CanadianBiker32

For all the Tri people out there. or anyone who runs as well. Do you think running a bit a few times a week. Would make you a faster cyclist?

Benefits? problems?

What are your thoughts on this?

FXjohn

I'm not a tri person but I run 4 miles at lunch a few days per weak. it makes your legs stronger and certainly helps your cardio

Tony P.

As with many things, I'd say it depends. Variety in workouts can be beneficial for both strength and stamina. I have three issues, though, with saying that running helps. First, I don't feel running provides the change in a workout (from cycling) you can get from other activities such as rowing, swimming, or racquetball. Second, if you're talking about adding an activity, running can have detrimental effects on appetite and create an overuse impact on muscles. Third, if you're suggesting replacing some cycling time with running, the potential is obvious. My preference is rowing to supplement my riding because I can get a good cardio and overall workout without stressing my biking muscles and joints.

OldTryGuy

Any additional form of exercise IS BENEFICIAL providing there is no injury. PURE AND SIMPLE!!!!

Will it make you climb better, sprint faster, give you more endurace********** If the alternative to doing the OTHER exercise was to do nothing, the answer is YES.

Seattle Forrest

If it takes time away from your cycling, it will probably do more harm than good. It'll give you a bigger match book though. Being a cyclist makes it easier to pick running up (still, start slowly, add distance a little at a time) but running doesn't help with cycling as much. The impact is good for your bones though.

gregf83 

Running pros:
- Positive effect on bones
- Inexpensive
- Less affected by weather

Running cons:
- Risk of injury, particularly as you age and don't do it regularly

If you want to improve cycling performance you're far better off cycling. Running is good for overall fitness but it will hurt your cycling performance.

FXjohn

THAT'S COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WRONG. Running will help with your cycling, cardiowise, but cycling does nothing for your running.

gregf83 

Running doesn't need a strong cardio? Or cycling doesn't help cardio? Don't follow your logic.

sprince

Maybe that running requires more than cardio.

hubcyclist

I dunno about that. I recently ran two 5k legs of a duathlon (my wife did the cycling) and completed each leg in about 22ish mins, all without any run training and I frankly hadn't run a 5k since 2009 (and my time then was 35:10) and was fat and out of shape until I started cycling in late 2013. Yes, I was sore for a few days from using muscles I don't cycling, but my performance is solely attributed to cycling fitness. However, I will grant that I probably won't be able to improve my time without some run specific training (which I am unwilling to do lol)

xeon

I'm a triathlete and to be good at each of the individual sports is to train at each one. There is some spill over with general fitness but they're three individual sports. Being able to run a 15:00 5K isn't going to win a TT and a 50:00 TT 40K isn't going to get you a 15:00 5K.

That said I do triathlon for the multi sport aspect of it although I LOVE riding my bike! Cross training keeps things interesting and using various muscles for a good overall physique.

If you do run and enjoy it, build slowly and get some real running shoes. It is a high impact exercise.

texaspandj

Running will not make you a faster cyclist, cycling will.
Some benefits to running include, most return on fitness in a short amount of time, little equipment needed, you can run anywhere at any time, and the the impact of running help build bone density.
Some problems with running include, higher risk of injury due to impact exercise, due to the ease of running a higher probability of over training, and it can be addictive.
In my experience the only form of exercise that can possibly make you a faster cyclist is swimming. The hypoxic nature of swimming can be beneficial to time trials. However you can achieve the same result through fast intervals on the bike. Ymmv.

inspclouseau

I travel a lot for work, which keeps me off the bike at times. Because of this I try to run 2 days a week, ride 4. On my travel weeks, my riding is cut down to 2 days but I can still get in a couple of days of running.

Being able to run in my particular case helps my bike performance through fitness maintenance and keeping the weight down.

Also, I believe the combo of running and interval training really help shed weight - which equated to better fitness on the bike.

Lastly, running seems to help work out kinks in my core that are otherwise stiff from riding.

Oh one last thing, really not a fan of running at all. :-(

Carbonfiberboy 

I'm in the camp that running hurts cycling because it takes energy away from cycling. OTOH, I find that hiking in the mountains greatly helps my cycling because it's all zone 1, so it's recovery time, plus it helps with leg and core strength and flexibility. I hike with poles, so it's good for my upper body, too. But I wouldn't trail run if I were trying to get better at cycling.

OTOH if I didn't have time to bike, I'd certainly run as an alternative, preferably trail run because I absolutely love it.

berner

Many world class athletes cross train these days for a number of reasons. Their reasons need not necessarily apply to amateur athletes but among those reasons are maintaining fresh workouts, better recovery in the event of injury. It is harder to prove but I'm of the opinion that all parts of the body should be trained to nearly the same level. An imbalance where one part of the body is very much stronger and fitter than another likely not productive long term.

sprince

Except the taking energy away from cycling argument only applies to those elite athletes who already train on the bike 6 hours a day, where 6.1 would be too much. OTOH if you only have 6 hours per week you might have a point, with the caveat that doing nothing but cycling may help your on bike performance now, but will surely cause you problems down the road.

NYMXer

We have a few runners in our cycling club and they are not strong or fast on the bike because they spend too much time running. A tri-athlete must do all three to get strong at the three events, but if you just cycle, I would jog for a change of pace rather than for training.

Any endurance workout will be beneficial in overall health but may not help your cycling times.

Carbonfiberboy 

If like me, one has the time and recovery to train on the bike an average of ~10 hours/week then it's still the same problem: you'd be substituting training to run for training to cycle. And they are not the same thing. If they were, tri would be no thing.

I used to run many years ago when I didn't cycle. But more years ago than that, when I cycled a lot, I didn't run. Both running and cycling helped my skiing, but not running for 50 years certainly hasn't hurt my cycling. The group I ride with picks up newbies all the time: broken runners who now only cycle. I don't hear of running groups picking up broken cyclists. Certainly the broken runners are in better aerobic condition that if they hadn't been running but it does take them a while to come into cycling form, no matter how many marathons they've run.

Back in the day when I raced Nordic, there was a talented XC runner who was so frustrated with me because he knew he'd whup my butt on foot, but couldn't stay with me on skis. It takes time to turn talent and conditioning into ability in another sport. And once you've done that, you'll be worse in your original sport.

So yeah, if you want to really ride, then ride. If you're not that taken with riding, then also do any other athletics you feel like doing.

I have a license to fly, but payment is on the installment plan, the payments are steep, and only one currency seems to be acceptable.

sprince

But you have already said that you do other stuff. It's not so much about the running specifically, substitute any other exercise, like hiking. Cycling is particularly constrained and repetitive as sports movements go.

Carbonfiberboy 

Thanks for helping me to organize my thoughts. Yes, I do exercise other than cycling and recommend such.

It's all about recovery. If one wants to improve cycling performance as much as possible, then the principle of specificity applies. Anything that requires recovery should be cycling specific. The wall that one runs into is hormonal depletion. If one's glands get tired, one can't go hard anymore. Heart rate doesn't come up, power during hard efforts falls off. One grabs a lower cog on familiar hills. One is overtrained or at least overreached. So that's the limit and the knife edge one walks if one is trying to improve as much as possible in any aerobic sport. We train as hard as possible without going over that edge.

For instance I've used a training program which recommends cross training early in the base period. Perhaps that's in there to increase saddle time more slowly than aerobic base work, or perhaps it's there to help strengthen connective tissue early on, in either case to reduce the risk of injury. For a few years I rode the Stepmill at our gym when the program called for cross training. However it didn't help my cycling at all and I finally quit doing that. It increased my aerobic training load was all.

I have found that some forms of cross training are helpful:
Cycling-specific weight work in the gym definitely helps. Even though it adds training load from which I have to recover, it's worth it. However I do longer workouts in winter as part of base training and then greatly shorten them in duration and frequency when I start doing hard rides and intervals in the spring.

Walking/hiking in zone 1 or below as a recovery tactic definitely works. I can substitute hiking for a day off in any training plan with no penalty. I can go hiking in the mountains the day after doing an extreme ride in the mountains with no problem and the day after hiking I can do form work on the bike, which I would do anyway, no problem.

Walking could be substituted for hiking on a day off just fine, just not aerobic walking. Zone 1 or below.

However when folks talk about running, they're running for aerobic fitness and that creates a glandular training load from which one must recover, while not adding cycling specific fitness.

A couple further examples:
this time of year I'm done with my hard rides and looking forward to our annual 10-day backpack in the Cascades or Sierra. So now I'll switch gears and start training for that. I've almost stopped cycling. I'm increasing my gym time and hitting the muscles and ranges of motion that I see hiking and don't see so much on the bike. I'm starting to run a little, but carefully so as not to get injured. Running is hiking specific training.

I have a riding buddy, much stronger and younger than I, who decided to run his first marathon with his son this summer. He disappeared from our riding group. I haven't seen him in months. I haven't even seen him since his marathon as he's presumably recovering and trying to get back into good enough cycling shape to keep up with the group again. Specific training works.

prj71

Running is the worse thing you can do. It's a high impact activity. You're knee and other joints will haunt you into your older age if you become an avid runner.

Seattle Forrest

Generally those are the guys with the weakest bike handling skills, who slow down massively for corners, etc.

OBoile

My parents are 67 and 64, both have been runners since their 20s. Both have no issues with their knees or any other joint. Running does have a higher risk of injury than cycling, but it isn't correct to say it WILL wreck your joints. Furthermore, to a certain extent, the fact that running is high impact is a good thing. It helps with bone density.

NYMXer

I tend to agree with that thought because there is a physical ability to riding a bike and then there is a eye/hand coordination type skills that I don't think you can learn. You are either born with it or not and while these fellow members are certainly more fit and trim than I am and would flat out smoke me in a foot race, they are not so skilled on the bike. They aren't bad bike riders by no means, but lack those finesse skills that help me make up time lost on the areas where I might be needing improvement myself.

sprince

Yeah, running clearly ruined this guy's bike skills, see him slow massively on corners, he can hardly keep his wheels on the ground...