Today was a great training day, by any standard. I was able to bike 6 and a half miles to the gym, and once I got there, I slipped on my new Kinvara 4's and ran out on the 5k course again. I ran the 5k in 18:34 and felt pretty great! Once I got done with that, I was able to get in the pool and get a solid mile done made up of speed sets, mainly 50's. Main set was 20x50's. Even so, afterwards I went into the actual gym and got in a solid hour and a half of strength training; which consisted mainly of deep squats, one-legged squats, calf raises, core work, hamstring exercises, and a good amount of gluteus maximus workouts. Then, finally, I got to bike the 6 and a half miles home. This is a great day by any standard, but I'll probably go out for a bike ride again later on.
This is what the basis of the blog is about: doing high training of a beneficial exercise that inadvertently compliments an additional sport. In this case, I'm talking about doing a lot of biking. I ride every day, either riding to work, riding around my neighborhood, riding to the grocery store, or just riding for fun. As I've found out, riding every day has helped me lose some weight, as well as lean up my legs. In turn, all of the riding has directly correlated into my running skills. Over the past few days, I've been running more, and I've seen quick results. Last time I ran a 5k off of a bike, I ran 19:09, close to a PR off the bike for me. Then, today, after the bike, I was able to run another 5k off the bike, and ran 18:34! This is almost a PR for my 5k fresh! My actual PR for the 5k is 18:16, and so a 18:34 off the bike is an amazing time for me. The crazy thing is, I haven't ran any miles other than those two 5k's in the last few days. With this information, I've come to the conclusion that training excess cycling helps my running fitness. This is beneficial to cycling as well, even more so than running, due to getting in many more miles on the bike. I've been able to average faster speeds on the bike and feel less fatigue while doing so.
This all is very encouraging to me and it's been amazing to experience good training through all of my injuries. I encourage all of you to go out and get training! Be careful, and make sure you don't overuse any main muscle groups, and also make sure you don't overlook key strength training.
Happy training!
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