Biking has become a weekly staple in my training plan. Here are three reasons why:<\/p>\n
1) Its measurable.<\/strong> When I get off the bike (currently an indoor one) I know how many miles I’ve “traveled” and what that actually means. After doing the elliptical machine I’m never really sure what I’ve done. Ok so I went for 30 minutes and only covered 2 miles?? That doesn’t make sense or mean anything to me! So for 2008 I’ve decided to focus my cross-training on the bike and swimming.<\/p>\n 2) It benefits my running.<\/strong> Any cross-training will benefit your body, but biking actually does improve your running. Biking helps improve overall leg turnover which helps you run more efficiently and increases your turnover while running. It also works different leg muscles and produces an overall stronger leg which can help improve form and prevent injury.<\/p>\n 3) It is safe and easy.<\/strong> Biking is much easier than swimming and can be done alone, in a group, at the gym, or out on the open plain. I say it is safe because it is probably as safe as running (assuming you wear appropriate safety gear). Your risk of drowning is pretty slim! It is also easy because you can relax and coast a little bit, it doesn’t require constant effort (although the more effort you put in, the better workout you’ll get). It is also a ton easier on your body. Biking doesn’t have the constant impact and jolt to your body and you don’t wear out as quickly while biking.<\/p>\n Do you bike? What are some of your reasons for biking?<\/p>\n [tags] Biking, Cross-Training, [\/tags]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Biking has become a weekly staple in my training plan. Here are three reasons why: 1) Its measurable. When I get off the bike (currently an indoor one) I know how many miles I’ve “traveled” and what that actually means. After doing the elliptical machine I’m never really sure what I’ve done. Ok so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34,4,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cross-training","category-information","category-training"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4iaAv-2V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2318,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2010\/30-day-of-biking\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":0},"title":"30 Day of Biking","author":"crossn81","date":"September 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"30 Days of Biking is an idea started here in the Twin Cities to get people out on their bikes. \u00a0September marks round 2 of this attempt. \u00a0The initial 30 Days of Biking was in April of this year and had high turnout both locally and around the world. \u00a0Part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bike"","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bike Night @ MIA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4082\/4797735899_42ca95ed1e.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2967,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2012\/march-2012\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":1},"title":"March 2012","author":"crossn81","date":"April 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"March was a super busy month. \u00a0I spent a week in Belize with a group of 8th graders and then immediately afterwards spent a week in northern Minnesota at Wolf Ridge with 7th graders. \u00a0It was a long two weeks, but a lot of fun!! This March was also the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Highlights"","block_context":{"text":"Highlights","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/highlights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2979,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2012\/april-2012\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":2},"title":"April 2012","author":"crossn81","date":"May 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I've really been struggling to get all my workouts in each week. \u00a0It seems like I can get up one morning, but then struggle the next. \u00a0The 5:15 alarm makes it tough and knowing that some days I have to be home by 6am it is easy to psyche myself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Highlights"","block_context":{"text":"Highlights","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/highlights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5410,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2014\/sign-up-for-30-days-of-biking-30daysofbiking\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":3},"title":"Sign Up for 30 Days of Biking #30daysofbiking","author":"crossn81","date":"March 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past few years I've signed up for the 30 Days of Biking Challenge. \u00a0It is a great way to kick-off spring and there have been some really cool stories through the years of people being inspired to ride and having their lives changed. \u00a0I missed the inaugural event\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "30Days"","block_context":{"text":"30Days","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/30days\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"201430daysofbikingsignup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/201430daysofbikingsignup-300x192.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7772,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2025\/day-32\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":4},"title":"Day 32","author":"crossn81","date":"February 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Starting a new month! Celebrating birthdays! Luckily the Mediterranean diet does include desserts! I got up and rode my bike on the bike trail literally right next to our friends house in Iowa. It was super windy so I rode into the wind. I was soooo slow! The ride back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bike"","block_context":{"text":"Bike","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/bike\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250201_084240876234004380899384.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250201_084240876234004380899384.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250201_084240876234004380899384.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/20250201_084240876234004380899384.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5847,"url":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/2015\/functional-training\/","url_meta":{"origin":181,"position":5},"title":"Functional Training","author":"crossn81","date":"June 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The idea of Functional Fitness has been around for awhile. \u00a0I'm not 100% sure of its origins, but it is based around the idea that going to the gym and lifting weights doesn't necessarily make you strong enough to do every day tasks. Say that you can bench press 300\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cross-Training"","block_context":{"text":"Cross-Training","link":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/category\/cross-training\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teamcrossworld.com\/running\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}