Betrayal of my inner runner

I was always under the impression that to get any benefit from bike riding you would need to spend hours on end riding through some god forsaken back roads or going around in circles.

However since getting my road bike it seems I need to rethink my strategy. Anybody who is serious about biking seems to cover mega distance, and I'm yet to decide if this is an addiction or if its just because most of them have nothing better to do.

Anyway that aside I feel like I am betraying my running brethren but getting on my bike, but its amazing the difference riding a road bike after having ridden mountain bikes for about 20 years.

The first thing you notice is that its a pain in the ass to get get your feet in the pedals (I have the strap style pedals not clip ones....yet!). 

Next it becomes very evident you are relying on a lot less mass to keep you from falling in a heap. The riding position means your field of vision covers the front wheel and some of the handle bars but that's about it. Before I had bars, frame, big tires and felt that I had a substantial amount of stuff protecting me from the road. But with the road bike it feels like I am balancing on a razors edge and will end up crashing at any second.

One of the other differences is the amount of effort required to ride up hills is a lot less, its much easier to keep things moving when there is bugger all in contact with the road causing friction, and again after 20 years this is a real novelty.

Time is not something I have a lot of. Between Being a Daddy, Working, PS3, Running, Swimming and Bike riding, I just don't have hours to be out on my bike too often. So I decided I would try and sneak in some 5k rides of an evening using my 5k running route as good starting point to become more at peace with my new bike.

Last night I had a revelation at the end of my 5k ride. Its possible that if you ride hard (which is quite natural on a road bike) and keep the pace up for the whole 5k you can in fact work up quite a sweat in a short time. It seems that my thoughts and explanations as to why I don't ride were a little off target.

Anyway all that aside I think it wont be long at all until this blog becomes reflections of a triathlete.