (and you will as your tire) and you could come a cropper at speed if other wild card factors are in the mix.
3. Plug the mp3 player into your ear and switch to  your preferred Tabata music. Music is essential I reckon.It's the auto pilot coach in your head.
4. Obey the 20:10 seconds protocol (or newbie version of 10 or 15 : 20 or 15 --see below) for 8 interval sprints.
5. Die.
6. Scoot home. 

You know you are doing right if you do die. That's the zone to aspire to: Purgatory. But you get to visit Physiological Utopia with the whole body. No system gets to  slouch.

I wonder if I can integrate this Tabata into a longer scoot: whether that's worthwhile or ill advised? Cyclists interval train as a standard but the sprints are a much longer distance.  In the gym, the exercise bike is used to the same ends. 

Kickbiking you don't have a free hand to check your pulse. (Maybe a heart rate monitor is in order for moi to be on the safe side?)

But I do so much look forward to these sessions because I know they will be over and done with sooner rather than later. And like a fond memory they will live with me for 'acoupla days'. The anguish just before the first burst takes me back to them ole shine school days 'on the  blocks' waiting for the starter's gun.

I used to run middle distance track. I wasn't much good but loved the business of training. I'd run for long distances along this coastline of Port Philip Bay  and for titillation used the steep paths climbing from the beach to the ridge top as excuses to sprint -- you know, sort of vertically. I thought I was doing my own version of a Percy Cerutty sand hill climb. Ironically I later nursed the great proponent of Interval Training, Franz Stampfl after the accident that sentenced him to quadriplegia. Cerutty and Stampfl were great rivals. But I've never done much in way of Interval being hooked on LSD -- Long Slow Distance.

And when you die -- soon enough -- you know you're alive. 

The Tabata Protocol

Experienced Exercisers
8 sets x 20 seconds work + 10 seconds rest
Beginners
8 sets x 10 seconds work + 20 seconds rest
Unfit Beginners
4 sets x 10 seconds work + 20 seconds rest
1 minute rest
4 sets x 10 seconds work + 20 seconds rest
Or
4 sets x 10 seconds work + 20 seconds rest

EastSide Strength Training:Tabata Coaching

Thinking aloud: my kickbiking options: more exercising and what? Less pleasure?

Since I was reviewing my kickbiking options I too my quest to the Yahoo kickbiking egroup and mused publicly about my thoughts.

---

When I began scootering my primary interest was that here was a device that, despite my stiffness and pain, was a means to get about. Easy hop on: hop off. Walk along side if you are tuckered out.

Then I started logging the distances, using it as a primary means of transport and in effect anchoring a lot of my activity atop its running board.

It has been a great journey and en route I've exercised more and built up my physical confidence because of this two wheeled no chain no gears bike.

Chains, peddles and gears are for whimps! Right?

But since I now have a greater hold on what I want to do in way of 'exercise' I was wondering what folk here do to make the best physical use of their kickbikes?

Long Slow Distance anyone? Interval Training?

I doubt that you can get much of an interval burn from a kickbike as it takes so long to speed up and once there relative to your own strength and the conditions (weather, terrain,road surface, etc) it is hard to advance quickly up to another level...as you tend to coast.

I could be wrong but you may have to be an athlete to interval train on a kickbike -- like the Danes here.

But it seems to me that kickbiking lends itself to LONG SLOW DISTANCE with the advantages that the main drawback of LSD -- the pounding you put your limbs under -- is massively reduced.

If we look at some LSD protocols we are really talking within the easy access kickbike 'zone'. But I suspect there is probably an optimum distance from which you could garner the most efficient results from kickbiking. I'm sure the team trainers and competitors may know this. Sure you could go for broke and try to do more rather than less miles/kilometres each week but that may not necessarily improve your competition chances.

---

Peter Hummers wrote:

 But now on the footbike I just do what I feel like each day (of course  the idea of competition I left long ago) with the goal of feeling good  and keeping my weight down.

Of course. That's my zone too. But it seems to me that to notch it up a tad requires a fair degree of athleticism given that the way you need to throw your body and extend it is very demanding.

With a bike it's a straightforward structural option -- you can sprint or peddle for ever. That's not so easy on a kickbike as forever will take so much longer and sprinting isn't so easy to turn on. I see the Danish team currently in training  doing 250 metre sprints on the Velodrome.

As I point out here, I kickbike for pleasure and never seek pain but I wanted to demand a bit more of the old bod to lose some weight as I've reached a plateau -- although exercise is not a good way to lose weight.

Do I go farther or do I go faster, albeit in intervals? Fartleking perhaps.

I cut my teeth/split my blisters on seventies and eighties style jogging and didn't come to the scooter bizo with a extended cycling CV. So my head is in that jogging place: long and slow.

But while I could sprint it I find that it is so hard to generate momentum as my body -- my body, the one I've got/stuck with -- simply won't perform well enough to drive the scooter significantly faster. I do the stretch forward and the pull through with the scoot with the foot but I'm not really going to pass that threshold I aspire to. I do maybe 20-30-40 km a week.

So I suspect that where I'm failing to thrive is in the amount of effort I'm investing in the LSD relative to my pulse rate/cardio demand.

This brings me back to why I scoot because I did it not only for generic exercise and transport reasons, but also for the fact that scootering is this great movement -- Crouching Tiger -- it's a very Zen move.

Tai Chi on wheels.

But off the scooter I'm experimenting with Interval Training -- I also box and lift kettlebells (been doing that for years) -- and find it really , um, refreshing. Shorter more demanding sessions.

And, in a perverse way, I'm getting more pleasure out of that approach now than I did with the old  routines I was trying to maintain. I now 'exercise' intensely every second day for a rather short period -- 4-5 minutes. It hurts. I'm gasping for air and life but hey I know it will end after each short interval.

So I got to thinking: maybe I can play with my kickbiking habits.

Ironically, here I am upping this other stuff but I'm doing it without much problem BECAUSE the base line core of my habit is rooted to the kickbike. It simmers away year in year out doing the internal good stuff.

---

Answering my own question:

Could you give us a training schedule?If you want to be a fast on the scooter you have to kick fast. It's so simple! Interval training is very good: 10 x 2 km at an average speed of 30 km/h with 2 minute rest is a typical session for a fit athlete. Long aerobic rides are very important, such as 40-70 km with an average speed of 20-25 km/h. Most people tolerate no more than two hard Kickbike workouts or races within one week. It is important to have recovery days in between and do some other sports like running or swimming, for instance. Of course you can do some easy kicking on your easy days, too.

Going the distance on a kickbike

The longest route I do on the kickbike is just over 14 km. I call it Swan Lake because it  traverses the edge of a lake that often has black swans on it. 

I'm thinking that if I try to do this route twice per week -- I have other routes I take on my morning kick -- maybe I can up my exercise-ing of Long Slow Distance to partner my HIIT/Tabata experiments. 

I don't usually demand anything much from my kickbiking except that I get out there early -- often at dawn -- and kick as far as I feel like going. 

Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- but very pleasantly, at the far end of my Swan Lake kick, I usually walk the tidal flats and indulge in some communing with Nature. So I break my journey.

It's so beautiful I can't help myself.

You can also do interval training on a kickbike...but I suspect you need to be an athlete to do it. I'm not.

So maybe, methinks, I can bargain with my options and :

1. push hard out for the 7 km 
2. do my commune and wade about in the shallows
3. hop back on the scooter and push hard back home for the last leg of 7 km.

and see what I may benefit.

Comments on the Mibo Folding Scooter

These edited comments are from my  discussion contribution to  the Kickbiking eGroup. Topic: folding scooters.

As you suggest you need to get a folding scooter that fits your frame. That's lesson Number 1 But the Mibo Comfort Folding Scooter  cuts out at a certain height. That's where the (taller) Master appeals.

The Comfort is also a heavy for a small size scooter and if you can get lighter then go for it. (Ques: so do you go with mudguards? Depends if you ride in a suit.)

I'd really appreciate a scooter that is lighter by a few kilograms so that portage is easier up stairs and in and out of buses and trains and has a easier balance on the lift (as the kickbike does). But that presumes expensive alloy mixes.

The Mibo strictly speaking is a two fold scooter if you want it compact. Whereas I fold it once without also unlocking the handle bar stem. I like to quickly get going after portage. Consequently the folded pack the way I do it has these handle bar over hangs.The scooter also rusts a little in places as the steal mix isn't state of art stuff.So it is very much an 'Iron Curtain' steal build.

(I used to own a CZ motor bike so I know Czech industrialism -- heavy but good.).

But the design -- height , tracking, ergonomics -- is superb, and the scooter works extremely well in an urban setting.

In my view the marriage between owning a Kickbike and a 12 inch wheel folding scooter is the way to go as the kickbike doesn't pack so well. They roll equally as well by the way and I wouldn't trade either.

The Mibo is also a better pavement to street device than the kickbike which is more a roadster/cruiser.

You ride them a little differently too...You straight leg more often on the Mibo.

My feeling is that the Czechs know their scooter requirements (They are obsessed with scooters. It is a scooter nation.) -- and handle design issues very well....

I originally thought that I'd be using the Mibo for short trips to the shops and stuff, but I actually do a lot of distance on it: 15, 18 kms in a session is not unusual as I use it to cross suburbia when I'm 'in town'.

Next time I fly I'll be taking it interstate with me although it will have to travel in the luggage.

My first scooter was a home-build on BMX wheels and it was very heavy. Great glide, comfortable ride but its weight -- and BMXers weigh heaps -- was a complication. The weight doesn't matter for scooting travel  at all as once you start up momentum it is  on your side. But lifting by hand is where you notice the extra kilograms. Stairs especially -- when the scooter's advantage over a bicycle is that you can easily climb stairs portaging it. The kickbike is a one hand lift and so too is the Mibo Folding. Although the Mibo is more cumbersome at height as the running board and back wheel is a pull on your arm when you lift at the front stem and the back wheel end will swing left and right.

In contrast the Kickbike is a balanced lift. 

One drawback with the Mibo is that it is a youth magnet. The local homies are indifferent to the Kickbike but the Mibo generates envy. So with all due respect to youth, the Mibo is a a potential theft waiting to happen if you don't protect it. I mark mine with a lot of stickers and always lock it of course. The irony is that the adults relate to the kickbike and the skate bowl crowd warms to the Mibo...

Folded it is also too cumbersome to carry into stores, museums, cafes and such --  but technically I could assert my right to wheel it in because it is merely a pram sized thing without baby on board.

However, single-folded what hangs off may cause people to trip so the challenge is to rest the folded package upright. Unfolded, and when standing in an entrance way on a train (as we can here), other passengers see you standing there but don't always look below your waist and when walking through may not see the running board and rear wheel. So if the train is full, you need to fold for safety sake.

As I suggested, I bag my Mibo now in a post bag and that works OK but the extended handle bars hang out the bag. The bag that you can get with the Mibo requires you to dismantle the handle bar stem -- which I don't do when folding-- and it's a cheap, poorly made bag that I never use.

When not holding a scooter, the post bag scrunches up easily so I can insert it into my backpack. The custom bag won't do that so it isn't useful at all.

I also know that I can replace any part of the Mibo  from local generic stocks.

So them's the tips --off the top of my head.

Furthermore...

The main question about a folding scooter is why do you want to fold it? There has to be a lifestyle reason, right? A small scooter will fit in the boot of a car OK so for non transit use the fold isn't essential. It is also the case, as far as I am concerned, that the fold doesn't drastically alter the strength of the build but I suspect it does contribute (through reinforcement) to the weight.

But with folding and smaller size, you'd think that some trade offs are involved. My view is that the Mibo  Comfort is a scooter in its own right that negotiates the urban environment as though it were indigenous. The kick board is at a much better height than the Kickbike's for streetscape,  so that gutters, sharp rises , speed bumps, are easily negotiated. As Kickbikers know, the most annoying thing about the kickbike is that under carriage scrape.

Because of the smaller wheel the Mibo is easier to push up hill as the smaller wheel rotations are more frequent for less effort.. In contrast with the Kickbike you need to shorten your stride the steeper the ascent. As you do so your speed collapses so that by the time you crest a long steep ascent you may as well walk.

That said, and while  I do the distance on my Mibo, it is not so useful as a training or exercise device. The body engagement is less even, stilted in fact,  and even without customisation you are  haunched -- as an adult -- over the frame and your posture, your ergonomics, are not as fluid. I think the exercise and physio research on the Kickbike is pretty conclusive as to its efficacy. 

Nonetheless, it has been on the Comfort's Mibo close  cousin -- the Crazy -- that Czechs have logged massive distances -- for instance, across Australia coast to coast; Europe south to north, etc.

While you can get a little basket to go with the Mibo really there is no where to carry stuff on the scooter. It's too small. You need to back pack always. I wear a big basket on the front stem of my Kickbike and rely on it for shopping, and pick ups.

Nonetheless, in the Czech Republic they seem to prefer the small wheel scooters.

There must be a reason for that trend.

The Kickbike deals with the rule that the bigger the wheel the longer the vehicle by having one very small and one very big wheel. It's a design sweet build. An engineering niche. If both were large and the same size then the scooter would be very much longer and turning would suffer. When I built my original scooter from two cannibalized BMX bikes, the machine was much longer than a Kickbike because of requisites of the wheel diameter -- so it took up more space in train carriages and would not fit in a car boot.

Out and about suburbia on the Mibo Folding Scooter

Today's route

Since I am down in Brisbane for a couple of days I get to tour the streetscape by pushing my Mibo folding scooter across town. Today's route is a good example of the too-ing and fro-ing you can do on 12 inch wheels...for 15 kilometres or so.

On road. Off road. On the footpath. Along the bike path. In and out of traffic or pedestrians.

And I bought the scooter with me folded first on the bus to the train station then on the train from Caboolture. Yesterday I got off a few stops early to make a call so I scooted the rest of the way to my digs -- 5 km.

As it turns out a guy asked me if I had to bag the scooter to carry it on the bus.(I have not been asked to as it looks like a folded pram or hand luggage and I know no regulations requiring bagging outside of interstate air travel. )I do have a bag but it is cumbersome to use. Nonetheless, folded the scooter's appendages do inconveniently stick out sometimes. This got me thinking...

I have  a sturdy nylon post bag which would swallow up a scooter easily. I'd be like Santa Claus with this red kit. All I need do is throw a stretch cord around the package and Voila! No appendages.

Maybe if I grew a beard by Christmas....? I could make a case for scooter reindeer. Yo! Ho! Ho-ing!

This reminds me that  I should also replace the swing quick release fold lock on the frame with a larger device as the one supplied with the scooter is  a tad fiddly. Speed of lock or release always looks so darn coooool....for a hipster wannabe. Bus stop and train station cred are awesome attributes one aspires to possess. And the youth envy my Mibo. So I try to live up to their esteem.

Exercise and recreation and diet: Diabetic kickbiking

I had shared an interesting essay The difference between exercise and recreation on the kickbike list. Since I was reviewing my exercise goals I had been researching my options. This led to this exchange. 

Jack writes:About the right amount of exercise to do you good: I've already mentioned my idea: use a heartrate monitor and record monthly or weekly amount of TIME in the target zone. I don't know if I'm right about this, but the theory is: as you get fitter you have to ride faster in order to keep in the target zone.

I wrote:

I'm sure that is good practice but not all exercise is aerobic and there are  still plenty of benefits to be had for the exertion. (and kickbiking too is not simply aerobic exercise either as it probably is weight bearing). I used to do the monitoring thing when I used to jog way back when -- and jogging was both exercise and relaxation -- but my main interest in terms of aerobic consequence was my resting heart rate and (more recently) monitoring my blood pressure, weight loss, and (separate again) flexibility.

My complication is that because of long term Fibomyalgic (ah a new adjective!) condition my capacity is going to vary day to day.

The thing that interests me is that I tend to kickbike for the hell of it. I love the push off when you first set out, the cadence you can develop before each leg swap, the places you can go to and the engagement of so  much of your body in the scoot. And the glides -- I love the glides -- esp while standing upright like a bean pole.

The good thing about the kickbike -- or any scooter, like my Mibo -- is that the exertion threshold demanded for forward motion is higher than walking or normal cycling. It is closer to jogging and onwards to running except of the foot fall weight you have to support.

So I've always seen kickbiking as an exercise/relaxation combo as the scooter demanded so much of you. To me this was a win win lifestyle thing: transport AND exercise.

However, if I wanted to shift the lever so that I worked harder what's the best approach?..on a kickbike? I'm sure this relates to cycling or running -- but let's stick with scootering because it is a different business.

Interval training on the kickbike: short sprint spurts of x distances.  may be more useful than steady exertion 'in the zone'. So why bother so much with distance as the kickbike lends itself so easily to sprints?

#distance training: I wonder about that as I don't know any general figures for kickbikers . What is a common 'training' distance? What's the wisdom? Bods here were doing over 50 km per day in preparation for the recent kickbike world championships. But your everyday (real keen) cyclist may often double this. Once you get those pistons going you can Tour Your Own de France...But on a kickbike a 100km ride is very unusual...just as marathon distance in running is an occasional event rather than a weekly/everyday occurrence! The cyclists primarily is moving them legs around and around and the runner is pounding the pavement but we're bobbing up and down, scooting the feet, dragging on the handlebars kowtowing to the road ahead every few seconds...it's closer to a Marathon dance contest.Blissfully -- touch wood -- injury free...

When I previously ran  (before I fell ill) I used to stride out every which way -- to work and back, across the city I was living in (Melbourne) .... My running legs took me to a lot of places. So I wasn't so much 'training' as I loved the Zen of it. 

Now, as I up my daily kickbiking kilometre-age I'm moving back into that prospect although I am 30 years older with a body that is no way like the old. 

So I guess I'm looking for shortcuts because this is hard yakka. 

Nonetheless, what I'm looking for is pretty clear:

• weight reduction by another 10 kgm as my weight loss has plateaued and even rose during my recent knee injury.
• a more stable and lower blood sugar result.While I'm  good diabetic patient I fear the illness such that I 'm keen to keep its consequences at bay for a along as I can. To that end I want to spend more time under 6 mmol.
• a fall in my morning blood pressure. For most of each day my blood pressure and my resting heart rate is pretty good -- even after exertion --but I wake up each day pumping the juices around me  over  140 mmHg systolic and over 90 mmHg diastolic. I obviously have sleep issues which can only be resolved, as far as I'm concerned, through weight loss.

The workout stuff I do with the kettlebells and boxing the bag works me all over and I'm delighted to be back in workout syncronicity with my 10 Shell Workout  . 

The magic shells rule me.

Advanced Mediterranean Diet 

The 9 grams (yes 9 grams!) of Fish Oil I take each day has  reduced my pain threshold after a Summer ( when I wasn't taking the good oil) that was cripplingly painful.

I do follow a diet plan, of course, since I have to because of my Diabetes II. My rule of thumb is Steve Parker's Advanced Mediterranean Diet  which is a no nonsense hype free regime which in effect merely fine tunes the cuisine I ate anyway.  I recommend Parker's ebook, Conquer Diabetes and Prediabetes: The Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet

I've been eating my way through the Mediterranean for 40 years primarily chewing on Middle Eastern  cuisine. But now I have moved to a greater interest in the culinary approaches of Spain and Sicily while avoiding anything too much reliant on grains -- like pasta. 

Fortunately I can tolerate Basmati rice better than other carbohydrate dense foods.

So hello Risotto!

When the Diabetic sentence laid its heavy hand on me in February last year it has taken me all of these last 18 months to make the necessary lifestyle adjustments. It is hard work and if you are at the  beginning of the challenge there is no better introduction than Tim Bowden's This Can't happen to Me. I've read many books on diabetes but Tim's the best access for the mature ager.

On my credit side, my dad -- a big overweight man who did not exercise or diet -- became diabetic at 40 but it took me another 20 years of life to catch up with him. My sister is pre-Diabetic so we are ruled by our  pedigree.

Nonetheless as you age the chances of anyone becoming diabetic rise sharply. So smugness is for fools.

My bottom line goal is to outlive my da who had massive heart attack on a 64 Bus at the age of 70.

If I don't, after all this effort, I will be really cheesed off!

Logging Kickbiking Journeys

Since I'm rebooting my kickbiking focus by extending my route and increasing my intensity -- my whole scootering lifestyle is being revamped.

I've started to use the dailymile website to keep myself focused and the recording of my distances have offered me some routine and discipline. 

I have been using the great gMaps Pedometer  but dailymile offers more in way of record keeping. Both sites are essential bookmarks.

My distances are being shared here in the side column of the Kickbike & Kettlebell main page.

Wet tootsies

Along with the logging I have got myself another pair of shoes to scoot in.  I have been relying on Dunlop Volleys but since I also wade the waters during my scootering excursions, these, with their cotton mesh uppers, quickly begin to fall apart. While I had replaced these with a plasticated Dunlop pair of trainers, albeit with a much thicker sole, these shoes also fell apart.

So I'm now wearing -- to very good effect so far -- a Denali water shoe.  "Water" shoes seem very much of a muchness but the logic of them for scootering -- despite my own preference for  wading in water -- is that they have a shallow heel. It's like wearing ballet shoes. They're light and make the hop change from left to right foot while pushing along an easy business.

They're also made from waterproof plastic material. 

So now I am comfortably amphibian....