I left the house, and realised, to my shock, I had only two minutes to get the train. In the good old days, when I was a lad of youthful enthusiasm and flexibility, I could easily have sprinted to get the train from that point. Out of instinct, I started to run because if I was young and fit, I knew I could still have caught the train from this point. But, now I’m a full time cyclist, and I have this voice in my head always ready to start saying ‘Don’t Run! Don’t Run! – whatever you do, there is no excuse for running! Running gives sore legs. Running is the worst thing to do if you’re not used to it. Stiff muscles the next day, and then you can’t cycle. Before you know it, your winter mileage total of 8,000 km is only 7,900 km! and we can’t have that because as we all know the secret to winning any race, is to cycle more miles than anyone else.
And if you don’t believe me, just head the words of Fausto Coppi ‘ride your bike, ride your bike!’ When Fausto Coppi said ‘ride a bike‘ he didn’t say ‘ride a bike, and run 400 metres every day.‘ You have to follow this kind of training advice to the letter.
So there I was, half-heartedly running for the training. Part of me saying ‘Go on run, you can’t be so feeble as to miss a train because you can’t run 400 metres!‘ The other part of me saying “No, don’t run. You’ll regret it tomorrow!. The end result was running 200 metres before fading out. Watching helplessly as the train irritating came on time and left the station, I was walking fast, but still too slow to catch the train; the voice of reason finally trumping those youthful indiscretions and spontaneous desire to run. I ended up missing the train; plus, even worse, I’d risked running 200 metres at a jolly fast speed. If I have sore muscles tomorrow, and I can’t make my 500km weekly target at this time of the year, well, the seasons nearly ended before it’s begun….
Not that I’m counting the miles…
This is the sacrifice we cyclists make – shaved legs, missed trains, sore butts. Is there anything we won’t do for an extra 20 watts of power!
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