2009: Year of the bike

[OakLeaf]

From the London Independent.

[Biciclista]

thanks, good article!

[malkin]

Interesting article.

I hope it is not really implying that we are no longer "regarded as bold beyond the bounds of propriety."

[OakLeaf]

I was annoyed by her glib (and false) assertion that running is bad for your joints. That made me question some of the other "facts" she cites. Interesting nevertheless, though.

[malkin]

For whatever it's worth, about 15 years ago my feet and knees made a strong and convincing case against running. I'm always surprised by people who can make universal statements about stuff that seems (to me) clearly individual and personal.

[ilima]

For whatever it's worth, about 15 years ago my feet and knees made a strong and convincing case against running. I'm always surprised by people who can make universal statements about stuff that seems (to me) clearly individual and personal.

I have a friend that screwed up her IT band cycling. She's switched pedals and has it under control now, but pedaling definitely has its own set of repetitive stress issues.

[fartblossom66]

My DH and I have decided to get married. We're wanting to go camping and mountain biking at Cave Run Lake and would like to get married on the beach (if possible) on Cave Run Lake at Twin Knobs in June of this year.We're looking for a minister/pastor/preacher in the area who could do this for us - a cycling minister would be better yet! Does anyone know of a minister in the area who would do this? We live in Berea and would hate to ask anyone from here to travel that far for us.

PS It will be VERY informal. Thanks for any ideas/input.

[RoadRaven]

I was annoyed by her glib (and false) assertion that running is bad for your joints. That made me question some of the other "facts" she cites. Interesting nevertheless, though.

But Oak... running... lots of it... is not good for your joints. In the west we tend to run on concrete and ashphalt alot of the time and that is unforgiving... even with the technology running shoes can now provide.

If you checked out/interviewed the masters men in our local club, you would find a significant number have been runners - particularly endurance/marathon length distances. Their knees have packed up.

My partner (as a specific example) used to run marathon distances most days of the week just because he loved to run. He would do a full days work and then go out, often by torch light (head lamp and a rechargable hand held), and run for several hours.
By his mid-30s, his knees were so painful he sometimes had to walk with the assistance of a walking stick.
Imagine his delight when he discovered cycling - no pain despite riding 3-6 hours a day most days of the week...

[OakLeaf]

Statistically though, runners have less arthritis in the lower extremities and spine than non-runners.

I don't doubt there are individuals for whom running aggravates certain conditions. But if someone said "cycling hurts my neck" or "cycling hurts my knees" we'd look to their body mechanics first - fit and form - not automatically assume it's something intrinsic to the sport that's to blame. It's the same for running.

[malkin]

fartblossom (LOL at that!)

You might have better luck starting a new thread for your question!
The first time I got married I saw an ad in the phonebook that read "Romantic Weddings. Any time, Any place."

[RoadRaven]

Statistically though, runners have less arthritis in the lower extremities and spine than non-runners.

I do agree with this Oak, however I would be interested to see stats of impact injuries/stress injuries between cyclists and runners... do you know where those stats/ that type of research might be found?

I was telling my partner about my post and he reminded me that his training buddy had to give up running because of hip stress and cycling gives him his athletic freedom again...

[ms pepperpot]

The Guardian newspaper also had articles about cylcling today - more sport and training focused, including by Nicole Cooke and Victoria Pendleton. It's part of a general series they've been doing on getting fit and taking part in sports.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...es/getting-fit

[OakLeaf]

I just ran across another mention of the most recent arthritis study, so I'm posting a link here. The abstract is public, the full text is subscription only and I don't have library access to Am. J. Preventive Med. If anyone else does, I'd be interested to see - from the abstract, it appears that the one thing they didn't control for is total cardio.

It's interesting that there was actually considerably less arthritis among the "long distance runners" than among the control group (the abstract doesn't define long distance, either), but the numbers were not statistically significant.

Again, I don't doubt that there are individuals whose joint condition prevents them from running, even with the best body mechanics. But whether running caused that is a whole 'nother question; and even if it had, it begs the question of what their body mechanics were like when they did run. If someone had, say, worked in the basket factory all their life and had five or six carpal tunnel surgeries, they probably wouldn't be able to bicycle, either.