Walking versus Cycling

Anyone familiar with any of my blogs may recall that, prior to October of 2020, I wrote quite a few blog posts about walking in the area in and around Sibulan and Dumaguete. Toward October, I was averaging over two miles a day.

These daily walks ended when I had an attack of sciatica. This was written about in my post on my round of acupuncture treatments. Eventually, the sciatica went away - whether that was due to the acupuncture, the weekly massages or just time, remains a question.

Although no longer plagued with the sciatic pain, I'm afraid that my arches have fallen which makes walking difficult. I mentioned yesterday that I bought a new bicycle. Not having done any aerobic exercise since October, I experienced difficulty breathing after cycling a short distance. On the other hand, there were no pains in my legs or feet as a result of the bicycle riding.

This morning, my wife had an appointment to drop off our car at a nearby body repair shop located near the Smiles on Demand call center. This is fairly close to our house (slightly less than 1 km), so the plan was for her to leave the car and walk home. I decided to accompany her. I noticed a huge difference between walking this morning and bike riding. I had no difficulty breathing while walking (as I had with the bicycle) but unlike the bicycle ride, my feet where in pain from the relatively short walk. It seems that with walking, my entire body weight is on my feet, where as that isn't the case with riding a bicycle.

I'll continue to work of my cardiovascular conditioning by bicycle riding. I may have to consult an orthopedist or podiatrist before I can get back into a long distance walking routine.