Matt Broze wrote: > Thinking about that for awhile I might put my money on ice > skating. I've done about 17 kph on speedskates (without specific training) sustained over two hours (Calgary's Olympic oval - one of the fastest tracks in the world) and just over 20 kph on inline skates in races of about 1/2 hour (city roads - I don't remember my speed on a marathon course). With training, I think that the ice skating would be somewhat faster (crossover strokes with those long blades take practice - and that's the only way to get speed in the turns). Comparable energy output on a racing bike (not mountain) would be comfortably over 30 kph. Cross-country skiing (classic, not free technique) would be about 12-14 kph. I'm obviously not fast compared to the pros. Speed doesn't factor directly into energy/kg/km so the above doesn't tell much. However, I know the bike is more efficient than XC skiing and I'd guess that it is also more efficient than skating - but not by a lot. Horses can run more efficiently than people can walk - hence if you could get a horse on a bike, that would set the land energy record. Back in the 19th century, someone tried this - a four wheel wagon with four pedals. They gave up trying to teach the horse to use the correct motion before getting useful results. Now a horse in a kayak... Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Dec 12 2006 - 14:47:24 PST
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