Cross Training Happiness

Triathlon Forum
1

So, wondering if this works both ways…

Didn’t ride my bike more than 2 times in 3 months as I was preparing to BQ in a recent marathon. Marathon went great, but I was WAY tired of running…ran over 500 miles in 12 weeks.

First 3 rides back on the bike (CompuTrainer as the weather here is horrid already)…broke 270w each ride. Couldn’t believe how well my bike fitness held up by running alone for 3 months.

Brother has the opposite problem. Stress-fracture from running, and he’s already signed up for Boston in April. He can’t run for the next 8 weeks. Will cycling the next 8 weeks keep him in good enough shape that he can pick up the run where he left off?

Anyone experience this?

2

I think that a forum member had an elliptical routine that he used after an injury and managed to BQ. If I can remember the name I will drop you a PM - hopefully he sees your thread!

3

Tell him to hammer out as many aerobic kilojoules as he can in 2x3week on/1wk off blocks of cycling (maybe 1 FTP session a week) and then take a few weeks to gradually replace cycling workouts and volume with running. That will still give him almost 2 months to hammer out a standard running build up for Boston but with a kick ass aerobic base. I think he could fly with that approach. Btw, I have had some bad stress fractures and none of them kept me totally out of running for more than 5 weeks.