Blog Post

Cross Activity - Running

Mick C • 24 September 2021

Running is an excellent substitute for biking in winter

I find sometimes through the winter that I’m constantly cold muddyand always cleaning my bike. Gone are the days of shorts, t-shirts, dry trails and the ability to hop on the bike at any given moment. You have to plan a winter ride more and think about how you'll stay warm and dry. Then there's the struggle of pulling on the long trousers and putting on the shoe covers. It all gets a bit of a grind and to be honest I sometimes end up faffing before and after a ride.

Have you ever considered something a little different during the winter? I'm not recommending stopping biking but if the cleaning and mud are getting you down why not reduce the biking a little and introduce a different activity to reduce the faffing and mud. You can then continue to keep up your fitness and health but reduce the mud. Most people call it cross-training but as I'm not training, I call it cross-activity.

Personally, I find it a struggle getting out on the bike straight after Christmas and up to when we change the clocks. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe the momentum of the summer riding takes me through Autumn and then I do a Big Christmas ridejust before the kids break up. This probably signifies to me subconsciously that biking season is over. Its then cold, muddy and wet for January, February and most of March. Then the clock change in March sort of says to me its starting to be summer again. Light nights to bike into. I don't stop during winter but I definitely pick my moments to go biking.

During this time Running has always been my go-to activity. You may say ‘you are still outside in the cold and rain’ and you'd be right but it’s not as cold and wet as you don't have the rush of air and water splashing at you as you do on a bike. It’s also less of a faff, you get your shoes on, warm up and then go. When you get in you take your shoes off jump in the shower and back to life. No cleaning whilst you get cold.

I find that also you don't need to be out as long to achieve the goal of sustained fitness and health to be prepared for those summer biking days. I can tend to get a 6-mile run in under an hour or 2-3 miles in under 30 minutes. With it being a weight baring activity there is no break, you can't cruise down the hill whilst catching your breath, you have to put effort in all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't stop if it’s getting too much, but when you are actually running there isn't a break in effort. No, gone are the days when I used to think if you are running you must run, no walking. That’s when I was young and had different views of training. I wanted to train to get faster rather than exercise to enjoy. So, nowadays if I’m not enjoying a run, I don't beat myself up for having a break and walking. That doesn't mean I don't still push myself, sometimes it goes the other way, when I'm enjoying the run I might go faster or run further. I focus a lot more on enjoyment. I have a goal for each run but if things change during the run I adapt, and then don't beat myself up for missing the goal. I think about the things I achieved.

This year I started out by just wanting to run 2 miles without stopping. I'll be honest it was a lot harder than I expected. Gone are the days when I did a half marathon and then a cool down run a couple of days later. Attempting a half marathon now and I’d be walking like a robot for a week if I managed to make it. The first few runs I did a mile, stopped, half a mile, stopped and then finished the last half a mile. Well, that was actually most of January until I dropped the stops gradually and managed to run the full 2 miles. Slow but I ran it all. Next goal was to complete a 5km so 3.1 miles. I carried on with the 2 miles and then introduced the 5km once a week, again stopping during the run until I could run it all. Having been a half decent runner in my younger years I’ve got to emphasise I found this tough and frustrating. So, why didn't I stop and try a different activity, well because actually I was enjoying the challenge. I thought about what it would be like when I was able to run with more efficiency to look back and think where I started and what I'd achieved (plus all the gym and swimming pools were shut due to the Lockdown).

I managed to do the 5km without stopping and at this point that is the distance I'm aiming to target. It’s a good workout so I stay fit and it isn't time consuming so fits with my routine at the minute. Next goal is to get faster, and to get faster your body needs to experience running faster whilst being able to sustain it. So here I introduce some interval running. Interval running is increasing the speed to fastest you can run (or at least faster than normal) for a short, sustained time frame and then resting for a set time (or easing the run) before repeating. For me it started by picking two lampposts during a run and running as fast as I could between them. Now I’m up to doing a run with a section of 30 seconds running as fast as I can and 45 seconds walking, repeating it over and over. Again, I don't worry too much about keeping it ridged. I often get to the end and I'm doing 20 seconds fast and 60 seconds walking, or 30 seconds fast and 30 seconds walking. I just remember that whatever I'm doing it’s better than nothing and is maintaining my health.

Currently I'm finding my stamina is dropping off a little so I have introduced one longer run a week of 5 or 6 miles just so I can sustain full effort during my 5km. I'm trying to trick my mind here. If I can do 6 miles then surely, I can run faster for 3 miles.

Whilst I'm enjoying running at the moment I know as soon as I get to summerit will drop off and I'll be back on the bike nearly all the time. A couple of years in the past I have ran and biked but time is limited now so I have to make a choice, and biking always wins. Biking feels more adventurous to me, because of the distance you can achieve in a single ride and its more exhilarating when you are cutting between the trees on a fast downhill. This might not be the same for you. You might have a go at running and love it so much that biking becomes your cross-activity. Who knows...