Physical aspect of riding

[acalliste]

Does anyone consider sport riding to be exercise?

When I got my gsxr600, it had been a few years since I spent loads of time riding (we only had his bike, which I would ocassionally ride). So the first few weeks when I was out for several hours a day getting reacquainted with the roads, I would come home & take a two hour nap to recover. After a few months I got used to it again & no longer needed to rest when I got home.

But even now, when I can ride all day & not necessarily be wiped out, my pulse is always very high when I get home. Yesterday I left Jax at noon and rode back down to Orlando via the Forest, through a pretty bad thunderstorm, but mostly in the hot sun. The last stretch of any ride for me is always across Orange county & through Orlando on the 408 (toll road) because that's the best way home for me.

Yesterday I checked my pulse after I got the bike put away & had been sitting on the couch for a few minutes, and it was still at 132 bpm. My pulse is normally around 55 or 60, at rest. Is it normal to have it increase so much from riding? Or could it just be the heat?

At track days when I am really trying to push my limits, I am sometimes actually panting at the end of the session. I always thought that was because of moving around so much on the bike and carrying the extra weight of all the gear, so that's not surprising to me.

[blurr]

Track days yes, your throwing around 400lbs in a sense, not to mention lifting your own body left right back, hanging on the bars ect.
Regular Riding no, god no not even close.

[acalliste]

So maybe it's just adrenaline? I rarely feel sore after street riding anymore. Except last year in GA with Lauren, Claus & Pete. I couldn't walk at the end of that day.

[Joe]

The tired you use to experience I would chalk up to mental, if you haven't rode in a while your brain starts working over time. Track days sure that's physical, look at those guys that race afterward! Their drenched with sweat

[acalliste]

Yeah I guess a huge mental effort, focusing etc can be a drain physically. But, now that you mention it, that is probably another reason why track days wear me out. I push much harder, so there is a greater need to focus, and everything comes at you a lot faster, so the mental part is more intense than average street riding.

But riding in traffic can be mentally draining as well. And since the last leg of my rides are always through town, perhaps that and the adrenaline, as well as the extreme heat all combine to make my heart rate increase.

[blurr]

Sure anytime you put yourself in a potentially stressful situation your mind will drain you, operating heavy equipment for example there is almost no physical extertion, but the stress having people working so close that you could dismember or kill with any wrong move really can be draining as hell, you are thinking the same on your bike, the penalty for failure is huge and you realize it, try meditating more

[acalliste]

I dont think thats it.

Riding *is* a form of meditation for me. I practice deep breathing when I am riding as well ( think yoga class) .

I almost never feel stressed when I am riding. The most "stress" I felt yesterday was when a strong gust of wind in the thunderstorm pushed me across my lane, but it did not scare me. I am used to riding in horrible weather, and honestly when I saw that storm I sped up to get into it so I could cool off.

[binx_19]

riding is exercise.

[acalliste]

It certainly feels like it sometimes. When you are up on the pegs going from side to side for hours, that is physical movement, and hurts if you do it long enough.

[Süsser Tod]

For me trackdays are exhausting, not as much as they used to be, but they still get me tired.

Back when I was much more seriously into it, and even raced a few times, I had to go to the gym, just cardio and light weight lifting to increase... resistance/endurance?

I don't think it is an excercise by itself, but more like part of a discipline. If you are not fit, it will show and at the end of a trackday you'll be riding slower and making more mistakes, even worse when you are racing.
Similar to... Tae Kwon Do, you can learn all the moves, but you will also have to do cardio and weight lifting to be competitive.