Love running. Takes a few goes but once you’re into it you’re hooked. I’m running the Great Ocean Road half mara in a month or so, and aiming for the Melbourne Marathon in November. Would echo P!N’s recommendation of Active Feet. I went there a few years ago because I kept getting sore feet and lower legs from running, have since been repeatedly buying the shoe they recommended me and never had the pain again.
This is a pretty good question. I ran in melbourne because the traffic was so bad on my commute and the commute was too short as a ride. When i go for a ride after a few days of running sometimes i crack the shits at ALL the gear that i need for riding (helmet, shoes, pump, spares… Which is close to nothing). I very often see trails that i shouldnt ride but should definitely run. I absolutely love running in the rain, riding in the rain is fun once a month for me, max. I dont feel bad going off track to run, but feel bad rolling through bushland. Running hard makes riding hard feel quite managable. I can be fucking extravagant with my running purchases and still spend more on chain lube in a given year.
Dayne, i reckon your friend is about right with the cycling performance drop off, but i think only at a high level. A c grade racer would almost certainly improve with a bit of running, i think. But someone racing open would feel a decline for sure.
Jase, i am in a simlar boat, though with only one little tacker, which is probably not similar at all, but i do find that i run in the dark a lot to be on deck for as many waking hours as possible.
In terms of gear, i am really loving new balance eveything at the mo. where are your fave runs in melb, for those down there?
I used to love running. It was just so easy, put on shoes, shorts and run. But then I broke my feet. Stress fractures of the sesamoid that has never really healed. I had a scan, saw a sports doc, but there is no cure, it either mends or it doesn’t and mine didn’t. That was 15 years ago. I try again every few years, if I can find a nice soft grassed oval or a long beach then I’m OK, I don’t feel the pain so much, but I cannot run on concrete, bitumen or even hard packed gravel paths.
So be very careful if you get sharp pains under the ball of your foot, learn to differentiate between stress fracture type pain and muscular pain. I really miss running.
Running is what I do when I’m heading to my car and it’s raining and my hair’s looking damn fine or I’m weaing suede. And like, I don’t want to get wet.
I have a pair of running shoes, I don’t run anywhere in them. I ran away from a fight once too, but I was wearing docs, and I only ran around the corner.
Oh actually I ran after my RC car last Sunday night when my remote turned off so the car just took off in a straight line with no body shell on there and the LiPo hanging out, dragging along the groud.
I blame my lack of running on a 30g pouch of golden Virginia a week. That and I don’t like being sweaty unless there’s something/someone between my legs.
I only run on treadmills when I’m away on work trips, or in the dark when nobody can see me. Like Jonno, I am pretty fast over short distances, and is why I used to be right wing when I played rugby at school.
velobeats is pretty good to listen to when you’re running. I just put it on and start jogging, I think about heaps of shit, and before I know it 30 minutes has passed.
Oh yeh, another reason I hate running: I was born with an extra bone in each of my feet, right where the arch would be if I didn’t have the flattest feet in christendom. Had them removed in grade 11, but running further than the aforementioned 30 metres is pretty much the most uncomfortable thing going. I can walk all day though.
I run a bit - usually 10-14km per run.
Got a 10km fun run coming up in a few weeks that I did last year in 40:55, so hoping to crack the 40min mark this year.
Up until about a month back I’d been running in Brooks but have changed to Asics.
I don’t wear tight gear - I run in boardies and a wife-beater.
I have a love-hate relationship with it - I do like it, as a way of mixing up my riding.
Learning to stretch after a run was the best thing I’ve ever done - I used to wonder why it hurt to walk the next day when I’d stretched prior to running… Now I don’t stretch at all before - only after.
One of my good friends had this happen. She was a high-level runner and it pretty much ruined her. Tried everything to get it to heal, including some crazy approaches. She still spends a lot of time in a space boot a year or so later. The good side has been that she is riding a lot more, but she still misses running a lot.
she has been doing a bit of trail running which she finds she can deal with a lot more. plus it means her husband will come out with her as it helps him train for cx 
This. While I do like a bit of a stretch prior, the stretch after makes all the difference. I have also found a sedate bike ride does wonders after a long run.
I used to play soccer with a martial arts guru - he was really anti ‘static stretches’ (stretch and hold) and all into ‘dynamic stretches’ i.e real casual jog but stretch at the same time… or just moving thru the stretch - no hold.
Nuts. There goes my high jump and sprinting career…
i can now blame my coaches in high school for not reaching the pros.
No joke, one of my high school ball ‘coaches’ was a bit of a fitness freak, we would spend the first 30-40 mins just stretching. i guess that was high school though, you won games on talent, not actual coaching
Yeah woody Put it best in zombie land, " do you see a lion limber up before a hunt"
I stretch after a run and ride but never before unless I’m in major pain, I just ease it out for the first 20min.
Last year I ran for about 3k’s once (with the little fella in the miss’s flash jogging pram) and couldn’t walk properly for 2 days! Fucked shin’s and knees. NEVER AGAIN!
I only run from the cops
So your getting good at running then Doug. haha
I miss running!
Enjoyed running as a kid doing a few fun runs and doing okay in school cross country races till persistent shin splints curtailed running in my late teens. Took up running again early 20’s to manage weight when I was a professional rock climber…
When I retired from climbing due to chronic elbow injuries I was surfing and skating alot. During rehab at the Ringwood pool for a bad ankle tear from a fall at the Fitzroy Bowl I bumped into a friend who I used to climb with who was now into triathlons.
So got into that for quite a few years including two Ironman triathlons - but even then I had to manage mileage carefully and so weeks were no more that 70km (plus 400km riding and ~15km swimming). Ended running one standalone Marathon (Sri Chinmoy in Williamstown) which was a slow year as I ended winning with a 2:55:32! Did also manage one Ultramarathon which I also finished first (Fatass 68km Bellarine rail trail) with a time of 5:56.
More injuries meant an end to running again and tris so immediately bought a track bike as Summers were now freed up! Have tried recently to run again, but only running infrequently means a nasty case of DOMs each time which was taking the edge off my sprint on the track!
Does not compute
HO, Boom Tish. And for the record the cops are None for Three!
Wow, dalai! some nice running there. bummer that it turned out that way. I had two years where i couldnt run more than 15mins without pain, but am now more consistent than ever and running longer distance than ever. Any overuse injury can be overcome, i reckon. I hope you can get through whatever it is that has stopped you 
Stretching, I dunno, whatever works for you. Some of the best riders I have known used to stretch a lot before getting on their bikes, some did nothing. Same with running. The thing about running is that it really teaches you to be humble. Anyone can get on a bike an flog themselves from day one and stay relatively intact. As noted many times above, most people fall in a heap and throw running in the ‘too hard’ basket when they try that approach. When coming back from the 2 year injury I got used to being dropped by people that looked like they were on their first ever run and sort of ended up enjoying it. I still get overtaken by people who look like that these days, too.
I wore some new balance MT1010 today, first decent run in them. Theyre nice n cushy, relatively stable after i chopped the blobby side bits off, very light, and the uppers are still intact. the MT110 is still the undisputed king for me,though. I recommend giving them a try if you run offroad!