definitions, muscles, shorts and i'm a bad influence ... by abby
ok. active rest is where you do some *very* light aerobic activity ... hardly getting your heart rate up at all, but keeping your body in motion. bike rides are great for this, if you can find a trail or route that is pretty flat and doesn't demand much of you. the important thing is to remember that's it's not supposed to be a workout. swimming is also great active rest, and also just walking or hiking. basically you want it to be low-impact and low-demand. i prefer active rest to rest sometimes, because i'm restless. gerlinda, if you decide to do active rest, i would start with walking, and then move up to biking in another month or so. i think it's important to have true rest days too -- the thing is to just listen to your body and make decisions based on how you feel.
yep, that muscle is your quad. and it's good that it's sore! it's a different part of your quad than running, and it generally develops pretty fast. i think you won't get muscles that pop out (i don't have them), because it's longer muscle ... or something like that. anyway, developing that muscle by biking will help you when you're running. one thing to remember about biking is that you have to pull up as well as push down. that is, on the upstroke, pull up with one leg while pushing down with the other. it seems natural to do that, but if you really think about it while you're doing it, you'll feel what i mean. pulling up helps work your hamstrings and takes some pressure off your quads as well.
now, regarding bike clothes: go and get yourself some cheap bike shorts. nashbar.com is a good place to find them for cheap, or rei.com, or if you have a local bike store you might pay more but would be supporting local business. you'll feel silly and dumb in them, but you'll get over it once you realize how much more comfortable they are. another thing that can help with comfort is a good saddle. if you have a trek, it probably came with a decent saddle. i've found that the most comfortable saddles are hard and narrow; the wide and cushy ones just spread your pelvic bones and that gets painful on a long ride. the narrow, harder saddles are made to not spread your pelvic bones. a bike jersey with a pocket in back is a good thing too ... so if you are our for over an hour you can take your cell phone in case something happens. (i punctured on my road bike about two weeks ago, and did not have my cell. i could have replaced the tube, but the tire was actually ripped and there's nothing to do about that since it's pretty impossible to carry a whole extra tire. luckily, i was only 2 miles from home, but hoofing it in bike shoes sucks. i learned my lesson and will carry my cell from now on.) and also, get your bike tuned up, if you haven't. it's cheap and worth it; it's good for the bike and also helps it last longer. if you decide that biking is something you want to become semi-serious about, we'll talk pedals and shoes. for now, though, if your pedals don't have cages, you might want to get some. they help you on the upstroke and definintely make you more efficient on the bike.
i have a bunch more tips for you, about all this stuff. i don't know how much you already know or believe or have figured out ... but there are little things that i can tell you that might make a difference. so i'll pull that together and post here in the next day or so.
today i'm scheduled for a 4.5-miler, partially on gravel. i'm up in the air about it, though .... which makes me a bad influence. let's just say this: floating the yellowstone with a cooler and friends on a hot summer day is a *much* more attractive proposition. but: the nice thing about higdon's schedule is that you can get away with switching things around a bit. since tomorrow is a rest day, i could take my rest day today and do the 4.5-er tomorrow. but .... i depends on how today shapes up. right now, for both of us, these 3 and 4 mile runs are just building a base. where it gets really important to stick to it is the about 5 miles and up. at that point, no more excuses!
yep, that muscle is your quad. and it's good that it's sore! it's a different part of your quad than running, and it generally develops pretty fast. i think you won't get muscles that pop out (i don't have them), because it's longer muscle ... or something like that. anyway, developing that muscle by biking will help you when you're running. one thing to remember about biking is that you have to pull up as well as push down. that is, on the upstroke, pull up with one leg while pushing down with the other. it seems natural to do that, but if you really think about it while you're doing it, you'll feel what i mean. pulling up helps work your hamstrings and takes some pressure off your quads as well.
now, regarding bike clothes: go and get yourself some cheap bike shorts. nashbar.com is a good place to find them for cheap, or rei.com, or if you have a local bike store you might pay more but would be supporting local business. you'll feel silly and dumb in them, but you'll get over it once you realize how much more comfortable they are. another thing that can help with comfort is a good saddle. if you have a trek, it probably came with a decent saddle. i've found that the most comfortable saddles are hard and narrow; the wide and cushy ones just spread your pelvic bones and that gets painful on a long ride. the narrow, harder saddles are made to not spread your pelvic bones. a bike jersey with a pocket in back is a good thing too ... so if you are our for over an hour you can take your cell phone in case something happens. (i punctured on my road bike about two weeks ago, and did not have my cell. i could have replaced the tube, but the tire was actually ripped and there's nothing to do about that since it's pretty impossible to carry a whole extra tire. luckily, i was only 2 miles from home, but hoofing it in bike shoes sucks. i learned my lesson and will carry my cell from now on.) and also, get your bike tuned up, if you haven't. it's cheap and worth it; it's good for the bike and also helps it last longer. if you decide that biking is something you want to become semi-serious about, we'll talk pedals and shoes. for now, though, if your pedals don't have cages, you might want to get some. they help you on the upstroke and definintely make you more efficient on the bike.
i have a bunch more tips for you, about all this stuff. i don't know how much you already know or believe or have figured out ... but there are little things that i can tell you that might make a difference. so i'll pull that together and post here in the next day or so.
today i'm scheduled for a 4.5-miler, partially on gravel. i'm up in the air about it, though .... which makes me a bad influence. let's just say this: floating the yellowstone with a cooler and friends on a hot summer day is a *much* more attractive proposition. but: the nice thing about higdon's schedule is that you can get away with switching things around a bit. since tomorrow is a rest day, i could take my rest day today and do the 4.5-er tomorrow. but .... i depends on how today shapes up. right now, for both of us, these 3 and 4 mile runs are just building a base. where it gets really important to stick to it is the about 5 miles and up. at that point, no more excuses!
posted by August at 10:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home