Jmartin2557 wrote:
Hello Everyone,
Iām a 45 y/o Cat 2 roadie who recently caught the running bug. Iāve been racing for many years now cat 1/2/ masters and occasional TTās. Iāve only done one sprint triathlon in my life. I would like to know if being a cyclist will help with the transition to running ? My goal is the Philadelphia Marathon in November if doesnāt get cancelled. I would greatly appreciate any advice from you guys/gals.
Thanks,
Jim
for how long have you ran?
If you just started running recently, one year may or may not be enough for a transition.
it took a friend of mine 1.5-two years to get to the stage to be able to absorb the pounding from fifty+ miles of running per week, and he had "priors" as a very good XC runner in high school. He did just ran a blazing time (right before everything shut down), but it took some long time commitment to running only to do this. Would you be okay with dropping most of cycling in order to accomplish this?
There's also the fact that you might not be bio-mechanically efficient, which means your superior aerobic capabilities will not fully translate
But by the virtue of your aerobic capabilities, you have a much better chance than most to do well in a marathon, but it's no guarantee that things will fully translate
eta: I contemplated this (started as a runner, became a road racer) a few years ago, when I was no longer interested in mass start racing. I got IT-band flare ups all the damn time (even when running slow) and I just pulled the plug. There's also the fact that I needed to make significant changes to my diet, as there's no way I could burn as many calories while doing 10-min miles for 2-3 miles. It got demoralizing, and I just went back to cycling. The diet thing is definitely something to watch out for, as you are coming from a place where burning 1000 kCal/day is nothing, whereas you'd be lucky to burn a third of that per day when you begin running