Don't get so stuck in your ways that you can't change. ~ Sam Walton
I will fully admit I judged bikers. (Please, bikers refrain from throwing your helmets in my general direction.)
I used to scoff at people on the recumbent bikes at the gym while I was pounding along on the treadmill. I'd look over, glaring, and thinking to myself "How lazy are those people? They aren't doing ANYTHING sitting there pedaling those machines. They look like recliners with rotating leg relaxers. Look at them reading their books, this isn't a library!"
Yes, that was me until now.
This past Saturday I decided to finally go try out the recumbent bike (even though I felt I was totally wasting my time). I figured if I wanted to continue shoving food into my pie hole with no regards to calories I'd want to burn a few, lest I gain back all of the weight I recently lost.
I strutted into the YMCA. No really, my boot makes me strut. I mounted (?) the recumbent bike, jammed my feet into the pedal stirrups (OK, I really need to Google bike terminology) and scrolled through the programs to pick something similar to what I did on the treadmill. I saw a hill workout and naturally chose that one. Of course, if I do hills on the bike it MUST keep me in shape to run hills when the time comes for me to get back out there. I do naive really well.
I decided to do 30 minutes to start. I started pedaling and opened up my book. Hey, if everyone else can do it, why can't I? The first 5 minutes went pretty well. I felt like I had a pretty good pace and I was enjoying my book. Then the first incline came. I kept pedaling around the same pace, but concentrating on my book wasn't as easy. Suddenly my legs were on FIRE. I felt pain in places I had never experienced before while running.
Another increase in the incline and I reached for the resistance button quickly turning it DOWN. I looked at the time and I had only been on the bike for EIGHT MINUTES. EIGHT! I had to put my book down and really focus at this point. My boot kept slamming into the side of the machine and I had sweat pouring off of me.
By the time I hit another incline I resolved to the fact that I wasn't finishing 30 minutes on this thing. I was on a ride from HELL and wasn't even moving. I finished 15 whole minutes on that bike and couldn't dismount (haha) fast enough. I honestly couldn't believe what a workout I got in just 15 minutes from a machine that looked like something out of a La-Z-Boy catalog.
If you're like me and have a total comfort zone with running, I challenge you to try something new. Branching out, though not because I wanted to, has given me a new respect for another sport. Cross-training is not something I ever thought was important while training. I figured I should stick with the sport I was training for. However, I now see that other forms of exercise are not only good to work out different body parts, it's a very humbling experience.
So bikers, my sincerest apologies for mocking you. I will be walking around in shame, with the proverbial tail between my very, very sore legs for weeks to come.
Run Hard,
Run Strong,
Run For You,
Holly
I used to scoff at people on the recumbent bikes at the gym while I was pounding along on the treadmill. I'd look over, glaring, and thinking to myself "How lazy are those people? They aren't doing ANYTHING sitting there pedaling those machines. They look like recliners with rotating leg relaxers. Look at them reading their books, this isn't a library!"
Yes, that was me until now.
This past Saturday I decided to finally go try out the recumbent bike (even though I felt I was totally wasting my time). I figured if I wanted to continue shoving food into my pie hole with no regards to calories I'd want to burn a few, lest I gain back all of the weight I recently lost.
I strutted into the YMCA. No really, my boot makes me strut. I mounted (?) the recumbent bike, jammed my feet into the pedal stirrups (OK, I really need to Google bike terminology) and scrolled through the programs to pick something similar to what I did on the treadmill. I saw a hill workout and naturally chose that one. Of course, if I do hills on the bike it MUST keep me in shape to run hills when the time comes for me to get back out there. I do naive really well.
I decided to do 30 minutes to start. I started pedaling and opened up my book. Hey, if everyone else can do it, why can't I? The first 5 minutes went pretty well. I felt like I had a pretty good pace and I was enjoying my book. Then the first incline came. I kept pedaling around the same pace, but concentrating on my book wasn't as easy. Suddenly my legs were on FIRE. I felt pain in places I had never experienced before while running.
Another increase in the incline and I reached for the resistance button quickly turning it DOWN. I looked at the time and I had only been on the bike for EIGHT MINUTES. EIGHT! I had to put my book down and really focus at this point. My boot kept slamming into the side of the machine and I had sweat pouring off of me.
By the time I hit another incline I resolved to the fact that I wasn't finishing 30 minutes on this thing. I was on a ride from HELL and wasn't even moving. I finished 15 whole minutes on that bike and couldn't dismount (haha) fast enough. I honestly couldn't believe what a workout I got in just 15 minutes from a machine that looked like something out of a La-Z-Boy catalog.
If you're like me and have a total comfort zone with running, I challenge you to try something new. Branching out, though not because I wanted to, has given me a new respect for another sport. Cross-training is not something I ever thought was important while training. I figured I should stick with the sport I was training for. However, I now see that other forms of exercise are not only good to work out different body parts, it's a very humbling experience.
So bikers, my sincerest apologies for mocking you. I will be walking around in shame, with the proverbial tail between my very, very sore legs for weeks to come.
Run Hard,
Run Strong,
Run For You,
Holly
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