Daily Evolution from Mastering Tai Chi-Chapter 269 - 230: Jaw-Dropping Track Bikes (Part 2)

But Wang Ye is different. He just needs to sleep and his body will automatically reset to its peak state.

He only needs to train hard, without worrying about physical recovery.

Such a physique can be said to be the dream body of many athletes and even fitness enthusiasts.

Wang Ye walked on the sidewalk, opened Google Maps on his phone, and followed the route for a few kilometers before finding Grant Park.

This is a lakeside park on Lake Michigan, with roads available for cycling and running and various vegetation, allowing one to enjoy the breeze off the lake while exercising.

Although Lake Michigan is called a lake, its area is actually not small; it ranks third in size among the five Great Lakes of North America and spans four states in the United States: Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It has a total area of 57,757 square kilometers and an average depth of 84 meters, and to the naked eye, it looks almost like the ocean, with no visible end.

Since it was already nighttime,

there were only a handful of people jogging on the track.

Moreover, there were a few individuals who looked like athletes warming up for a run.

Although their running posture wasn't very excellent, Wang Ye guessed they were also athletes here to participate in the marathon.

Wang Ye was conveniently wearing professional carbon plate shoes provided by Anta,

so he also stepped onto the track and ran a simple five kilometers.

The brand-new carbon plate shoes felt a bit stiff, so Wang Ye only ran at a pace of three minutes per kilometer, not appearing too astonishing.

This time participating in the Chicago Marathon, he didn't plan to compete barefoot like he did in the Lanzhou Marathon, but rather to participate wearing professional carbon plate running shoes like other athletes.

Because he found that competing barefoot tends to draw more skepticism from others—as running barefoot is too unconventional. In that case, he might as well conform to others in appearance.

Wang Ye enjoyed the lake breeze for a while, then continued to open the Chicago Marathon map route,

and began to jog along the route.

Meanwhile, he surveyed the scenery on both sides of the road using the streetlights.

Unbeknownst to him, he had completed the entire marathon track.

But Wang Ye still didn't feel a bit tired,

running these forty kilometers felt almost the same as running four hundred meters to an ordinary person.

There was only slight panting.

"It seems that after acquiring the ability to absorb radiation, my endurance has indeed strengthened greatly.

Before, I had to stop every ten kilometers to consume dozens of energy gels to supplement energy, but now I can maintain peak condition without consuming anything throughout the whole process."

Perceiving the drastic change in his endurance, Wang Ye began a second round of running.

He continued along the track to run, however, this time his pace noticeably increased.

The original average pace of three minutes turned into an average pace of two minutes.

Intensity and endurance usually have an inverse relationship.

Higher intensity leads to poorer endurance, higher endurance makes intensity hard to achieve.

Since he can maintain lasting endurance, that indicates that the intensity hasn't been elevated to the utmost level. In such cases, intensity needs to be appropriately increased, decreasing durability. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

After increasing the speed, Wang Ye's breathing and heart rate immediately rose to the level of intense exercise.

Wang Ye maintained this intensity, completing a circuit along the forty-one-kilometer route.

Finally, his muscles began to feel sore, lactic acid accumulation, physical fatigue, nerve twitching—all symptoms emerged at once.

But it still wasn't his physical limit.

Wang Ye rested in place for a while, then continued to grit his teeth and increased the running speed to one-minute pace per kilometer.

Preparing to continue running a third round along the route.

Unfortunately,

this time he only persisted for twenty-five kilometers.

before he was completely exhausted.

Wang Ye sat down, panting like thunder, and his whole body was steaming hot vapor.

This time he finally experienced the intense exhaustion from past training.

But this time he had already increased his speed to 60 km/h,

which is a very outrageous speed.

Many people may not have a concept by only looking at these numerical units.

For example, most road bicycles don't have an extreme speed of 60 km/h. And even when the throttle of electric bikes is twisted to the maximum, the extreme is only about this speed. Even the speed limit for motor vehicles on city roads is mostly around this speed.

Thus, it is evident how terrifying Wang Ye's current running speed is.

He often overtakes fast-moving cars while running.

Drivers would curiously lean out the window to watch Wang Ye sprinting by the roadside.

But Wang Ye maintained this speed, sprinting twenty kilometers.

Wang Ye sat there, panting heavily for more than ten seconds before barely calming down and getting off the ground.

He patted the dust off his behind and planned to return to his hotel to rest.

Just as he was about to return to the hotel,

he suddenly saw a sports arena beside the road that had a somewhat peculiar architectural form.

Looking closely at the sign, he found out it was a cycling track arena.

Typically, the interior of such cycling tracks is a wooden ring circuit.

With a certain gradient for speeding up and turning.

Track cycling is said to be the slowest starting bike, but its top speed is the fastest.

This is because track cycling tires have unusually high resistance and rotational inertia. Track cycling typically uses wide and deeply treaded tires, designed to increase friction with the ground, providing better grip. This also increases the tire's resistance with the ground during startup, requiring more power to overcome resistance at the start.

Moreover, track cycling usually has heavier frames and components, and this weight increases the vehicle's rotational inertia, requiring overcoming inertia resistance to accelerate the vehicle, hence startup feels strenuous.

But once the speed is up, it can race faster and longer than normal bicycles.

Additionally, the gear ratio of track cycling is absurdly high. Typically, the gear ratio of ordinary bicycles is about 1:2, meaning when the cyclist pedals one cycle, the tires will rotate twice, so the force used isn't large, allowing a relatively small force to start. The gear ratio of track cycling is 1:6, meaning when the cyclist pedals one cycle, the tires will rotate six times, necessitating using much more force.

So there's a saying: track riding like a bull, outdoor like a monkey.

However, due to the absence of gears and brakes on track bikes, limited steering angle of the handlebars, and poor shock absorption, they are not suitable for outdoor riding and can only be ridden in professional track venues, thus widely known as track bicycles.

And in China, there are hardly any track cycling venues. It's said there are no more than ten track cycling arenas nationwide, and only professional sports arenas may build cycling tracks. Due to this characteristic, track cycling training is rarely seen domestically.

Wang Ye, too, found himself seeing a track cycling arena for the first time after arriving in Chicago.

Since track athletes' thighs battle against high gear ratio resistance for years, their leg muscles are generally robust like utility poles, comparable to weightlifters. It's said if there's a motorcycle breaking the wind ahead, track bikes can speed past 300 mph, faster than cars.

And when Wang Ye rides outdoor mountain bikes with a gear ratio of 1:2 to 1:3, he can nearly reach an extreme speed of three hundred mph.

Riding a high gear ratio track bike could be even more outrageous.

Plus, if not participating in regulated professional races, the gear ratio of track bikes can be manually adjusted, meaning under permissible material conditions, he could convert a track bike to an extremely high gear ratio of 1:10 or 1:20. One pedal could blast several hundred meters away.

Thinking of this, Wang Ye felt an immediate interest and decided to enter the arena and give it a try.

With his current muscular strength configuration, pedaling ordinary bicycles can no longer test the limit.

Even pedaling to the fastest stepping frequency, breaking the bike chain, he can hardly feel fatigued.

At such times, it's necessary to increase the gear ratio, heightening resistance for every step.

The relationship between Wang Ye's recent running intensity and endurance is basically the same.

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