Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I’m Biking…And Surprisingly Not Cranky About It


Yup, that post title pretty much sums things up – in the past six weeks I’ve run a grand total of 21 miles, accompanied by lovely training log entries such as “BAD,” “FAIL,” “BAD STOP.” (I’m not even kidding. Me = yelling at myself via the sidebar of my blog?)

BUT I’m not upset or stressed or anxious about not running because I will run eventually when it feels good again, and until then I just can’t bring myself to deal. I’m not saying this is the BEST way to handle the situation…but it’s the one I’m going with.

And biking outside really isn’t bad! It’s actually pretty fun. I go every other day and do anywhere from 20 to 40 miles. I’ve biked to Mt. Vernon, Alexandria, Bethesda, and loops around Haines Point.

My Monday night ride. See it on MapMyRun.
I always bike in large-ish quantities because when I was in junior high and had recently started running, I asked my parents about the biking equivalents of running mileage.  They told me it was “about five to one,” meaning that five miles on a bike equal one mile of running. So a 20-mile bike ride is just a four-mile run. Bikers out there – is this true? What do you think???

Anywho, I think part of the fun is that for me, biking is temporary...if my workout life were an episode of Friends, this would be the one where Rachel and Ross take a break and Ross sleeps with the copy girl.


Yes. Ok. Let me clarify: in this bizarre metaphor that I came up with while biking across George Mason Bridge at 6:20 this morning, I am Ross, running is Rachel, and biking is the copy girl. Long story short – taking a biking break from running is fun for a bit. (But let’s not take this metaphor to the next Friends level where Ross sleeping with the copy girl ruins everything for too long until the last season when they finally get back together.) (Ok too much. I’ll stop now.)

Anyone in DC want to bike with me?