Forgive the blurry photograph, but here’s a chart from a 1970s bicycling study I found some time ago. It shows “oxygen consumption in cubic feet per mile” on the Y axis and “miles per hour” on the X axis. (Note the logarithmic scale.) Basically, it’s analyzing the efficiency of human movement at different speeds, comparing boat rowing to running to riding a bicycle.
Given this week’s discussion of run commuting, I thought it might be interesting. (PS bicycles win!)