Scheduling my workouts around a seven day work week, it seems hard to incorporate a long bike session and a long run session without compromising the quality of the other workouts the next day due to the need to recover from sore/dead legs.
Since the long bike reaps similiar benefits to the long run (i.e. improve mitochandria count, increased heart stroke volume, etc.), would it a bad idea to do away with the long run in my training schedule? Yes, I do prefer riding to running.
For what race distance are you training?
Some preliminary suggestions…
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Yeah…need to know what distance you are training for? But, in general, it’s not gonna work. Apples and oranges.
Are you training for something particular or just working out to stay in shape? What are your goals?
If you are training for a 1/2 or full IM, (unless you are injured or have injury problems running) I don’t think there would be a lot of benefit to leaving off a long run, just for the sake of getting everything else in.
Have you considered alternating week? Or do a 2-1 (Two weeks of long rides, one week of long run).
You could also do a short to moderate run after one of your long bikes.
However, if you are training just to stay in shape, I don’t see a problem with it.
You also may want to schedule a swim after your “long” session. Good way to stay active without beating up muscles.
What we do with our team:
Long run on Thursday, sometimes TuesdayLong bike on SaturdaySemi-long bike on SundayFriday is a no-legs day, swim only.Monday is often the same.
I made this switch away from back to back long bike/long runs on the weekends with my athletes and training plans in 2004 or 2005. It works, highly recommended.
or you could alternate one week long run, one week long ride.
Let’s say your long ride is 5h @ 19mph/30KMH, the week of your long run, you could do a shorter “long ride”, let’s 4h but at higher speed/intensity.
Same would apply for your run during your long ride week.
Fred.
No way, no how. The only thing it will affect is overall cardio endurance and buring a lot of calories.
The high impact activity of running affects you body WAYYY different than cycling.
Right now, the longest biek ride I’ve done i nthe last couple years is 50 miles. But i know I could go bike 100 miles (at a moderate pace) if I wanted.
But I haven’t run more than 8 miles in 9 months… so going even 13 miles right now, would be a lot harder than biking 100.
Scheduling my workouts around a seven day work week, it seems hard to incorporate a long bike session and a long run session without compromising the quality of the other workouts the next day due to the need to recover from sore/dead legs.
Exactly what are you doing in your long rides (and importantly, your post-ride recovery procedure) that leaves your legs too sore/dead to function properly the next day? Perhaps you should dial down the training load for that particular session?
…Since the long bike reaps similiar benefits to the long run (i.e. improve mitochandria count, increased heart stroke volume, etc.), would it a bad idea to do away with the long run in my training schedule?
I think running is much more limited (or at least constrained) by connective tissue wear and potential injury, not just cardio/energy transport/efficiency, etc. Hard to fake building that up with anything other than running volume. I’d recommend BarryP’s strategy of building overall volume with increased frequency and focus less on the one extra-long weekly run.
The ST sterotype personified in this thread…no the long run is extremely important if you want to run well and strong over almost any distance. Unless you are getting injuries keep the long run