There has been a lot of discussion here about various ways to reduce your body fat percentage and increase your strength, fitness and flexibility but how does it relate to bike touring?
Well simply put you are the engine that takes you, your bike and all your equipment up the mountains, across the plains and down the hills that make up our touring world.
Bicycle touring itself will improve your fitness level. I was already receiving a good cardio fitness score on my Fit Tests prior to actually leaving on my tour. During the tour I could actually feel my fitness level improve and when I returned my Fit Test reflected even higher values.
Still many people who rely on a bike tour to get them fit are possibly overlooking a few things.
a) It takes time for your body to adapt and make the needed changes to improve your fitness level. During this time you will be working pretty hard and you may not enjoy this process at all. Wouldn't you rather be looking at the nice scenery without feeling like you are about to upchuck or die?
b) Bicycle touring puts a lot of emphasis on the lower body but not a significant amount on the upper body so you aren't really improving your strength as much as you could be.
So what? Well everything I've read suggests that increased upper body strength will reduce the chance of injury and should extend the amount of time you can go before muscles become painful (ie. sore back, sore shoulders etc).
While I'm at it I might as well mention abs. I hate doing crunches with a passion. However it appears that doing them is going to have huge benefits on the bike for everything from riding endurance right through to climbing monster hills.
c) Flexibility is something that takes time. I found that I felt like I gained a lot of flexibility when I stopped for constant stretch breaks while on tour.
For the first five days of my tour I used my heart monitor and noticied that I was using about 5000 - 6000 calories of energy a day to keep me moving. As a consequence I could basically eat ANYTHING I wanted to and not gain weight. In actual fact I lost 1/2 pound of weight every day on average based on my weight when I returned home after 12 days.
This leads to it's own problems however. If you were practicing proper nutrition prior to going on tour but discovered only fast food restaurants on the tour itself then the fact that you can eat anything you want and still lose weight can make it quite difficult to get back to your normal eating habits when you return.
Additionally I've read several messages from other cycle tourists who have returned from their tours enthused about riding their bikes only to discover boredom when they tried to get back to their normal cycling routines. This goes away after a short period of time but it also means that at the same time you are trying to get your nutrition back in order you are also going through a reduction in your exercise level. This can easily translate into a weight plateau unless you carefully work to correct the problems.
My suggestion is to try some new things!
Instead of cycling your normal routes try to create a couple of new ones or if you normally ride on road then do some off road riding for awhile. Alternatively do your normal bike commute but add some different kind of exercise instead of your longer bike ride. Consider trying a long walk, a game of tennis or perhaps some Dirt surfing (www.dirtsurfer.com). Your goal is to keep the exercise happening. Within a short period of time you will want to be back on your bike!
Even with the potential negatives I've mentioned in the last few paragraphs I want to state that going on a bicycle tour is a great idea. You will improve fitness level, reduce stress, and if you think of another tour you want to do then you will likely increase your motivation to keep working on your fitness level.
I added a tour to my fitness program back in May when I was creating it. My original intent was to use it to kick start my fitness program at roughly the 50% point. For this purpose it worked admirably by reducing my weight by six and a half pounds in just under two weeks.
More importantly it kept me excited about cycling and now I'm very motivated to do another tour!
And of most importance the weight I lost on the tour has still not returned.
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