I run and strength train A LOT more than I cycle or swim and I feel run fitness translates pretty well to cycling. My cycling endurance over longer distances has improved greatly with more time spent on the bike, but with very limited cycling I was able to put up pretty good bike splits in my first few tri’s. For swimming, I don’t invest as much time as I should and sit pretty happily/comfortably MOP at this point (which probably has something to do with good upper body strength and solid run fitness).
At a certain level in any one sport, adding any time to another sport just makes you worse at the first sport.
In general if you have another hour to kill, and you want to get better at triathlon, usually the answer is run more. Unless you haven’t figured out swimming yet, then you should swim or. Or, unless you are running so much that you are risking injury.
then bike more
I don’t how to word this question eloquently; otherwise, I would have searched for the subject.
Which one of our three sports has the greatest fitness gains in the other two?
Does running help our cycling/swim more than our cycling would carry into our run/swim? Or is it really based on where our weakness lies?
Focusing more on biking will give you better overall fitness in triathlon. Less likely to injury and the ability to train more on cycling due to recovering.
(If your asking to build a plan then build it around the bike and run 5-6x a week and use swimming as recovery and 2 key swim workouts a week.)
The reality is swimming doesn’t “improve” bike or running or vice versa otherwise you would be seeing Keynans training on bikes.
anyway, i think i agree with the answers you’ve had here - good stuff. swimming delivers good strength gains, core, etc. biking is a great way to build vast buckets of aerobic fitness at a low injury risk. running is brutally efficient - and after all these years it’s still what i come back to when i’m pressed for time: it’s the easiest way to get in a very high-quality workout in a very short period.
anyway, i think i agree with the answers you’ve had here - good stuff. swimming delivers good strength gains, core, etc. biking is a great way to build vast buckets of aerobic fitness at a low injury risk. running is brutally efficient - and after all these years it’s still what i come back to when i’m pressed for time: it’s the easiest way to get in a very high-quality workout in a very short period.
-mike
Are you comparing apples to apples? I would say that one hour of running provides a much better workout than one hour of cycling.
Are you comparing apples to apples? I would say that one hour of running provides a much better workout than one hour of cycling.
Increase bike watts until no longer true.
(to be fair unless you bike a loooot you probably can’t quite beat the shit out of the aerobic system quite as hard, but, p close if you try hard)
Running has significant x-over to cycling unless you’re a FFOP cyclist. Cycling has decent x-over to running but not as much.
Swimming is it’s own weird animal and doesnt’ x-over at all to any sport except for possibly the mental aspect, but that’s probably as much a matter of selection bias, meaning that those who are gifted in discipline and working hard while staring at a black line for hours on end, have a higher likelihood of not quitting swimming compared to others, even if they’re not as physically gifted.
There are plenty of good pure runners out there that easily win AG podiums with near-zero bike/swim training, and just happened to learn to swim (for survival, not racing) as a kid, and just make up enough time on the run to offset their lousy swim.
At the elite/pro levels, you’ll see a lot more pure swimmer backgrounds esp in ITU, since swim drafting is helpful and as well, at that level everyone runs and bikes really fast, so there’s little margin to make up any lost time.
Swimming makes you a better biker.
Biking makes you a better runner.
Running makes you a better runner.
Running makes you the fittest for the amount of time you put in and also has the highest risk of injury (unless you get run over by a car or drown).
Exactly how I would state it.
I’ll only add that swimming makes you a better runner too, as the hidden “energy cost” of swimming is greatly underestimated and eventually catches up to you on the run.
Consider that the entire focus on running is getting in the most training load, without getting injured. You almost never say…gee I need to cut this bike or swim workout short because I’m nursing an injury. I’st more like… my legs are trashed… I guess I’ll just ride zone 2 instead. Or in swimming… I sick of the MF pool, I’ve plateaued… I need a break.