I suppose there isn't much risk of injury in cycling hard (5-6 times week) for a seasoned runner...any experience?
I suppose there isn't much risk of injury in cycling hard (5-6 times week) for a seasoned runner...any experience?
yes to both
Not sure what base has to do with being able to ride hard without injuries.
Not in the sense that you necessarily need to put in a big block of long slow rides before adding intensity, but I'd recommend easing into it a bit - cycling works different muscle groups and tendons/ligaments. Make sure your bike fits you, too - it's not like running where your body can find the stride that works best for you. On the bike your seat height, stack and reach, and cleat alignment basically determine how everything moves.
One important thing about biking as cross training , if you are a runner, is whether or not you are overloading you calf muscles on the bike.
Mid foot on pedals and a bit more knee bend will help avoid working the calfs,
Ball of foot on pedals and longer leg extension will work the calf muscles pretty hard. If you are riding because of calf , achilles or foot issues, which I think is common, you want to pay attention to this. Go flat footed on the pedals.
Dufus wrote:
One important thing about biking as cross training , if you are a runner, is whether or not you are overloading you calf muscles on the bike.
Mid foot on pedals and a bit more knee bend will help avoid working the calfs,
Ball of foot on pedals and longer leg extension will work the calf muscles pretty hard. If you are riding because of calf , achilles or foot issues, which I think is common, you want to pay attention to this. Go flat footed on the pedals.
This is false. Obviously don't ride if it hurts though.
Bike fit is very important if not the most important in preventing an injury on the bike. If you are riding with clipless pedals and shoes you will want to strongly consider a bike fit. This can be expensive and it may be difficult to find someone who does bike fits for a reasonable price. Its cycling though so you should start expecting to spend more money than what you spend on running.
Do you have time to do a base? Ideally you should put some miles in before jumping into really hard efforts but probably not going to injure yourself if you don't.
Cycling base and running base is totally different, obviously.
In cycling, most cat 1 riders do their base mileage in a very low gear. This is to work on pedal stroke and power... as seasons progresses they up the gear levels w more power.
Also in cycling... unlike running where u build a base and do short speed workouts later on in the competitive season, they do a lot of "Fartlek" type work early of a min or less.
And riding w people is a skill itself. A lot take the base period to learn to work on skills in a pack.
While there is no pounding in cycling, you can still get injured especially if bike fit is poor. Also your back is going to taking stress it does not take in running.
Ease into it.
Do not be a stupid macho guy and think you need to hammer every workout and keep it on the big chain ring all the time.
One highly successful coach I know gets his newbies to stay out of the big ring for some period of time (he does not have a set time frame). Work on cadence. Be patient.
Group rides are fun, but until people get to know you and are comfortable riding near you they are going to be leery of you. Crashing at 20mph because someone touched your rear wheel and you panicked is going to cause a lot of carnage.
Find a USA Cycling certified coach and hire him or her for a few hours to teach you some basic bike handling skills. It will be safer for you and others.