Reading and cycling

How long can one pedal for non-stop? I decided to find out today, so I hit the gym with a copy of Dom Joly's The Dark Tourist. The creator/star of the Trigger Happy TV series and staff journalist for the independent newspaper decided to venture into the dodgiest and least-appealing enclaves of the world for his holiday trips, and returned with some strange tales of boozing in Iran and being turfed out of the Dallas Book Depository Sixth-Floor Museum.

I have tried reading and cycling a few times in the past, starting with the shortest book in the “to read” pile at the time- the Human Traffic screenplay. 

Over the course of a month, I tried the project a few times, upping the size of the book and, hence, the length of the time spent on the bike. By the time I'd got up to Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I was taking lunch and evening meal breaks, returning each time to the gym to pedal more.

The problem with doing this is that the moment you eat, you're back to burning food again. You don't touch the fat you're supposed to be burning off. So this time I decided to cycle for as long as I could without stopping.

15 min cycling

15 min break for a phone call

2hr cycling

After this, my legs had seized up. I was a 3^rd the way into the book. Multitasking sure does slow down your brain. Eventually you're just too tired to concentrate any more.

By the way, I got this book signed in Manchester a few years ago. Check it out.

Good book. A little too self-obsessed and Joly isn't as funny in writing as he is on screen, but an entertaining read so far.

And as for cycling, next time I might break it up with other exercises and see if I last longer.