Yeah, but with cycling you can just do insane volume and its somewhat productive. Running has its limits and its limits are often injuries.

As far as building aerobic fitness, also consider brick workouts of cycling + running.

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I don't have time for insane volume.

but yea I do plan to get some sort of intervals in there for both running (local club workouts) and cycling (mostly climbing). just realized that's not what you meant by brick. but intervals will still be part of my plan

I've never given this too much thought. But, I wouldn't say 1:08 == 2:40. Maybe more like 1:50, in terms of general fitness? But, it depends on what you mean by aerobic fitness, too. If you mean cycling specific fitness, the I've read it's more like 2/3rd run:bike. Eg, 60min run == 40m bike.



No. Weights won't help running or cycling fitness. They will help with joint stability, core stability, injury prevention, etc. They just are NOT a substitute for aerobic fitness.

If you hate indoor trainers, then its a good chance running is more time efficient for aerobic training.

Note however that aerobic training is only half or even less of the equation. Without the muscular sport specific endurace to match, you wont be able to tap into it.

Michael phelps even at peak cant jump to running on little run training and be world class. He would be lucky to even beat a middle aged ag runner like myself in fact.

And in terms.of comeback potential, running is the hardest due to impact. You will have a much harder time coming back to running after a.long layoff than cycling even if you aerobic system.is.excellent from cycling.

Matt dixon has methods for arthritis limited runners.that cant run a lot of volume to bike a lot but run just enough to maintain the impact training for running. Gets you the cardio and stength thru the bike and you can still run fast on race day.

A decent college runner does say 70 miles a week at an average of say 7 mins, so maybe 8 hours a week of running, while a decent cat 3 cyclist would do about double that on average. Your thinking is about right, with running injury is the limiter.

Your 8-mile vs 2:40 seems about right. Would highly recommend adding some running in your case, however, don't overthink it. Just start very slow, 2x per week maybe, maybe 2 miles, 3 miles based on your comfort level, then you can slowly start adding some distance to your long run. Get your body used to the impact and new muscle/tendon recruitment over a long, slow buildup. If you have some trail networks near you maybe stick to the trails if you can, or put some earbuds in and do some laps around grass fields if you have access to those. I know a few high-level road racers near me who do this in the off-season, but for general fitness, a combo of riding, running and some weight training is excellent!

I agree with Zissou. On top of that, if, like me you come from a road cyclist background only, and don't have a running background, you'll have to develop some strenght and tonus at the core and upper body (shoulders, head position, etc...). Running is a "standing up" sport as opposed to cycling. I still have to adapt and work hard on my new "body" through running to remain healthy and injury free. But I'm old ( although relatively young for a St'er :-P ) and don't have an athlete's curriculum's past.

Louis :-)

I don't have time for insane volume.


While they both use your legs, I hate to break this to you, but there is very little cross-over effect from running to cycling and vice-versa.

Being fit for running, may help a bit with out-of-the-saddle type of efforts - but from my direct experience of many years of triathlon training that's it.

As for maintenance of the cycling fitness - how many years have you been cycling and what sort of volume had you been putting in. Your mileage may vary as they say, but it;s been my personal experience with a 30+ year base of cycling miles that it's all about higher intensity types of efforts and some Sweet-Spot work. If you figure out a good program for you, you can maintain some decent form.

N=1 for me, through the winter I rarely ride more than an hour on the trainer (forced indoors by a real winter), yet come spring, I can almost right away, jump into 3 hour or 100K rides, and while I have to dig deep to do it, I can get it done. That winter work on the trainer, of sprints, VO2 max, and Sweet Spot type training maintains great form through the winter months on about 4 - 5 hrs/week of cycling!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

thanks for the feedback. I've already been running over the last few weeks, and have now built myself up to like ~1h ~8miles, which I guess is equivalent to 2h on the bike. When I was racing, every winter, I'd slack off, and the first thing that went away was aerobic fitness, and that's the hardest to get back. my top end comes back relatively easily, which is why I focus on maintaining aerobic fitness through running, even though running/biking are totally different. But yea, intervals is where it's at. I got really good results in cat 2 doing only 8-10h week, mostly focusing on intervals and hard group rides. base miles is like warm up to the season so you don't burn out 2 months in, but intervals gets you the wins.

When I am mostly biking I shoot for 1.5h/day average, 7 days per week. Almost all of my riding (98% or more) is indoors, and that allows for 1 day where I only go an hour, and 1 day where I go 2 hours. When I am mostly running I shoot for ~1h/day average, 7 days per week. Allows a day where I go 90min and a day where I only go 30min. In terms of fitness these feel pretty equal to me. I'm pretty balanced strength-wise on both sports. Back when I wasn't able to run as much, the ratio would've been closer to 1:2 as you say.

I'll give you this bit of advice as well - running easy for aerobic development is great and probably a good supplement if you're unwilling to ride the trainer. Running hard is a different beast, and your body will adjust to the demands of fast running, which are different from the demands of fast cycling. I would keep all of your running easy and save the quality for whatever time you have on the bike.

I have successfully maintained cycling fitness by jogging an hour per day and doing a few hundred bodyweight squats 2-3x/week many times when cycling wasn't an option. When I got back on the bike, I'd lost nothing and was setting new bests pretty quickly.

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"Don't you have to go be stupid somewhere else?"..."Not until 4!"

Try the Daniels running formula book, itgoves you a good framework and understanding of paces

I’m not sure the exact correlation but you can definitely maintain and build fitness through cross training. Many, many high level athletes across sports who face constraints in the winter months do it. The theory is, in season you try to be the best cyclist you can be, off season you try to be the best athlete.

You’d basically be thinking of it like one long off-season and the caveat is you’d need to be realistic about what it’ll look like when you try to get all specific again.

The problem with finding a correlation is that cycling can be anywhere from easy, barely any effort riding to intense, leg- and lung-burning crazy hard. My personal feeling is that cycling really hard is more mentally difficult than running hard because you use a much smaller range of muscles and you have to push them really hard to get your heart rate up.

As for crossover, cycling does nothing for running, but running can keep you fit for cycling. One time when I was coaching HS running, I kicked something and broke my toe. I could not run without a ton of pain and after a couple of days, I was stir-crazy. I decided to do an FTP test to see what I could ride after not touching my tri bike in a couple of years. My ftp estimate ended up about 15 watts lower than I had been racing at a few years earlier.

Doubtful

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