Re: Help! Are there health benefits to unicycling?


joemarshall;1127608 wrote:
That's not right. I think, if you go a mile at 26 mph on a bike, you use
way more energy per mile than doing a mile at 15 mph on a unicycle. So,
if you go out and do a 10 mile ride on a bike, you can potentially tire
yourself out more than a 10 mile ride on a unicycle. It's because energy
used vs speed is not a linear relationship, thanks to air & rolling
resistance.

You're only right if you ride at the same speed on the bike and the
unicycle. I think as you get to high speeds on the bike, the
inefficiency due to air resistance and rolling resistance become high
enough that you're less efficient per mile than the unicycle.

On my commute, I find I can make myself way more tired by hammering it
on the bike than hammering it on the unicycle, because I can ride so
much harder on the bike. And that's a fixed distance.

Joe



Once you get into a measure based on how you "tire yourself out" rather
than energy used we're into more mushy territory. I base my conclusions
above on measured energy expenditure as a function of heart rate that
does not address how "tired" one feels. Without getting into extreme
speeds where factors such as air resistance become increasingly
important factors, the energy expenditure per mile stays pretty constant
regardless of the energy expenditure per unit time.

What you describe, outside of the extremes where air resistance becomes
increasingly important, is more a function of what metabolism we are
emphasizing at different rates of energy expenditure. It is very
difficult to maintain a speed on a unicycle that emphasizes an anaerobic
metabolism. Instead distance unicycling emphasizes aerobic metabolism
almost exclusively, with a higher heart rate only achieved on hills and
unsustainable bursts. Aerobic activity can be maintained for as long as
you can keep a stream of carbohydrates coming into the system to keep
burning fat stores for energy. I've maintained aerobic activity for
over 30 hours without being too tired to stop. Anaerobic activity is
physically bounded in how long it can be sustained. You burn almost
exclusively carbohydrates in your muscle and liver in the form of
glycogen, cannot replenish those carbohydrate sources during the
exertion, and build up lactic acid faster than it can be processed
resulting in more rapid muscle fatigue. All this without notably
different rates of energy expenditure mile per mile.

When you "hammer it" on a bike you tire out faster than the equivalent
distance on a unicycle because you are exhausting a bounded anaerobic
source of energy more quickly than the unbounded source of aerobic
energy used on a unicycle.

All without violating my previous observations, until you reach a speed
where air resistance significantly alters the physics involved.


--
boisei
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