Capitalist Running Dog

I've always sort of meant to run a marathon, so when Salomon offered me a free spot at Kielder, I said, yeah, why not. Which means I'm trying to reach my legs to run again instead of going round and round in circles.

The theory is that I have some semblance of cardio vascular fitness from riding bikes a lot so all I have to do is teach my legs to run again. In theory. But of course, you use different muscles for running. Which always makes me laugh. Are there people out there with two sets of leg muscles that I don't have?

It's always seemed to me that you actually use the same muscles, but differently. In particular, running downhill uses the quads eccentrically, or something like that, anyway, they have to do that braking, cushioning thing, which doesn't happen on bikes. And then, of course, there's the impact. On every stride.

All of which seems to mean that running uphill is fine and actually quite comfortable, a bit like climbing out of the saddle. And running on the flat isn't too bad. But steep downhills are horrid.

I'm not sure what to do about that except run and run a bit more and trust my legs to deal with it in time, like that have in the past. And ultimately, I just want to get round. I don't care about running a good time, just finishing in one piece.

Oh well. It could be worse. I could be doing it in those stoopid barefoot shoes...