Benefits of cycling?

[Guick Dotto]

I bet people who have a go at him do

[CL]

I bet people who have a go at him do

I think I'd get out of his way too

[TimW]

Your right Tim, provided the effort is the same.If a runner with an oxygen uptake of 4 litres a minute, converts to cycling, his oxygen uptake on the bike wouldn't be quite as high. This is because his quadriceps muscles wouldn't be as developed.

After time though his Quadriceps muscles will "catch up" with the other muscles, enabling the athlete to make use of the full 4 litres of oxygen.

Remember in the transition from running to cycling, the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood is unchanged. What is different though is the usage of this oxygen in the muscles(Quadriceps).

There is a way of working out calorie consumption, during endurance exercise.I'm going to include it, in the book I'm writing.


Regards

Good luck with the book Chris. I would love to write a book about running one day, as writing is my other hobby. In my case I think the problem would be a case of who would buy it? (without me being a famous athlete).

So I figure if ever I win the British or English title then I'd be 'good enough' to write a biography but I doubt that'll ever happen! I guess your book will be more scientifically based?

[TimW]

14 stones, that's amazing. Magnus Backstedt weighs in at 90kg which is just over 14 stone. OK he's not a top climber but still a top cyclist in anyone's book

I don't think there's any such thing as an 'ideal build' for running (within reason that is, I'm not saying a 30 stone bloke could make a top runner!)

For example if someone is good in the mud in XC races. If he weighs 8 stone people will say "oh, well he's so light, he just glides over it. Us bigger heavier runners just sink into it, so being lighter is bound to be an advantage". Then you get the 14 stone guy overtaking people in the mud and people will say "it's because he's so strong, he just powers through it!". Two contadictory statements.

Both these hypothetical runners simply have the physiology, technique, or mental attitude to be good at that one thing. Their weight isn't really a factor.

[TimW]

Sorry for giving a running example on the cycling thread but I guess the same principle applies.

[CL]

I don't think there's any such thing as an 'ideal build' for running (within reason that is, I'm not saying a 30 stone bloke could make a top runner!)

For example if someone is good in the mud in XC races. If he weighs 8 stone people will say "oh, well he's so light, he just glides over it. Us bigger heavier runners just sink into it, so being lighter is bound to be an advantage". Then you get the 14 stone guy overtaking people in the mud and people will say "it's because he's so strong, he just powers through it!". Two contadictory statements.

Both these hypothetical runners simply have the physiology, technique, or mental attitude to be good at that one thing. Their weight isn't really a factor.

Tim W you wouldn't expect an 8 stone Man to be good at the Worlds strongest Man competition would you?

For the same reason you couldn't expect a talented 14 stone runner to beat a talented 8 stone runner, provided both were on form.

Lightweights are definitely favoured in distance running.

[CL]

Good luck with the book Chris. I would love to write a book about running one day, as writing is my other hobby. In my case I think the problem would be a case of who would buy it? (without me being a famous athlete).

So I figure if ever I win the British or English title then I'd be 'good enough' to write a biography but I doubt that'll ever happen! I guess your book will be more scientifically based?

Tim W you don't have to be a world class runner or champion to write good articles.My favourite training book is written by a non-athlete!

People are mostly interested in ideas. If you've got something important to say, someone somewhere wants to hear.

[Big Bad Baz]

Baz just getting round some of the fell courses with that sort of weight is an achievment in its self.Do you get injured a lot?

ris

Honestly-i never get injured chris.But then i only run 30-40 miles per week and do 90% of my running off road-love it!!

[TimW]

you couldn't expect a talented 14 stone runner to beat a talented 8 stone runner, provided both were on form.

Why not? If the 14 stone runner had an oxygen uptake twice that of the 8 stone guy (litres per minunte, not litres per minute per Kg body weight) then his VO2 max would be better because 14 is not quite double 8. Not that VO2 max is the best performance indicator, I'm just giving a mathematical example.

It's just that big, powerfully built people don't NORMALLY have correspondingly big and powerful cardiovascular systems. But we've highlighted some exceptions to that rule, like Mr Schofield...

[CL]

Why not? If the 14 stone runner had an oxygen uptake twice that of the 8 stone guy (litres per minunte, not litres per minute per Kg body weight) then his VO2 max would be better because 14 is not quite double 8. Not that VO2 max is the best performance indicator, I'm just giving a mathematical example.

It's just that big, powerfully built people don't NORMALLY have correspondingly big and powerful cardiovascular systems. But we've highlighted some exceptions to that rule, like Mr Schofield...

Tim if the 14 stone Man had twice the oxygen uptake(litres per minute)he'd have to have 10litres of blood in his body!Not likely.

Sure the heavier Man has more blood(1-2 litres approx), his heart will be bigger, but his energy will be used much faster.Quantities of glycogen are slightly higher in the heavier Man, but because this is used much quicker, his pace must slow earlier than the flyweight.

Heavyweights are a rarity in fell running, in part for this reason.