Marathon training only on a bike

It won't be pretty. 200-250 is a good chuck of riding, but I found the marathon significantly more difficult than riding a century... and I come from running background. On a six day week of cycling, that would be 5 days at 30 miles with a century as your long day. Besides the lack of running mileage, it is also a substantial comitment of time (about 13 hours vs. 7-8 for 1 hour daily runs + 2 hour long run).

Since few will argue that 1 hour of running is the same as 1 hour of riding, it doesn't seem like you'll be getting in enough miles. My guess is that you'd hit about 18 miles in the marathon and then wish you did a lot more running.

Is there some reason keeping you from running? Some injury or something? Because if there is none, of course you should run instead of biking. The way to train for a running race is to run, not to bike

Sounds like good training for riding 26.2 miles. If you want to run a marathon, the bad news is, unfortunately, you will have to run. There are some programs out there like the FIRST Program which have you running only (3) days a week with x-training the other days. You may want to look into that.

This will work. You won't run your potential in the marathon, but it will get you to the finish line in decent shape. When you hit 30 MPW running try 2 8 milers and a 14 mile "long run", and then work that up to 20 miles. Try and keep the other runs at 8 if you can so you will be at 36 total. If you can't, than I suppose 2 5's and the 20 will have to do. But be sure to use low gears on the bike and to stand up as much as possible, especially up hills.

A big part of running a marathon is taking pounding. If your legs are not used poungings, like someone else said, it's not going to be pretty.

In general (there are always some exceptions), someone who goes and runs over 2~3 hours once a week and just whatever during the rest of the week would do better (better, I mean, not always necessarily performance-wise but recovery, enjoyment, all that included) than someone who would train, say, 6 miles every day.

Pamela Andersons Left Nipple wrote:

It won't be pretty. 200-250 is a good chuck of riding, but I found the marathon significantly more difficult than riding a century...

2 points

1st, to the original poster: the 438 lb guy that walked boston in over 9 hours did most all his training on an exercise bike.

2nd, i agree running a marathon is much harder than riding a century. my wife does century rides all the time and would have great trouble covering a half marathon. she certainly could not run it without lots of walking.

in my opinion, to the extent you can even do an equivalency b/t biking and running i think about 5-6 miles on the bike = 1 of running.

when i started running again after a long lay off i decided i would get back into it easy and would start by riding for a few months. i figured it would be easy on the joints, build up some aerobic endurance. even after regularly going 20 miles several times a week when i started running i was in for a HUGE shock.

running and biking a very very different.

Nobby wrote:

A big part of running a marathon is taking pounding. If your legs are not used poungings, like someone else said, it's not going to be pretty.

Exactly.

Nobby wrote:

A big part of running a marathon is taking pounding. If your legs are not used poungings, like someone else said, it's not going to be pretty.

great point.

Thanks for the great advice.

Just curious, what other athletes on here have run a marathon off of a lot of biking? And what was your result?

I ran a 3:18 off of running 55 miles a week and running 15-20

I got to 19 miles and fell apart. Pounding.

Was in great shape, racing bike shape. And everyone in the world was going past me. Because they ran a lot, and I didn't.

I think now, if I could just go out for 45 minutes three times a week, and work up to 20 miles two months or so before, I could pull it off. I think the longest I went was 12 or 13 miles before, so yeah.

Ride 4 days a week, run 3. A few times run real long on the weekend.

RainRainRain wrote:

I got to 19 miles and fell apart. Pounding.

Was in great shape, racing bike shape. And everyone in the world was going past me. Because they ran a lot, and I didn't.

I think now, if I could just go out for 45 minutes three times a week, and work up to 20 miles two months or so before, I could pull it off. I think the longest I went was 12 or 13 miles before, so yeah.

Ride 4 days a week, run 3. A few times run real long on the weekend.

Yup. If you work hard enough on the bike you'll have fine aerobic capacity and leg strength, but your legs and particularly your FEET won't be able to tolerate 26 miles of running. I'm impressed that RainRainRain made it as far as 19 miles. That's a lot better than most of the serious cyclists I know would get.

There's no reason why you can't incorporate cycling into your marathon training, but you've got to put a fair amount of mileage on your legs.

Here you F^*%ing go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTea3NJ4kCA

I seem to remember a Canadian national marathon champion from the very early 70s who could only tolerate 70 mile weeks, but who also biked over 200 mpw. Ran 2:12. If you can only run 30mpw, I would recommend two two-hour runs.

Cycling will improve your cardio but the marathon is mostly about leg endurance for someone who is just trying to finish. Unless you do one long run a week, it will be difficult to finish a marathon with that training plan.

I've run a marathon on 20-30 miles per week as you indicated in your last sentence. It is plenty for a controlled slow jogging marathon finish. Especially with your additional cycling.

But if you think the supplemental biking will propel you to a solid marathon please tell us all. I really want to see you cross the finish and see your splits

You will cramp up before the half. Cycling contracts the quads, and the running stride wishes to elongate them as you decelerate with each step. Two completely different uses of that muscle, among others. You will suffer debilitating cramps unless you work in some running toward the race.