Julie Reynders - My Interest in Biking

During the lockdown, I noticed that I wasn't getting as much exercise as I was before Covid. I was looking for a solution to this that was still possible with all of the restrictions and regulations. I decided that biking was the perfect solution. Although there was a little problem. I only had recently moved to Belgium so my bike was still at my Paris apartment. Therefore for my birthday, I asked to get a new one here. When I had finally gotten my new bike, I was very excited to explore all the bike paths in Antwerp. In all the other countries I had lived, there were no designated bike paths in the city. This led me to taking up mountain biking instead. However, in Belgium I chose to get a city bike for a change. This was much easier. Less hills and more safety.

I found two paths I could take that were quite scenic. One was from my apartment to Antwerp Central station and back. The back and forth took about 20 minutes to complete. The other route was from my apartment along the Schelde. In a matter of minutes I was in the city center. The path itself was very long, but I never did the whole thing because I didn't know where it ended up.

Later on, I determined that I would be recording my new activity with an app called Strava, which my dad suggested. This would let me track the amount of kilo-meters I cover and how fast I went. On the app there are also suggestions for paths near you that are taken often by other bikers. I got the award for the person who did 'Amerikalei' the most and fastest in the past few months. I started really liking topping up my speed with each ride. That became my new goal, beat my record with every ride. The highest i've gotten so far is approximately 40 km/h.

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