GOAT12 wrote:
I have got a question. I don't know where to ask? I think Triathlets may give me an answer. The question is, can my endurance on bike benefit from running? My main goal is to be able ride long weekend trips, both on road and mtb with decent speed. And sometimes I don't have a lot of time for training during week. Right now during winter, isn't better to do some intervals on the turbo and then finished it with a run. I do enjoy cycling the most, but I rather go for a run, than do long boring endurance intervals on the turbo, or I rather run than trying cycling during bad weather, like snow covered roads, or heavy raining.
Or for example if I have planed long stedy base ride, but turn out that I don't have enough time, isn't better for example, instead of 2h riding , run 1h with easy pace and then 1h base on bike.
I'm currios on your opinion about that. Because running is way more exhausting than cycling, but does it translate into endurance on the bike?
Did you noticed some benneits on your cycling from running, or rather some negatives?
Lightheir's comments are pretty similar to my experience here. I'm mostly a runner but in the past few years have gotten more into cycling and multisport racing. Training time has averaged:
2018: ~6.5 hours/week running, 0.5 hours/week cycling
2019: ~5.75 hours/week running, 2.5 hours/week cycling
2020: ~6 hours/week running, 3 hours/week cycling
Getting into cycling more heavily in 2019 I was immediately pretty decent, and strong at climbing. Just got a powermeter recently and tested my FTP at just about spot-on 4 W/kg. I don't think I'd be anywhere near that on 3 hours/week of cycling with no running! I think running hills, and doing long runs on hilly terrain, are especially likely to transfer well to cycling endurance since the muscle firing patterns when running uphill are quite close to those when cycling. I typically run a lot of rolling and hilly terrain.
The only place where I disagree with Lightheir is that I think cycling actually transfers pretty strongly back to my running. When I up my bike mileage or time, even if I decrease running mileage some to compensate, my running seems to stay just as strong or even get faster in some cases. I haven't had enough controlled experience doing this to understand why, it seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom about training specificity, and maybe it's some sort of peculiar result of my biomechanics or a result of unloading run-specific fatigue. But I suspect it might be a real effect that relates to the quantity of high-end aerobic work being larger when I'm biking more than running more. You can simply do more high-end aerobic work without high risk of injury on the bike than you can while running -- you'd almost never do a 2x20' tempo run, but 2x20' is the norm for threshold work on the bike. I also notice that when I do fast running off cycling-heavy blocks, I run well but my calves are the weak point, and not as acclimated to the eccentric stress as when I'm running a lot.