Friday Ramble 07/01/22

This week: Embracing aerobic variety, plus additional thoughts on running and COVID. 

You may recall that one of my goals for 2022 was to begin biking to trailheads rather than drive. Not only would biking increase my aerobic capacity, it would also be more cost effective and better for the environment. Plus, in the words of Kilian Jornet, “More miles equals more fun.” 

As runners, we tend to think of miles solely in terms of the miles we run. Biking isn’t running. Running is running. There’s certainly truth in that statement owing to the different training adaptations and musculoskeletal demands that take place within those activities. 

Yet, as long distance trail running has become a bigger part of my life, I’ve come around to the idea that my fitness/emotional wellbeing isn’t solely tied to running. That’s because human powered miles of any kind are aerobic miles and aerobic miles make me happy. 

They can come from running, biking, hiking, walking, swimming, kayaking, stand up paddle boarding, cross country skiing, whatever. It all counts from an aerobic conditioning standpoint.

While running will always be my main outlet, I’m enjoying having a variety of activities to turn to when running isn’t feasible. That’s been huge of late. Between recovering from my race, enduring a bout with food poisoning, and now COVID, I’ve run 62 miles this month, down from 175 in May and 220 in April. That’s quite a drop. 

When you add biking and walking into the mix, my mileage count rises to 130. From a physical and mental health standpoint, those extra miles helped bridge the gap when I was unable to run.