This New York Times article about air quality and exercise is interesting. I didn’t have allergies 10 years ago, but now I am usually a bit sniffly, and my eyes itch regularly. I have often wondered if the air quality in Houston (which is bad, and living fairly close to acres of chemical plants doesn’t help) is impacting my health. I’m not going to stop running and biking and going outside because exercise will always be better than no exercise, but it does make me concerned.
I rode 23.5 miles on my bike last night in just under 1:30. I averaged right around 16 mph. The first 15 miles went considerably better than the last 8. During the latter portion, I was feeling pretty pooped. While I don’t notice the heat as much on a bike as I do while running, mainly because riding a bike provides you with a man-made breeze, I know it still affects me. And mentally, I was done. I have not been riding consistently enough to make the bike comfortable, and once my neck and back start aching, I check out. Nonetheless, I was glad to get in a ride. I double-booked myself this weekend with the Houston Urban Adventure Race on Saturday and Jeff & Brede’s Intergalactic Triathlon on Sunday, so I’ll get in two more bouts of biking before the week is through.
I know all my blog entries have been about running and biking this week, but there’s not much else going on. I’m planning to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow night so that will be fun, even though it’s been a while since I read the book. I forget books pretty quickly, so I’ll probably be all confused about what’s going on. Oh well. Harry Potter = good, Voldemort = bad. That’s probably enough.
There was a stat that came out while we were at Tech that 30 mins of exercise in the summer (probably holds for spring and early fall too) in downtown ATL was like smoking a pack of cigarettes. I always thought of that while playing intramurals on the glorious expanse of turf known as SAC field.