Effectiveness of cycling sprint training for runners?

could't hurt to try during an off-season. I think most people would advocate cycling for more of an aerobic workout rather than speed and power, so as not to disrupt your quality running workouts quite as much. Could be a good off-season change up though, and I'm sure you could still fit tempo type stuff in.

In to hear from people who might have tried something like this.

Replace recovery miles/easy runs with cycling. This will boost your aerobic fitness because you can ride longer than you can run and avoid a lot of pounding. Just ride moderate gearing combinations and focus on perceived effort/heart rate instead of speed. Ride in flat areas so that you are not coasting for significant periods of time.

For a high school athlete, run four days each week - long run, medium distance run, 2 x quality session (you HAVE to do running specific work to be a good runner) The other three days? Ride for 1-2 hours at a moderately easy effort on flat or gently rolling terrain.

Be sure to stretch well after rides as they can leave you a bit stiff at first. I also recommend doing easy striders on ride days to stay loose and to activate your running muscles.

That’s the weird thing, is that I barely feel aerobic strain when I’m cycling. It’s usually just my legs that hurt. I am by no means fast (16 mph for 21 miles fairly low effort) so that might be the issue, that I haven’t learned to push myself aerobically on a bike yet. Either that or my legs are just really weak.

That sounds good, I might try that.

Heart rate will be lower on the bike as you are using less muscle and you are not trained as a cyclist. Sitting on the bike and supporting your weight on the handlebars is greatly reducing the weight bearing load vs. running. Most runners will elicit a heart rate about 10 beats lower on the bike. It will feel easy and should feel easy compared to running.

That’s really helpful to know, I didn’t think of it in terms of weight bearing before