I’m not quite sure why I’ve called this article ‘back on the bike again’ as I was never really ‘on’ the bike to begin with. My chosen sport is definitely running. However, due to injury that’s something I’m not able to do at the moment. I’m very lucky that my husband is a keen cyclist so when I was looking for a low impact alternative to running, cycling seemed the obvious choice.
Having previously run the Cardiff half marathon a few times and the London Marathon in 2019, cycling is a definite change in pace for me. The only time I ever really rode my bike was with my children to the local park. However, not being able to run was really getting me down and I knew I wanted to some kind of physical activity.
The problem is when I cycle alone I never know where to go and I usually end doing 5/6 km, get bored and return home. It’s a strange feeling for me because I know so many running routes, but I wouldn’t want to cycle them because they’re along main roads.
Thankfully my husband was happy to take me on a new route and before I knew it we’d cycled just under 16km. The following week saw my pace increase as well as the distance we covered to just under 17km and then the following day we managed just over a half marathon at 23.37km. While my husband could have happily continued for another 10km, my legs were done!
It’s safe to say that cycling definitely uses different muscles to running! While I rode behind my husband and watched him cycle like a power house up a hill at the end of our route, I lamely hopped off my bike and walked it up the hill! My next attempt the following week was better and I’d say I managed to half way up. It’s definitely a work in progress! My legs are definitely not build for cycling up hills despite all those spin classes I’ve done!
I do hope that I’ll be able to return to running soon, but until I do, cycling is definitely lots of fun. As long as I have company that is! Without my husband by my side I’d get bored and go home! I do like that cycling has opened up some lovely new routes in our local area to me. When I get back to running I know I’ll be running a few of those routes!
So for now, I’m back on the bike and I have to say I am really enjoying it!
