running vs. cycling

I've been out jogging three to four time a week since I started this nonsense fourteen days ago. It's not my first foray into running. In September 2006, still in Grenoble, I got so fed up with cycling that I decided I needed a change. I took out my virgin Sauconys that had been collecting dust even since I bought them nine months earlier, and paced up and down the Isère. The next day I was a wreck. This lasted for about a week. I tried again and that time, the suffering only lasted five days. Progress, but painfully slow. Just when I was getting into the groove, I cut my thumb and was out for the year. And that was that.

This time around, things are going much more smoothly. I'm in no pain after a run, and my legs don't complain if I take them out again. I easily do the Hyde Park loops in under thirty minutes. I am fast.

That was my state of mind this morning anyway. Then, around lunchtime, I went out with two colleagues for a run of exactly 10k. These guys wanted to know where they were standing, never mind the early season. Both have done marathons before. They are fast.

I have my heart rate monitor to keep me from going unhealthily fast, but it's beeping was no match for two nutcases on strong legs. I went into red one third into the run and never looked back. Two thirds through, I had to let them go, and with my heart and lungs screaming for respite, I scrambled on for another 3k, hanging on for dear life. In the end, I was happy with my time but not with my performance, and not at all with the concept of running. Whose idea was this anyway?

While running has the edge over cycling in terms of time and costs, cycling will always be my favorite because:

• You can sit down while you do it.
• You can shift down when it gets hard.
• You can let it rip when the road goes down.
• You can eat and drink when you want because you carry everything with you.

To pacify the devil in my head who's trying to talk me out of running, I'll go to the gym tomorrow for an hour of spinning, but on Friday I'll surely be back in the park.