I’ve mentioned more than a few times that I have a road loop I call the Better Than The Trainer Ride. It’s just what the names says it is; a ride that is better than the trainer but not much more. It can clock in at between 22 and 25 miles and is used when time is tight or the weather looks shit. After my second ski of the winter I realized a loop around Deerfield Park is about the same thing. NOT a ride by any means but it gets about the same thing done
The flat to rolling at best B.T.T.T.R. (say “bitter) road loop takes less than 1:20, burns an estimated 748 calories and has me with an average heart rate of 134. Meanwhile, the Deerfield Ski Loop, while not riding and not as fun, took under an hour, burned an estimated 713 calories and had my heart rate averaging 135 bpm. That’s not much of a difference at all.
What does all this prove you ask? Well it proves multiple things:
A. My B.T.T.T.R. is not all that hard.
B. The Deerfield Ski Loop is not all that long and is probably only made difficult from how poor my skis and technique are.
C. The most important: While not first choice of activities, fitness wise XC skiing can pretty much get the same job done as a quick road loop and helps stave off getting too burned out on the trainer or the gym.
D. It gives me an excuse to take some photos and write about something that’s not beer or food (that will be my next post).
None of this is to imply that my short ass rides or lame ass ski loops are [insert ego stroking hyperbole here], just that sometimes doing anything is better than not doing something. Or is that sometimes doing something is better than not doing anything? Either way, it doesn’t matter, like four people (including me) read this blog. It’s time to go do something before I don’t do anything.