ADHM 2015 is coming, go buy a cycle!

Yes, you read it right. No, I'm not drunk or high (at least during the time it took me to write this article). I know ADHM is a running event and yet I am asking you to buy a cycle (or start cycling).

ADHM 2015 is approximately two and a half months away. Your training must be reaching its upper limits now or will reach soon. Soon you will reach the fastest training runs and the longest training distances as per your formal/informal training program or lack thereof.

Unfortunately, this is when Murphy and his Law wake up from their slumber and knock on some of our doors. He is the Santa Claus of doom and he is real!

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (Murphy's Law). How, you ask? Well this is the time when injuries occur but there isn't enough time to recover from them and achieve that PB you've been working hard at for the last couple of months.

Well, it's not just Murphy but also our own doings that lead to such injuries. Maybe you did those intervals faster than your body could handle. No strength training. Too many hill repeats? Only running on tarmac. Wrong shoes? Not resting enough! It could be one of the myriad reasons that cause the dreaded injuries but the fact is what Stinger said in Top Gun. 

"Son, your ego is writing cheques your body can't cash" (Stinger, Top Gun)

To be honest, I've been writing so many of such cheques that I have ordered new cheque books many times over. I'm learning not be an idiot when it comes to running but it's a slow process for me since being an idiot comes so naturally to me and that makes it all the more harder to change.

Now where does a cycle fit into this injury business. Well, a cycle will allow you to maintain fitness during your downtime. Cycling is not an impact sport like running. Therefore, most of the common running injuries will allow you to cycle (even shin splints are not a problem while cycling).

If you keep cycling when a running injury has sidelined you, then you can still (i) continue to train your cardiovascular system; (ii) prevent weight gain; and (iii) maintain training discipline. 

Cycling may not be a total replacement for running since both sports are quite different but it can be a good temporary solution. It is my go to sport when Bad Santa comes knocking (often).

To give you a glimpse of how the loss in fitness takes place when you stop running, it has been shown that in highly-trained athletes, VO2max (which is your maximum aerobic capacity) decreases by 7 percent in the 12 to 21 days after stopping training and another 9 percent during days 21 to 84.

The reduction in VO2max when training is stopped varies a bit with different studies, with losses ranging from 4-14% when training is stopped for less than 4 weeks.

One study found that endurance athletes lost 7% of their VO2max in the first 21 days of inactivity and eventually stabilized at a 16% loss after 56 days.

The majority of the detraining effects can be traced back to decreased blood volume. Total blood volume and plasma volume has been shown to decline by 5-12% within a few weeks.

A different study found that over a 2400 meter run, women averaged 21 seconds slower following 15 days of inactivity.

Also, the losses in VO2max are directly proportional to how well trained you were when you stopped. The losses are more if your VO2max was high. So if you are in incredible shape then you will have incredible losses in VO2max when you stop training.

So if you play your cards right (by cycling) then there is a high likelihood that this percentage of loss in VO2 max (due to stoppage of running) can be significantly reduced or who knows if a week's rest from running with only intense cycling could recharge your battered legs when you resume running!

Just remember a few things:

• Every km of running is equal to approximately 4kms of cycling. So the rough conversion ratio is approximately 1:4. Cycle 16 kms to get a training session equal to 4kms of running. If you push the effort on the cycle then you can manage a 1:3 conversion ratio.

• Don't go for a leisurely ride. Please don't ride to Khan Market and have tea and bread pakoras. This is your guilt trip. You trained badly and made scrambled legs instead of nice and firm chicken drumsticks. This is the time for remorse. Be remorseful. You will have to tax your body and feel the effort similar to your running effort. This will be achievable by cycling on inclines or by doing intervals on the cycle.

• If you use a heart rate monitor, then do not try to reach the same heart rate as running. Cycling is not a full body exercise and therefore your heart rate will be about 15 bpm lower than running but you will still be putting in the effort. So, if you try to equalise running and cycling heart rate then you will be surprised at how difficult and painful cycling will become since it requires so much more effort to produce the same heart rate as running.

• Think of cycling as a leg press exercise (the machine in the gym on which you lay on your back and press the weight upwards). In the case of cycling the leg press is set for endurance rather than short and heavy repetitions and you are pushing the weight downwards. Even if you don't get injured, you'll still get a good workout and cross training if you cycle.

If you are prone to injuries like me or if you are suddenly upping the ante in training (without following the gradual mileage and intensity progression rules) and you feel that an injury is probable, then start incorporating cycling sessions of 10kms twice or thrice a week right away into your regular running routine. This will keep you primed and ready when the injury occurs since you will have some basic cycling stamina at that point of time. This basic stamina will allow you to directly enter hard training on the cycle instead of wasting days in building a cycling base and then bouncing back in time for ADHM with minimal fitness losses.

Now, there is no need to go and buy an expensive cycle (buy you can if you want to). A simple Btwin (Decathon) MyBike can sort you out for approximately Rs. 5,000/-.