You may remember my post about working on getting faster on a bike. I’ve been working on that plan for ages! Sadly, I was making little progress. Then, suddenly (ok, so it’s been like 5 months, but still), this happened:
Same route, 5 months apart. I will be honest: I did little cycling between these two and most of it was indoors. One of my friends pointed out that my running improved a lot, too. So what made me get so much faster?
Well, there is only one thing I have done in between these two sessions that was not normal (in more than one way 😜) :
Even by my standards that’s a bit crazy! But here is the thing: it did strengthen my legs like crazy!
My running has always been just fine as far as I’m concerned. Not overly fast, but fine. Apparently it wasn’t fine – I picked up some serious pace there, too. But it’s biking that impressed me most. What used to feel like never-ending steep hills now feels like not much more than a speed bump. And the mad respect I get from men I pass on the road! I like it!
So the conclusion is that mad number of stairs climbed finally addressed my Achilles’ Heel of biking on hills. They are here to stay, although maybe only once a week. As it turns out, the key was to change things up with a repetitive exercise requiring more leg muscle strength.
Have you learned anything useful during the lockdown period? Are you coming out stronger or weaker? (I’m curious and not judging)