Didn't Lance do this already?

I wouldn't know about lance. And to be clear, this is not really about Ben King per se. Just using him as an example.

Best thing to do? Run lots.

sort of.

running a lot out of the get go would most likely A) cause injury or B) cut into cycling time which would cut into aerobic engine time.

Best thing to do is track overall fitness and slowly shift from all cycling into more of a cycle/run formula that is safe enough to avoid injury (we will say 10% rule here).

Eventually if he wanted to become a great runner almost all of his aerobic fitness would come from running and he would have shifted the activity and specificity in how he got there.


Its a process, but over 6 months I'd expect big changes to take place in terms of run specific fitness

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COROS Sports Science

get some Hokas and an anti-gravity treadmill.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

Interesting idea with the slow mix of both.

A guy I know basically went cold turkey on riding when he switched. Seemed to work for him as within a few months we was beating some pretty talented marathoners. A year in he did a road marathon and clocked a 2:42. I wonder if maybe he left some on the table. He was an absolute freak on the bike.

not saying you can't go cold turkey.. but why such a high risk/reward? Is there a huge race that they need to do for professional obligations? Just seems like a risky play if there isn't a necessary need for it.

Just my thoughts

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COROS Sports Science

As a 15 year old Ben did not train with a coach or year-round and looked like a 12 year-old, and he rode the Wintergreen TT in 35:30, which was probably 5w/kg. That was pure talent. His own Uncle and the officials thought they had messed up the timing. He beat me by 4 minutes. Meanwhile he ran cross country in High School and was not close to the front even on a regional level.

Point is the two domains do not always transfer. There is little reason to think he could have been a pro runner.

Similarly Galen Rupp or Mo Farah could have trained from day one on the bike and would never be able to hold Ben's wheel.

So IMO, Ben could get the best run coaching in the world and six months later he would at an average college runner level at best. Rolf Aldag was skinny as hell and a doper and could only run a 2:44. JaJa same thing.


Ben is going to win a Vuelta stage instead!

That's fascinating. Didn't know if he had any running in his background.

The guy I know who changed over to running actually rose with Ben back in like 2004. He kept talking about this kid who was holding his wheel up monster climbs and would never ever sit up and dial it back. He was made for it. He's got that hunger.

Didn't know he was doing the vuelta! Hope he grabs a well deserved win.

Lance did it, Jalabert did it, I think Olano too ?

They have a great cardio system so its just the legs that need to catch up. Different muscle groups to cycling - hence why King couldn't walk after.

Sandy Scott, top of the heap for his age groups for the past several years, decided last winter to get off the bike and train to run and win at the mile distance. He did just that in @ 6 months-won the USATF championship for the 1500 meters last month -by a lot.

I think the switch from pro cycling to marathoning would be much easier (as illustrated by Lance et al.) than transitioning to shorter running distance where leg speed and efficiency is paramount. From my own experience, I have run some 5ks in the off season and I couldn't get my legs moving any faster than about 16:30 pace even on downhill/tailwind conditions. The only time I could get near threshold output was on prolonged uphills. Muscle recruitment is a real bitch...that could some serious focus and time in training.

The marathon would be more a matter of bomb proofing the legs to the impact with some longer runs while keeping the aerobic engine with solid cycling I would think.

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Professional Athlete: http://jordancheyne.wordpress.com/ http://www.strava.com/athletes/145340

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I'd say priority #1 would be preparing the connective tissue & core for the stress or full-up marathon training. Start with
I'd send him to a ART-type every single day.
Over 10 weeks, transition from riding 20 running 1-2 hrs per week to riding like 10 and running 8-10. Lots of running specific drills, a few hours of hiking. A ton of active core-type stuff.
Boston is not just any marathon, it is an eccentric-loading slaughter fest on the quads. 4 weeks of the Q1 workout would need to slowly introduce rolling hills. The Q2 session would alternate between 30-60 sec STEEP hill reps and uphill tempos of 30-40 min.
The last 12 weeks would be normal marathon prep. 3X 3wk up/wk 1down cycles of Q1=12,16,16,14 miles of warm up followed by marathon pace running with a threshold mile every 3-4 miles, repeat until 14-16 miles is hit. Q2 is 5X5 min V02 alternated with a broken threshold run. Minimal taper. Tapering is bullshit.

As someone that made a similar transition (though not from pro cycling!), I'm thinking 2:30ish with 6 (healthy) months, 2:20 or below possible with a few (healthy) years (depending on body type).

The biggest key would be the OPPOSITE of what most posters are saying: he would need to drop all cycling. As in never pedal a stroke. At this point, every time he rides, he will be yanking his body away from running-specific musculo-skeletal and neuro-muscular adaptations.

For 6 months, the goal would be as many miles as possible with tons of short strides and intervals. Improved efficiency/economy is the ONLY goal. Once an athlete like that gets up to 70 miles per week, some tempos, but nothing crazy. Then track and things like that after a year or so once he plateaus around 100 miles per week.

Great question!

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David Roche
"The Happy Runner" book: https://www.amazon.com/...Longer/dp/1492567647
Coaching: https://swaprunning.com/

@jordano
@goldentech
@daveroche

That's all really helpful. Thanks for weighing in.

Dave, I'm curious what your experience was like going from being able to push your body at X intensity for say 2 hours riding, to having to dial it back when you began running to Y intensity. I'm guessing it's your legs that limit your ability to truly rev the engine for the longer runs?

Lance use to be a strong triathlete as a kid there's videos of him racing with mark allen and dave scott on youtube so not suprised he's a fast runner

That's a great question. I think the number 1 thing I learned is that running and biking are completely different activities in almost every way. I simply can't compare effort levels across them. For example, I can operate at significantly higher HR running than biking. But it took years for that higher HR to correspond to fast paces on flat ground!

One other thing: biking translates incredibly well to uphill running. But absolutely horribly to fast running. Any cyclist looking to transition to running (or do a run focus) should:

1. Increase time on feet/mileage, focus on form, and relax
2. Do TONS of short strides and almost no hard tempos/VO2 intervals until the body can support them
3. Do TONS of dynamic flexibility, strengthening, and injury prevention
4. Lose upper body muscle (aka stop doing all lifting)

That was a disjointed response :) You are awesome!

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David Roche
"The Happy Runner" book: https://www.amazon.com/...Longer/dp/1492567647
Coaching: https://swaprunning.com/