I’ve just found out the hard way what I probably could have learned with a bit of reading (supply links by all means!) - that just because you have some cycling fitness, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have running fitness!

Couldn’t face going out on the bike today, just too cold (less than 10 c), so I thought I would go out for a run instead! Now, I haven’t gone running for years, not since university 12 years ago when I was trying to avoid studying for an exam! But I used to be a pretty good runner, regularly training while at school. And today I figured, well, I spend my summers cycling up mountainsides, have kept up a little bit of riding over the winter, surely my residual fitness levels will be enough for a good solid run. I envisaged perhaps around 10-12km, to the end of the Danube promenade here in Novi Sad and back again. I even fancied I might sprint a section just to really get the blood pumping.

After a cursory warm-up, I trotted out of the door of our block and up the street towards the Danube, smiling at some girls from the same apartment block in that “peak-of-fitness, epitome-of-athletic-masculinity, look-but-don’t-touch” kind of way you do. After the first 200 metres I knew something was wrong! My limbs felt like lead, there was some kind of 1/2 ton weight around my chest and there was stuff jiggling about everywhere!

Now I have never had anything to jiggle! I have been a constant 75-80kg (at 187cm) since the age of 18, pretty much skin, bone and the odd bit of muscle. All attempts to put on any weight have always been in vain, no matter how much I eat! Yet, all of a sudden, there is something like a loosely-tied item of luggage strapped to several areas of my body!

They threaten you with this - that when you get married, you get fat! Well I can confirm it’s true! I have actually put on 3 or 4kg since last August when I tied the knot with the lovely Sladja - all that idyllic married bliss, reduced amounts of exercise and increased amounts of food have begun to take their toll even on me!

It’s got to go! I don’t care how! It’s going to get burned off big-time, as soon as I can get back on the bike with any regularity. I think I will abandon the idea of running and return to cycling. For one thing there is less risk of jiggling…

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Posted on February 27th, 2007 by markowe
Filed under: About me, Biking - general