Stationary Cycling as Cross Training - HOW EFFECTIVE IS IT?

It' s not effective. Completely different thing.

pelotondon wrote:

It' s not effective. Completely different thing.

I disagree. I was on and off injured for 4 years and picked up cycling during that time. I agree that riding inside is not the same as riding outside, but you actually can get a much more effective workout inside since you just have to focus on riding at specific watts and HR versus traffic.

Is the same as running? obviously not. I lost running speed but in coming back, running felt cardiovascularly easy. In fact, it felt so easy that i was able to run harder than my legs were in shape for which subsequently caused another injury!

One caution on the peloton bike or any of the other online cycling programs is that it's really easy to make every day on the bike hard. it's hard to go easy when everyone else is kicking your butt.

Run007xx wrote:

How does a HARD ride on a stationary bike compare to a hard run outdoors (or on a treadmill)?

You won't be able to get your HR up on the bike at first because your legs won't have the power to do it. But if you are on the Peloton you will get sucked into working really hard and after a while, you will be able to hold a high HR on the bike. I found that once i was in bike shape, i could hold a higher HR in a 10m bike time trial that was higher than i could running a 5k. When you get tired running, your biomechanics fall apart so you tend to slow down. On a bike, there is no 'bio' so you just force yourself to pedal harder.

I know a masters guy who raced cat 4 road races on saturdays and would do his MP runs on sunday and he PRd in the marathon doing this.

I find it very hard to elevate my HR on a stationary bike. I have to go up to 130+rpm at a high resistance level to hit the LT zone, and I cannot sustain that for more than 4-5 minutes at a time.

If I can run only twice a week, I will make both of them quality sessions, and ride the stationary bike for my "easy" sessions.

It’s prettg good IMO

I use the Peloton app on a spin bike. I really like Matt Wilpers power zone training rides, especially the endurance rides (though there are power zone max rides as well that are much more difficult). You take the FTP test (sort past rides by most difficult and you will find it- also look on his webpage to find the formula for what to do after FTP test) to determine your zones on the bike, so the training is specific to you. Wilpers was a D1 runner and is a great coach in my opinion. He has run/spin plans on his website.

I have a road bike on a fluid trainer. How much roughly does it cost to get set up with the kind of stuff you're talking about for power training rides, and the competitive online stuff?

biking is better than sitting on the couch

more running is better wrote:

biking is better than sitting on the couch

exactly. Any cross training is good if you can't run due to injury or convenience. Nothing replaces a run.

If you want to run fast, the best thing is running. If you cant run every day, biking is worlds better than doing nothing.

As others have said, be careful not to make every day on the bike be a hard day. Dont try to do the training that conpetitive cyclists do (ie, high spin days, high load/slow spin days, etc). Instead, emulate easy run days of 45 to 60m at a running cadence most days. Once a week or so, throw in some tempo equivalents or a fartlek replacement.

Then on your two running days per week, do a hard day most days: either a tempo run, long run, or intervals.

Stationary bike is great for me too, I'm in a similar situation if limited number of days I can run per week. I can bike while the kid takes a nap, lunchtime when it is too hot, or at night when I would otherwise need to run with a headlamp.

Stationary cycling isn't even that productive for a cyclist let alone a runner. It is, however, better than sitting on the couch eating chocolate covered bon-bons........but not by much. Seriously though, the movement in cycling and running are very different and the cardio just doesn't translate over that well.

I actually reckon that exercycling and biking is a good supplement to running. Once every three weeks I take a day off from running and go to the gym and do an hour hard and leg weights.