Yesterday I attempted my first bike to run activity. I started out with a 10.5 mile bike ride (which I wasn’t too happy with in terms of performance), followed by a 5 mile run. I had about 10 minutes of rest in-between, because even though I had “planned” this, things just didn’t work out for a quick transition.

While the bike ride was a sub-par performance, and my quads were really tight, I actually completed the 5 mile run in about 42 minutes, or about 2 to 2.5 minutes off my best 5 mile time (without riding the bike). The 42 minute time made me feel pretty good, and gives me something to shoot for in terms of improvement.

I am working on resolving two issues with my legs. The first is an IT band condition around my right knee, the second is medial tibial stress problems (shins) on both legs. Surprisingly running isn’t all that bad on the shins, and is only painful during the exercises at Monkey Bar’s (I guess that is a little unfortunate). Like I said, I’m working to get these issues resolved with the goal of being able to run 15-20 miles per week pain free by the end of January.

After establishing a good base for running, I will be working to ramp up for the Madison Marathon, as well as train for running at least one Olympic Distance triathlon in 2009. Speaking of triathlon’s, I really want to trade my bike in for a Cervelo P2C ;)