See my replies to Gary in SD's thread about breaking the 26mph barrier.

My intervals are much like this: ride hard one mile, break for a mile. Then you must work on riding as fast as comfortably on your long bike ride. Try to go a bit faster than your last long ride.

With this being said: ride more.

How much time do you spend on the bike? I've heard of some triathletes that run about 5 hours a week, and bike the same amount of time and wonder why their bike split sucks. The bulk of your time in most trithlons is spent on the bike; therefore, most of your training hours should be spent on the bike as well. If you are training 15 hours/week, for example, you should probably be getting 8 hours on the bike, 3 in the pool, and 4 running (or similar). Just a thought.

I'm surprised there haven't been a million replies to this. But where to start.

Simply put, for good bike splits you must develop more power in your legs, easiest to do by sprint intervals and hills on a regular basis. Check out Joe Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible for details of periodization.

Your running will improve too.

EPO

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

See the thread on 26+mph too... ;-)

High cadence drills are pretty key here too... John Cobb sort of captured the runner's mantra of cycling when he said "learn to turn over a bigger gear at a higher RPM" (or something of the sort)

Coming from a running background your fitness is probably already excellent but you lack the muscle needed to push a bike faster. I also was a runner, started cycling in July, 2000 and am still making gains constantly in strength. The big thing I lack on the bike has been top end ogre force relative to TT ability, but that might just be my own slowtwitch physiology and high VO2... although training no doubt has an effect.

During next off-season you may want to add weights - leg press, squats, etc. in order to gain some muscle that you can then use to apply in cycling. There's a lot of debate on this... but basically I am of the school of thought that lifting can help some athletes who have limits in their strength, which would probably be the case in a runner coming to cycling.

Good luck!

Everyone (except the comedian, poser, EPO comment!) is right. You need some muscle power. Running is great for endurance, but, without the power, you'll never be fast. Just be sure and throttle back on your running a good bit when you work on building cycling power, or you could just get very tired! Interval and power training takes a lot out of a body...if you find your mind is having a hard time getting prepared for the next painful interval session, or your body isn't responding to what you mind tells it to do, you're going backwards in your training! If you are really motivated to get better, you should be rested enough to relish the next interval workout. If you dread it or perform poorly in the workout, something is amiss...don't try and push through it if this happens...instead, adjust what you are doing.

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

I used to be in the same boat. I had a good swim and run, but a poor bike. I started showing up at the fast roadie group rides on hilly courses. I would hang as long as I could, get dropped, and show up next week. The next week I would hang longer and then get dropped. I made it my life goal to hang on these rides with these guys. It didn't happen overnight, but eventually I was hanging for the entire ride. One day I was going off the front.

Basically these were interval workouts. I rode two group rides a week, a weeknight 20 and a weekend 50 miler. My ego was forcing me to really push trying to hold on, more so than I would have done alone. I now usually post one of the fastest ag bike splits.

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"Remember: a bicycle is an elegant and efficient tool designed for seeking out and defeating people who aren't as good as you."

--BikeSnobNYC

I second GT's recommendation on group rides... they are also a lot of fun... in a sick kind of way!

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Andy

'You'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Thinsg Are As They Are.'

know the feeling, I used to be bottom 40% on the bike, top 10% on the run. Now I've achieved mediocrity in both, as the bike got faster so the run got slower.. humph. However my overall times have dropped, so I'm not too distressed. Usually top 30% on the bike now.

What helped my biking:
1. strength training in the off season, following Friel's prescriptions.
2. riding hills seated, even the nice long CO climbs. This seems to really build up the bike-specific leg strength for me.
3. weekly TT, 15 miles at max effort.

i also agree with the idea of group rides.. they are awsome for building leg power and helping with raising your lactate thresthold.

If you own a Mt. Bike, this is a great strength and power toy. Ride a lot of steep resistance terrain off road. It has a great impact on your power and LT.

This is a good way to overtrain if you're not careful... especially if you're doing adequate amounts of near-race pace work.

I 3rd the roadie rides. There might be some roadie clubs in your area, checkout their webpage for ride schedules. I ride with a local roadie group on occasion, more so recently due to a bunch of short distance races coming up in my schedule.

Aside from the roadie rides.. things that I've done to help with my power. Hills, lots of them, massive climbing at least once a week. Off season weights - squats, be careful with these you HAVE to do them correctly. Non-weighted one legged squats or high-bench step ups.. which should benefit your running as well. Don't forget stationary trainer intervals, personally I hate the thing.

mike

Colin:

Here's a quick story. Last season, I suffered a pretty serious stress fracture in my anterior tibialis around late May as I was preparing for the season. I was doing too much intense speed work. As a result, I was unable to train my run ALL season. The only time I trained my run or even ran at all was during a race. Seriously. I even thought about quitting racing for the season. But since I couldn't run, the rest of my trianing routine was focused on building bike speed/endurance and working on my swim technique. I did just that.

In a way, the injury was a blessing in disguise. It has improved my cycling big time. I spend 75% of my training on the bike and the other 20% in the pool and 5% in the gym. On average, I would ride between 350-400 miles a week including my long ride which was alot for me. Mind you, prior to my injury, I was doing about 150-200 miles a week mainly because I had to fit in run training. But my bike splits continually improved through the season. My cycling ability went through the roof. I placed in (25-29 age) in almost every race that I entered. And solely because I had the fastest bike splits out of anyone in my age group. I was able to make enough time up in the bike to hold off any potentially dangerous runners. (I was able perform a consistent 6:15-6:30 min/mile on no run training which also helped alot too). To my surprise, even with no run training, I was still holding that pace.

My point is this. If I never got injured, I would not have made such personal gaines on the bike. My thought is this...if you want to get faster and stronger, you need to really put in the miles. You can do intervals until you are blue in the face, but it's the long stuff that prepares you to go fast. Also, I'm not saying that you should abandon running altogether. But if yuo're a good runner, you might want to incorporate some more cycling in yuor weekly routine.

Good luck.

Fran

I also agree about joining a roadie group. Expect to be dropped and don't expect any great respect until you can run with the front group. Entirely different mentality from tri-geeks. Better cyclists though.

Thanks everyone for your help! I'll try to digest all the advise and incorporate as much as I can into my routine. Fortunately, the kids don't have to rely on me winning races to feed them. This is all for fun, but it sure would be more fun if I was faster!