Bike Riding to the Bicycle Races:

Yesterday, I took a bike ride to watch some bike races. Every year for the past 35 years or so, my hometown area has put on bicycle races on Memorial Day.

With the cost of gas being so high, I decided to ride my bike to save money. So I drove the 5 minutes down to the bike path and had about a half hour ride to the races, saving 30 minutes of driving time(total).

The Quad Cities Criterium featured a figure 8 path on the streets of downtown Rock Island, IL, a couple blocks away from the mighty Mississippi River.

The forecast had called for a good chance of rain in the afternoon, which luckily didn't happen. It ended up being a warm, Sunny day in the 80's.

The races are kind of interesting with all the turns involved. There are teams of racers involved, which means teammates working together to try and win. There is plenty of strategy that goes on and is probably lost on the average person, including me.

It was interesting to watch the various racers and look at their builds. Most had greater leg development than their upper bodies, which is to be expected, as their legs do much more work. They spend a lot of time on their bikes and it shows.

While all of them have muscular legs, some are bigger than others and this is mainly due to their genetics. Some are taller and some are shorter, with different body types.

Some people may look at their leg development and not want to be so muscular. If this is the case, the way to avoid getting "too big" would be to alternate biking with walking and/or jogging.

Because cyclists usually ride at a fast pace and ride a lot, their leg muscles develop to meet this demand. They store a lot of energy in their legs to meet the demands of riding distances at a high rate of speed.

Casual bike riders, who pedal at a much less intense rate, don't usually show this kind of leg development, unless they are someone like myself, who uses biking as a form of cross-training in the warmer months.

I ride a "comfort" mountain bike which has an extra large frame to accommodate my 6' 4", 235 pounds. This bike probably weighs twice what the racing bikes do and I get a pretty good workout pushing myself from point A to point B.

After enjoying the races, I rode the half hour back to my car, while enjoying the river scenery, with plenty of people fishing, boating, walking, and a few feeding those irritating Canadian Geese. All they seem to do is crap all over the bike path.

Find some type of activity that you enjoy and do it. Mix things up to keep from getting bored, but just make sure to keep moving, to keep your mobility as you get older.

And don't forget to do some upper body strength workouts to balance your lower body exercise.