Why Cycling Needs To Become The New Cross Country

By Brennan Sharp '20

Let’s get some things out of the way first. No, I do not hate running outright and that is not why I am writing this article. I think everybody should consider doing numerous forms of cardiovascular fitness, and as long as you get it in and reap its numerous benefits, how you do it is totally fine. I am also assuming here that Episcopal would be able to pay for the necessary items, and that the students would not be burdened with any costs.

To start, let’s talk biomechanics. In running, when the leg makes contact with the ground, the force exerted back on the ground to take the next stride is about 2.5 times your body weight. To use an example the average 6ft teenage male weighs about 160 lbs. When this average person runs, that’s 400 lbs of force over and over again. This amount of stress on a teenager who is still developing can be dangerous, especially for the knees and shins which are both commonly injured in running. The amount of stress that a cyclist experiences is almost nothing compared to a runner due to the smooth transition of the different phases between pushing down on the pedal and coming back up again. Cycling power output is measured in watts. You and I can put down 1000 watts in a sprint on a bicycle, and on a good day, professional cyclists can put down 2200 Watts during a sprint and feel a force that is still nowhere near the stress of running. This all has to do with the impact of running.

Regarding injuries, some studies say that per 1000 hours of running 11 injuries are believed to occur while in cycling there are 6 injuries per 1000 hours. The cycling injury figure also includes crashes so once again bodily stress injuries become less abundant. Now, these measurements do not apply without variation to different people, but the general idea reflects well among the human population. Also, it makes sense that in today’s world that humans don’t have the same ability to run that they did 500,000 years ago because we don’t need to run away from the apex predators that we shared the land with. You have an even lessened ability to run if you have some dispositions like being overweight or weaker joints in your legs. Cycling was able to solve this problem because we are still able to maintain our still very impressive cardiovascular system without destroying our bodies every time we go out to do it.

Like many other things, we change as time goes on and our needs change. For the teenager who is interested in high school sports, running can be a good way to participate, but it can very quickly become rough when injuries occur, which today is all too common for teenage kids. I would encourage you to give cycling a try and see if you enjoy it, you will certainly go faster and further than you have ever gone before!

“Cycling Biomechanics.” Physiopedia, www.physio-pedia.com/Cycling_Biomechanics.

“Running Biomechanics.” Physiopedia, www.physio-pedia.com/Running_Biomechanics.

“What Are the Benefits of Cycling vs. Running?” Healthline, What Are the Benefits of Cycling vs. Running?