simple question.

[KSH]

Thorn, I'm curious about this, because I've started to have problems with one of my achilles tendons. I thought it was brought on by running, since it only started to hurt about a week after I started running intervals again; however, reading your post makes me wonder if it could have been brought on by the bike as well. I've been using the big ring more on the bike in the past 3-4 months...I still wouldn't call myself a masher, but I've been going for 70-80 rpm in the big ring lately v. 80-90 in the middle. I generally drop to the middle ring on any kind of incline. Since I started running around the same time I started using the big ring (and maybe too high of a gear, in retrospect), now I'm wondering if that was just too much stress all at once. Especially since running has never aggravated my achilles before (though I was 20 lbs lighter the last time I tried running )

Anyway, what aspects of form do you pay attention to, to keep stress off your achilles?

Running too low of a cadence can cause pain in your knees... etc. 70-80 is low cadence in my book.

I had some horrible accute knee pain from riding my bike, until I got my cadence up to 90-100.

Even running didn't hurt my knees like cycling did. I was honestly shocked that something so low impact could cause me such horrible knee pain.

Spinning 90-100 cadence fixed the pain.

[amelia05]

thanks, ladies!

On cadence, the reason I'm at 70-80/80-90 is because that's where my body seems to settle naturally. I've tried pedaling 90-100, but it just doesn't feel right for me. Maybe I just need more practice, or increased conditioning...? Anyway, it sounds like it would probably be better for my knees/ankle to stay with my fastest cadence all the time, though, rather than aiming for different ranges in different situations.