other sports…

@jabberwocky 116564 wrote:

-The equipment is a billionty percent more expensive (though it does last longer).

It amazes me how fast my kids go through skateboard bearings, and they assiduously avoid skating in wet conditions. I have thousands of miles of commuting in all weather on my bike’s cartridge bearings, and they are quiet and smooth. Of course, I don’t do as many tricks on my bike as they do on their boards.

I have cycled most of my life and even raced as a kid for a few years but this took a back seat to tennis for many years. I paid for my bachelors tuition working as a tennis pro and playing Ontario tournaments (and sucking mostly – head case). I also played Ice Hockey for many many years before I felt the pains every morning. I don’t do much cross training at all these days unless you consider my job a sport.

Cycling pros:

– Much less wear and tear on my body
– I can actually use it for transport
– I really like the culture and people associated with cycling
– I can ride on a pretty consistent schedule
– I have not had my cycling jersey pulled over my head with a fist entering the head hole over and over (yet)!
– Jimmy Connors has not embarrassed me on a bike (yet)
– I have not picked up my bike and smashed it into the ground due to a bad call (or non call)
– Cycling is actually cheaper than Hockey (annually), and if you remove the therapy and travel cheaper than Tennis too.

In DC (as in some other cities), many of the people on bikes are triathletes, so they are also running and swimming. Many do strength training too. (Personally, I think most people can benefit from adding some strength training to their fitness routine.)

So you will find plenty of cyclists in this area who also run a lot. In terms of frequency (number of days per week), I run about as much as I bike. Of course, my mileage on the bike is higher, but the number of days is roughly equal. This varies throughout the year. In some months, I bike a little more often. In other months, I might run a little more frequently.

I like the variety and also the different communities, running, cycling, triathlon. Even among those groups, you could split them up into trail/ultrarunning, road running, road cycling, mountain biking, bike commuting, bike touring, sprint/Olympic triathlons, long distance triathlon (Ironman, Half Ironman). If I only did one of these activities, I would probably get bored with it and give up. But since I have the option to do something else, it’s easier to keep things fresh and have a clear mental outlook.

Right now, I’m putting a little more emphasis on running and swimming. I’m bike commuting at least a few times a week, but I’m not doing many specific bike training workouts. Not too many long rides, maybe a couple times a month and only in the 1.5-2 hr range at most. I don’t think I’ve done any bike speed workouts this year, whereas I’ve done quite a few swim and run speed workouts since January.

I’m undecided about signing up for a swim event next month, but I’m training as if I’m going to do it. I’m also training for a 10K running race. At this point, the distance isn’t a problem. The challenge will be to cover the distance while pushing as hard as I can at a sustainable level, without blowing up before the end of the race. 10K is tricky for most amateurs. You can’t run super-hard the way you might for a 5K. (Pros and top amateurs can do that, but I can’t. The time is too long to be hitting the near-top gear.) I have to judge how hard I can push and how close I can get to threshold effort. Threshold effort is tough to sustain for 45 minutes or longer. The pros finish the 10K in under 30 minutes, so they don’t have to hold that effort for as long, because they are so fast.

I’ve gone to various social events with different groups, but lately I’ve fallen more into the bike commuter/road running groups. I still train like a triathlete (sort of) but I don’t always hang out in triathlete circles. The Ironman triathletes and serious road cyclists tend to be more serious and focused, which has its pros and its cons. I don’t have quite the same mindset. It’s not a good thing or a bad thing. Just a difference.

The ultrarunners tend to be laid back and mellow. I doubt I’ll ever do an ultrarunning event. I like running but I don’t think I would like running for 5-7 hours or more.

I think there are a lot more road runners out there. The serious 10K and marathon runners are focused too. But there are a lot of other road runners who see it as more of a social activity, which is perfectly fine among amateurs. I’m somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

I also have a minor interest in American Ninja Warrior, the spin-off of the Ninja Warrior contest. There is more of an emphasis on upper-body strength, agility and coordination. Aerobic endurance isn’t that important. Leg strength comes into play but only at limited moments. Strength is important, but so is strength-to-weight ratio. Bodybuilding is not beneficial for something like American Ninja Warrior. However, with my other focuses, I don’t do as many ANW-type workouts as I should to get more fit for those challenges. My pull-ups are kind of weak, and that’s one of the most important skills for something like ANW. But I can say that I am now able to do one-arm push-ups. I haven’t even done that much strength training this year. Most of that strength has come from swimming, especially the longer swim sets with a pull buoy and ankle bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76rdAYvfec

Variety is good. I tend to enjoy more variety than most. That’s just my preference. It’s not better than or worse than another approach, except that I think cyclists should include some strength training to help with bone mineral density. (Elite cyclists have been found to have lower BMD than even sedentary people. I don’t know if that’s the case among amateurs too. It might be. Cycling isn’t a weight-bearing, impact sport. That means fewer overuse injuries, but it also means less stimulus for building stronger bones.)

@Dickie 116572 wrote:

– I have not had my cycling jersey pulled over my head with a fist entering the head hole over and over (yet)!
.

Challenge accepted.

@wheels&wings 116558 wrote:

. Also in some ways the cycling community is less democratic and more heterogeneous – there’s an uneven playing field — with a stronger correlation between speed and price-of-gear.

Biking tends to be more heterogeneous in the types of riding people enjoy, rather than there being an uneven playing field.
The actual correlation between speed and equipment price is pretty weak. Stronger riders tend to be more interested in cycling as a sport and are willing to spend more money on it. Type of bike will affect speed, but spending more money on a particular type of bike quickly reaches diminishing returns with respect to speed.

Re Crossfit, I don’t like the practice of doing complicated Olympic lifts with heavy weights for time or reps, i.e., as fast as possible. Olympic lifts require a significant amount of coordination and practice. If you aren’t specializing in them, you probably don’t have great technique. Then to do them as a speed contest seems insane to me.

If you overdo a bike or run speed workout, you might get sore quads and have to take it easy for a few days. (This is less likely to happen if you do a proper long warm-up.) None of my running injuries ever occurred because of a speed workout (as far as I can remember). I guess you could sprain an ankle, but I don’t think that’s too common. Even if it happens, it’s not a catastrophic injury.

But if you slip up during a fast set of an Olympic lift, you can suffer catastrophic injury, such as a broken back, a broken neck, shredded shoulder joints, blunt force trauma to the head or another very serious, life-altering injury.

If that’s your “sport,” well, as long as you know the risks, then go ahead. But this sort of routine shouldn’t be promoted as a general fitness program that everyone should follow. Crossfit is really its own sport. I think it’s flawed to describe it as a general fitness program for all people. Sorry about the rant, but when something is marketed to everyone and there is a significant risk of life-altering injury, then I’ll rant about it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/does-crossfit-push-people-too-hard/2014/04/28/d08f2642-c965-11e3-93eb-6c0037dde2ad_story.html

http://www.cfsbf.com/two-common-crossfit-injuries-and-how-to-prevent-them/

http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/preventing-common-bjj-and-crossfit-injuries

It’s true that some people do die in cycling from collisions with cars. But pedestrians and other drivers also die from collisions with cars. The problem is the fast car and unsafe infrastructure (and unsafe practices from everyone). If you have to go somewhere, you are likely to be near cars, whether you are riding, driving, walking or taking Metro (because you have to walk to/from the Metro station).

But no one is going to be in a situation where they suddenly need to do a set of fast Olympic lifts for time, outside of Crossfit.

I’ve been through a lot of sports in my adult life, soccer, running, swimming, tennis, racquetball, squash, handball, volleyball, badminton, softball, golf and of course cycling. After surgery on each knee and little cartilage left in either, I prefer the low impact nature of cycling.