Mileage. The one thing you cannot cheat, or escape, or really circumnavigate for that matter. At some point, in order to run well over long periods of time, you will need to up your mileage. This is where I struggle. I really struggle. Not for a lack of want. I know my mind wants it, but my body…my body has some other ideas.

There are two issues with Arthritis that I have noticed over the years that affect my running. The first is the obvious joint damage that arthritis causes and its impact on my running (particularly in the early mornings when everything hurts). The second is my inflammatory response, and where I seem to get flares (which is my S.I Joints). Hardly ideal for ramping mileage up. There is only so much I can do to negate these; warm up properly, stretch, baths, ice packs, take my medication, but at some point I got fed up with trying to navigate this minefield of issues. So, this is where the bike comes in.

I have my road bike set up on a turbo in the “pain cave” (read: Shed). It allows me to get 1-1.5 hours of constant leg spinning, and aerobic cardio, 3 times a week WITHOUT the load on my joints. No, it is not running. Yes, it can help. How much? We will have to see. I have built myself up to 5 runs a week and for now this is all I feel comfortable doing. Any more and my body does not get the time it needs to rest between runs and the likeliness of flares seems to rise, any less and I won’t get the necessary mileage needed to make this 50 miler as pain free as possible.

This is why the bike has become the AS runners best friend. An extra 3.5 hours of cardio a week with no impact loading of my joints is a god send. Also, strong legs never hurt anyone, right?