One of the greatest benefits to be derived from bicycle exercise is the free, healthy action of the skin that is induced. If this activity is retarded by pressure, much injury may be done by the holding and reabsorbing of waste matter. This reabsorbed matter, which is a direct poison and must be worked off again in the complexities of the system, causes languor and headache and a feeling that exercise is of no benefit, as indeed it is not if proper hygienic laws are not complied with.
While in the open air, there is little danger to be apprehended from damp clothing, as oxidation is going on freely. It is under shelter that danger lurks, where the air does not circulate freely. The underwear should be changed before eating, or the food will do little good. Where you can get shelter, you can usually find conveniences for making the change; otherwise, it is better to eat in the open air.
Digestion involves muscular action as well as chemical processes. Wherever in the system muscular work is being done, the blood is needed in large quantity to enable the muscular processes to continue. In the process of digestion important chemical work is accomplished by the action of certain juices or secretions of the stomach, and rhythmical muscular work in the walls and coatings of the stomach is required to regulate their supply. It may be easily understood, therefore, that digestion should be properly or rather uninterruptedly accomplished, and it cannot be thus properly accomplished if too much of the blood supply is called away in the earlier stages of assimilation.
Active muscular work should never be undertaken immediately after a full meal. The more food there is to be digested, the more work there is to be done, the less capable is the rest of the system for severe work. Such work, after eating heavily, would involve an interruption, almost a suspension, of digestive processes, and a consequent difficulty in the adjustment of the processes involved in muscular work. It would mean a much longer time to get the second wind, inability to do hard or heavy work, as well as inability to prolong the work without discomfort. Such a course of action must lead to serious complications and derangements of the digestive functions and eventually induce liability to disease.
It is very injurious, also, to attempt to perform heavy work fasting, or to prolong the period of exercise when food or rest is required. The human machine requires a certain amount of fuel, and the supply must be taken at regular intervals, or reserved material, which is too valuable to be recklessly expended, will be consumed.
A mixed diet, with plenty of variety, is the best to work on, everything to be thoroughly cooked. Three good meals a day, and no eating between meals; though, when tired, it is not well to work on an empty stomach, and if you are delayed it is better to eat something while waiting than to go too long without eating. Beef and mutton are always good food; and fresh vegetables, fruit, milk and eggs, and cereals either with cream and sugar or milk and sugar. Simple desserts are not harmful, neither are they necessary.
The so-called sustaining power of stimulants merely enables one to burn up reserve tissue, to use up more fuel, to produce more power. Work done under such conditions is forced work, like the forced draught of a steam-engine using power to force the air into the furnace. In both cases, intense heat and great power can be produced, and corresponding radiation and depression occur while the system is undergoing its processes of restoration. Tea, coffee, bouillon, are stimulating, and good as food accessories; but they are not good to work on.
CHAPTER XXII.
Breathlessness; The Limit Mechanical.
Seated awheel, the bicyclist feels master of the situation. The bicycle obeys the slightest impulse, moving at will, almost without conscious effort, virtually as much a part of the rider, and as easily under control, as hand or foot. It is because weight is supported and friction overcome that the bicyclist loses consciousness of effort as he moves, with seemingly no limit to endurance.