Wednesday (inside), Friday, Sunday training is going to work really well. However, I've just finished my second outdoor ride of the week and both were considerably different - Friday's 25 miler was very wet with no wind, today's 15 was very windy with no rain. I hated them both.
I've also noticed some big differences between cycling and running aside from the well documented 'they use different muscles'.
1. Cycling is 100% uphill. There's no such thing as a flat in Cornwall as the whole county has been built on a V or ^ foundation. This means there are downhills but, as Ella Eyre noted, gravity gravity, oooooooh, gravity and even on a bike you can conquer a twenty mile downhill section in four minutes...just in time for the next twenty mile uphill section.
2. Cycles take maintenance. I never once had to check the pressures on my shoes or lubricate my chain, if you know what I mean. Shoe up, bugger off. That's running. Also there's a lot to turn off when returning - I left my lights on after my ride on Friday and, being a very cheap set, they're now good for nothing.
3. Riding takes longer. A 100 mile bike ride is equivalent to a 26 mile run, so a ratio of around 4:1 in London Marathon organiser standards. However, while a six mile run takes me around an hour a 24 mile ride is just over two. I have to put this down to being at the start of my training but I need to get an awful lot faster to make the running/riding ratio stack up. A 15mph average will get me around the course within the eight and a half hour limit so that's my initial aim, though this is still just under an hour and a half for a 24 mile ride.
4. I cannot ride empty. When partaking in a marathon I would have four breakfast biscuits, go to the toilet seventeen times and then run. I'd take on a few gels towards the end but I wouldn't eat much at all until after the race when I would binge on everything in sight. I was knackered after my ride on Friday and put a lot of it down to hunger, meaning I also have to eat before a ride which takes up even more time.
There are plenty of similarities, such as the need for layers in the cold months. I had one pair of socks on in the wet and my feet were numb by the time I got home. Today I put two pairs on because I figured they don't take up much room in the washing machine and hey presto! Warm feet. I'm more than a little looking forward to riding in the Summer, however if I wait until then I will have no stamina so I'm not too concerned with the shorter rides for now.
Incidentally, is this the world's shortest cycle path?
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