I have to say that I am amazed to see PowerCranks still around. I first came across them when Dan Marino did his last RAAM in 85. I was his trainer. I was intrigued by them so used them myself and then used one on one of the bikes I used while coaching runners. I used cycling extensively as an adjunct to traditional run training both at Granada Hills HS (Ian Alsen, only Boy to win Distance Double at Arcadia Invitational. Has stood for 20 years) and Cal State Northridge (Men's WestReg XC Champs, Women's Natl XC Champ, Men's Natl Champ 800M,88-90).
One application stood out. I had a freshman 800M runner who posted a qualifier for Nationals. 4 weeks before Nationals he had an accident while working on the school's stage. He twisted his right ankle in a major way. Had to be in a cast for 3 weeks. He didn't run a step for those three weeks. I had him riding twice a day and pool running 4 days a week. AM rides were cardio. I was primarily looking for blood flow. Afternoon rides were usually pretty intense. He was on 175's. I made sure his rpm's were always high. Rather than taking the standard approach of using HR and pace/RPM's I put emphasis on beginning each interval in big gears at 100+ rpm's for 30 secs to generate lactate then reduced load and looked for 120+ rpm's. I knew he wouldn't be able to do any speed work prior to nationals so was looking for an approach that could leverage/improve the strength he had and racing tactics that did the same. He said that he worked harder for those three weeks than any previous three weeks.
When we got to Div II Nationals we learned that there were not enough qualifiers to require heats so he only had one race to run... finals. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. As he was a freshman, had been unable to do speed work, but had great strength the only plan that made sense to me was to have him go out at 52 for 400, ask him to punch it through the turn and then hold on for dear life. I figured the others, knowing he was a Freshman would simply let him go as he would appear to be making the big Freshman mistake... going crazy at Nationals. Sounds crazy doesn't it? He went out in 50. I have to admit that for a moment I was thinking exactly what I was hoping his competitors would think... He's going to blow up like a hand grenade. His competitors were positive he was done as they were 35 meters back clumped together checking each other out. Eric punched it through the turn as ordered. By the time he got about 60 meters through the turn a few of his competitors took notice as he had continued to pull away. By the end of the turn panic was starting to set in behind him. Those that were counting on a 200 meter kick were suddenly forced into a 300 meter kick. 4 responded to screaming coaches and took after him. The last 50 meters my guy looked about 6" shorter and appeared to be carrying an invisible refrigerator on his back... but his legs kept turning over at a high rate. It was only his stride length that dropped. He won by 3 meters in a PR of 1:49:09, more than 2 seconds faster than his qualifying time and a new school record. His teammate set the school record for the 1500 in 3:41:23. He also put in about 5-7 hours a week on the bike. Both records still stand.
Sooo, while many seem to have been hammering you on qualifying times etc., the heart of the matter is that cycling, with or without a PowerCrank can definitely help runners improve. There was a UCLA study in the 80's that proved it. It makes sense to me that the PC would be better than no PC but as I only had one PC and 10 bikes on stationary turbos trainers I can't point to any specifics other than eric using my bike with the PC prior to Nationals. I think that if cycling was utilized widely by Running coaches we would be much better off as a nation.
You will probably be interested in this if you haven't already dissected it:
http://vator.tv/...hnology-in-Bicycling Best of luck to your runner. It's not about "making the team" for 99% of those that compete. It's about the journey one takes during the course of dreaming about "making the team".