Mileage - running vs. biking

[Paul Petersen]

Hey Paul, I'll trade you 2 of my gold stars in exchange for you giving me half your running ability!

That's fine, since I can't use mine anyway.

[Katie Aldridge]

I hate to bring up Athleticore.com again, but they do have a good system for tracking all kinds of  "alternative activity" and this is the fastRUNNINGblog.  I have confidence that Sasha will figure it out.
And how come I only have one star?! Being "star" deficient is enough reason for me to climb the mileage board to try to soothe my ego.

[jtshad]

Benn, don't fret it and don't like you did anything wrong, just tracking your workouts the way the system allowed.  Anytime you create "measure" you can create controversy if you don't look at what is behind the numbers.

Jon, hey, don't you work for a living or do you just comment on the Forum? ;-)

Katie, know that you are back amongst the bloggers, I am sure you will earn more stars! 

[Michelle Lowry]

Katie-Not only one star but it also calls you a newbie!  Better start typing!

I watch the mileage board for for months I didn't realize there was a second page, so I would try hard to just keep on that first page.  Now that I know there is a second page I am not quite so frantic.  Still there's nothing like being on that first page. . .

[Scott Zincone]

The only time I make it onto page 1 of the board is Sundays.

[adam]

A lot of triathletes use .3 when converting, but I noticed a lot of them also do a lot of flat riding or stationary bike riding which is much easier than actually scaling the hills in real life. In addition, since we have wind and such to take into account I think it's pretty good to use 3 miles biked = 1 mile ran?

That was the standard I used for biking. I found that it was pretty accurate on the road but not on a stationary bike (like the electronic ones, not actual stationary cycling), where I could mess things by getting my RPM's up way high for a few seconds every minute or easing the resistance. I used to be able to "run" the equivalent of a 19:00 min 5k on those exercise bikes with much less effort than on a real run.

I figure if your going to make something equivalent to running, do it with as much of the same enviroment, same courses, same effort as a run.

[Brent Barney]

Converting cross-training miles to running miles helps me get past injury recovery.  I don't care about the mileage board, but, would like to see the converted running miles for myself in my yearly total of running miles.  I put a good effort into my cross training and take a conservative approach to conversion.   Maybe an (*) next to my name would alert mileage board watchers to ignore my stats.  "Not a real runner"       

Stay Kool, chill, B of BS Rools out

[Adam R Wende]

Not to beat a dead horse but I wanted to bring this up and try and get some closure on it.

Brent, I am not calling into question your “runnerhood” there is no doubt in my mind you are a runner.

What I am bringing to question is the point/purpose/whatever of a mileage board.
I would say most runners are competitive and we each have our own goals. For some it is qualifying for Boston, for some it is making the trials, for some it is making a living, for some it is getting a PR, for some it is losing weight, for some it is just having fun, and the list goes on…
I am one that actually does it for all the above. The competitive side of me likes to find challenges, be it beat one of my friends here on the blog at a race, get a new PR or be on the first page of the mileage board. However, if the mileage board is not defined, this takes away one of my goals. I have never been the top person on the mileage board and I am fine with that, I know my body isn’t ready for 120 mile weeks. However, during the winter months being on the first page with 70-80 week after week helped keep me going. That isn’t to say that I wouldn’t have put in the miles anyway but it was an additional goal that helped push me. I know we can’t judge ourselves against others as there is always going to be someone faster, stronger, etc. However, if that is the case do away with the mileage board altogether. The blog could grow to the size that we have 20 people capable of running 120 miles a week and I get pushed to the 3rd page even if I ramped my mileage to 100… Whatever, have at it. I hope that happens. However, I do think that on a blog called the fastRUNNINGblog there should be guidelines and alternatives to suite everyone’s needs…
All this being said I could just be being a baby and if that is the case let me know that is why we blog to hear other people’s opinions. However, a blog that has a section called “bragging” makes me think that others will concur with my opinion about keeping at least one board pure and adding alternatives for those who desire. So keeping in mind that we are also in a democracy and I was curious to see what you all feel and if there is a majority that feels one way or another. So I posted a poll in the feature wish list section (http://fastrunningblog.com/forum/index.php/topic,348.0.html)

[Craig Green]

My 2 cents:

I think the mileage board is useful for your own improvement and analysis with other runners. I don't think it's useful at all as a competition. In my mind, there are 2 scenarios where the mileage board is useful, and it serves its purpose as it is. Those 2 scenarios are:

1) I would look back over previous months at my own mileage to see how much I was doing before a good race and how much I was doing before I got injured, etc. Of course, I don't need the mileage board to do this, I just need my blog entries and personal mileage totals.

2) There are a few of you on this blog that I'm at almost the exact same level with in terms of race performances. If I notice that one of these individuals suddenly has a breakthrough race, I'm going to go to the mileage board to see what kind of mileage he/she was doing that elevated him to that next level. For example, Cody just had a great 2:43 performance at Ogden. I am now going to check out his mileage on the board and see if I can use similar numbers to boost my own performance at my next big race.

Personally, I don't enter cross-training mileage in my blog, but I would if it became a significant part of my workout. I would use the .3 conversion that Benn mentioned, because that is going to help me later on when I do analysis for sceanarios 1 and 2 above.

[Luz]

This is a runner's blog, created by a dedicated runner, used primarily to inspire running improvement.  The mileage should be strictly running.  Maybe I'm a purist, but that's my vote.

[Jon A]

Ok, I can't resist the temptation to reply, because I want to know if I have any stars, and I want to see my "newbie" status.

I think this is a running board/blog and the only #'s that should be tallied are running #'s.  I guess it would be nice to see how many miles/meters someone is putting in, in addition to the running, but the total for the RUNNING millage board should probably only include "running" miles.

Just my 2 cents. 

[Dallen]

I have to say just running.

[Benn Griffin]

Well if people are really having a problem with it I guess I can take down all my mileage, including the converted ones. All I know is that like today I did 13.7 miles of incredible hills in 57:30 and was sweating profusely. My converted .33 mi running to biking conversion only gave me 4.57 miles. Let me just say that biking is just as hard, if not harder than running, and that the 4.57 miles converted running is worth a lot more than 4.57 miles in my opinion. Idk if people are really that up in arms over it I guess I'll just blog on a triathlete site. But I don't know.. just seems really unsportsmanlike for people to say people that are injured can't blog. It's not like we asked for the injuries that set us back.

[Josse]

Benn you are not the only one who does this.  So this is not focused on you.  This whole thing has to do with the super fanatics who like to see their name up on top on the mileage board. (which I admit I like to see my name on the 1st page, but I really don't care if someone is above me with biking miles.  Because I know they are biking miles).
I think you should blog during injury, it gives you something to look forward to.  I started this blog when I was injured and going through one of the hardest times in my life.  It really helped me get through it and back to where I am now.  So keep doing what you are doing and don't feel bad about it at all.  People are people and if they want to see their name on top they can write it on a piece of paper and tape it at the top of their computer:)

[Jon Allen]

I wouldn't worry- just leave the miles as-is.  We're not trying to make anyone feel bad.