How much does biking actually help keep you in shape?

I agree, I currently take K2 actually which I find has helped a little. Been told a lot “you need to drink milk” by stupid people. Like telling a depressed person to cheer up lmao

I personally have not found aqua jogging to be as helpful in the past, can never get my heart rate up doing it like biking.

Hi kingfischer42 can you tell me a little bit more about your workouts? The double threshold? Arc trainer workouts I feel help a lot I have only done minutes on minutes off session like fartleks where I can usually get up to 175 BPM at MAX and I try to do 2 a week.

But holy— kudos to you! That’s really impressive 4:09 is ABSURD I wish. Ran a 4:23 mile jr year highschool but that was 4 years ago, sub 4:10 or even around there would be awesome if I can fully get back into fitness

Very interesting kiniraya84 I haven’t used the AMT much at all although my gym has one. I usually just stick with the Arc trainer.

What’s the big difference between an AMT vs elliptical? And do you feel it’s easy at getting your heartrate up over biking?

Should I train at a lower HR on the bike compared to running then?

Unsure how biking and heartrate zones work compared to your normal running HR zones

Many ways to skin a cat. I feel high resistance is a lot better at keeping your HR up if that is what you want. But low resistance fast pedal if you do not want to be sore.

Can start high resistance and then move into lower resistance.

Bro sounds like me word for word bar for bar. Can you tell me more about your training regimen? and how you got back into running Needscalcium?

Never broke 16. But ran 4:23 in hs, and 25:30 in cross freshman year college.

I think at this point I should be a 5k/10k guy with all the aerobic cross training.

I would be very careful with fractures. I got a shin fracture after running for 15 years.

I thought 6 weeks was enough and tried 8 weeks twice because I read it would heal in that time. Then I took 16 weeks off and never missed a day again. I missed more time for that than any other injury. Doctors and xrays may help.

I did not have access to doctors at that time.

Your heart doesn’t know if you’re biking or running. It just beats at the rate required to get the required oxygen rich blood to working muscles. Peddling at a higher rpm gets your breathing faster and thus your HR up.

I was out for basically 4 months this summer with a slow healing stress reaction in my foot (started doing a little bit of running during months 3 and 4, but very slow short jogs and the vast majority of my training was cross training).

I didn't come back super fit, but not as bad as I expected and I ended up running close to my 5k PR a couple of weeks ago, faster than last spring before my injury.

While injured, I did (would move around the days depending on preference):

M - 75-90 min easy on bike/elliptical. HR 135ish

T - Short hard speed session such as 12x1 min, 8x90 seconds, 16x45 seconds (with around equal rest)

W - 90 min easy on bike/elliptical.

T - 75-90 min steady on bike/elliptical. HR 150-160 (first 15-30 min easy)

F - Threshold session such as 3x15 min, 5x8 min, or some combo (1-2 min rest) - goal would be to get HR to 185/190

S - 60 min easy on bike/elliptical

S - 2 hours easy on bike/elliptical

In addition to the bike/elliptical stuff, I would swim or "aquajog" a few times a week. My heart rate did not go up very much.

I don't know if it's necessary or even beneficial to do this much. I seem to do well with volume and I am very much a 5k/10k specialist. If you are more of a miler, you might not need a 2 hour "long run". Also, my heart rate is a bit on the low end so you may want to adjust. Good luck! Cross training is absolutely awful but it does work

Unless you are really proficient in the pool it’s useless . You will tire out muscularly before you get enough z2 work. I’d bike, stair mill, assault bike, eliptical and rowing machine- in that order before swimming.

For aqua jogging don't be afraid to go hard. You can get the heart rate up if you add in a lot of intervals & some sprint stuff.

My general advice is that most people cross train too hard, especially on the bike, & that could slow down recovery, whether you realize that or not. If you're going to bike a ton, figure out your bike zones, which are different than your running heart rate zones. You can't be biking Z3 & above every day of the week. You'll make gains from Z1/2 riding, even if you don't believe in your HR data.

with my experience with cycling has been that if i get out on the bike for 2-3 hours once a week and then maybe 2 other times for shorter rides like 30-40 minutes indoors, and mix that with running 4-5 days a week, I kept myself in pretty good fitness. Probably pretty similar to when I wasn't cycling, and only running 6 days a week with a longer run of maybe 60-80 minutes on the weekends.

I think to get the fitness of cycling to carry over to running you really need to spend a day of 2-3 hours on the bike and get that kind of time in.

If your coach isn't willing to work with you and assign mileage goals you can actualy handle, you're like to keep getting injured if the coach insists you jump from 25-35 mpw up to 65-75 mpw right away. If running 4-5, maybe 6 days works best for you, I recommend doing that and then cross training the remaining easy days and possibly supplement your mileage with cross training. I would come off this injury gradually adding running back in and build up to a consistent 25-35 mpw. Then gradually build from there during basebuilding months. Since you're in-season now, I honestly would not increase mileage now because that combined with the intensity of workouts for track is a sure way to get injured again. Your best bet is to redshirt this indoor and outdoor season, get healthy, and gradually build based mileage up until next cross country season. If you're healthy by outdoors, you could still run some races unattached just to race. If you're not already doing so, I would make sure you're including good strength training and injury prevention exercises in your weekly routine as that can help reduce injuries. I would make it a goal to see if you're able to safely build to 50 mpw by next fall. Then be consistent at that and build a little higher each off-season as tolerable. If you just can't tolerate more, then run consistently at what you can tolerate and supplement with cross training. If you just try to jump back into high mileage and track workouts, you are almost guaranteed to get hurt again. If your coach insists on doing that, I'd consider transfering to a school with more individualized coaching with a coach that cares about your health and success, if you track/cc is important enough to you.

Damn, Im very sorry my man.

It def isn't a fracture. I have had a stress fracture in the shin and know how it feels.

4 months is a very long time for a stress reaction do you know why it took that long?

And would you do the speed sessions would these be on BIKE or RUNNING?

I feel like aqua jogging is less effective than doing strength conditioning or the arc trainer. I would say I am def a 5k guy haha.

Do you feel a 2-3 hour ride can substitute a long run or medium LR?

I have seen people my age (21) doing 2 hour rides but nothing longer. Wondering if it can be beneficial, or just too much. The most I will do is 90min rides. Which is about the equivalent to a 9-10 mile run?

I am not the best with handling milage.

Hi gottarun215. First off, I do not have a college coach.

Long story but I ran for a D1 team in a mid-tier conference for a couple years, got a femur stress fracture, and then multiple other stress injuries due to a lack of proper buildup and just getting 65 mpw thrown at my face, and a physical trainer who could not give two sh*ts. Ended up leaving cause I was not on scholarship and miserable. Transferred to a school in my state that told me to kick rocks when I reached out, after recruiting me in high school (and running 25:30 freshman year cross)

I run for a club team now (not for my college) currently and will buildup from a couple 10 mile weeks, to a 25 mpw, to a 35 mpw, to a 45 mpw. Starting with running 4 days a week to eventually 6.

It has been 3 years now since I have even raced track and fed up with cross training for nothing. My situation is hell and I have considered quitting running completely many times but just know I can't bring myself too it. It's one of the only things I have, keeps me going.

Yes, it was a long time. I think it was because I wasn't actually recovering properly. I would still walk around a lot every today and I wasn't in a boot (I probably should have been in one). I've heard from other people on my team that stress reactions in the foot can take longer to heal as well. The other thing, which I forgot to mention in my original post, is that elliptical can be risky at the beginning. I probably should have just biked for a while. The speed sessions were on the bike.

One other thing factor for the slow healing may have been not eating enough, but I'm not sure

Wait please tell me or someone else please answer this or would really help me as I’m doing cycling to up my aerobic base ; when you say 2-3 do you mean per week? Per session? If per session - how many sessions per week? In doing 3 hours a week split into 3 1 hour sessions, is this good enough?