A Passion for Running

Welcome to the home of Mark aka The Running Blogfather – a 40 year-old dad, husband and marathon runner who's beaten injury and is on the comeback trail!

five 2-wheeled observations

passion for running category: biking/cross-training,running on Tuesday, June 20 2006

I’ve begun my 3rd week of bike commuting. Wanna know what I’ve learned so far?

1) The wind is never at my back.

2) I seem to adapt quickly to being on the bike. Week one was hard. Week two I introduced a run on a bike day and it wasn’t bad. And this week I already feel like I could bike every day and run on a few of those days as well. Of course, runs on those days would likely not be fast or particularly long but…we’ll see.

3) I’m not fond of road bikes that pass me and my mountain bike like we’re standing still. Not fond of them at all.

4) I have a “natural” cadence of 90 revolutions per minute. I hope I am stating that with fairly correct cycling lingo. At any rate, my legs seem most comfortable peddling 90 times each per minute. This is fascinating to me since 90 is also the minimum cadence I aim for when running – something I learned under the Pose Method. Are my legs good at 90 because of what I have engrained while running, or is 90 just…natural?

5) A 45 minute bike ride to work more than replaces morning coffee.




7 Comments

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Comment by LouBob

Tuesday June 20, 2006 @

You’re just a 90′s kinda guy!

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Comment by 21stCenturyMom

Tuesday June 20, 2006 @

I counted my steps the other day and I am only doing 80. I ride most comfortably at 80. Maybe our legs have some sort of firmware in them and the real trick in all of this is to force a firmware upgrade.

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Comment by warren

Wednesday June 21, 2006 @

It’s a cycling truism. The wind is NEVER at your back.

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Comment by jank

Wednesday June 21, 2006 @

Ain’t the bike that’s fast…

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Comment by jank

Wednesday June 21, 2006 @

(Wow – didja see the jealousy come out in that last comment?)

Regarding the wind at the back thing – it’s a vector addition problem. On the bike you’re moving at about 20 KPH (give or take) without trying too difficultly. 20 KPH is a pretty fresh breeze in any case. When you add the vectors of your self-wind (ie, the 20KPH you’re moving forward) and pretty much any wind other than one coming from about 15 degrees of either side of dead astern, you end up with a pretty significant component of wind in your face.

On the plus side, it makes riding on hot days an excuse to go faster…

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Comment by beverly

Thursday June 22, 2006 @

Y’know, more than the post, I just love this list format you’re using ….

:)

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Comment by Dawn (aka Pink Lady)

Saturday June 24, 2006 @

Try doubling that ride and you’ve got what I did yesterday – over 3 hours total for my commute. A large birthday cake might replace the calories I burnt. Belated Happy Birthday.

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