Stationary bike cross training while injured

First work on being able to get enough leg strength to get your HR up to an easy running pace.

3 workouts:

1. 1, 2,5, 10 min intervals holding this effort. This can be done over the course of hour - 1.5 hr rides. these shouldn't be all that hard. the idea is to mimic running effort.

2. ladder up and down hard efforts i.e. 30 secs on/off, 1:00 on/off etc...up to 4:00.

3. 4 x 5:00 tempo intervals. these are pretty hard. Need to be able to do workout 1 before being successful at this one.

Since you're not aiming for anything specific, this is a good time to work on your base conditioning.

If you're doing an hour a day, for example, divide this up into 3 parts of 20 minutes each with 5 minutes walking around in between for recovery, and ride them all at a 90 to 95 percent effort.

You might need to build up to this effort but it shouldn't take long, as it is easier to do this on a bike than with running. What I do is the first one at a good pace, the second one faster and so on, plus I build up with a gradually faster pace on each one of them.

I tend to do stuff by HR. Like I’ll aim for an ‘easy ride’ to be in my easy run HR or a bit higher. I know I can do more speedwork since there’s no impact, but I dunno how much i can ‘get away with’ or is optimal.

moanswers wrote:

First work on being able to get enough leg strength to get your HR up to an easy running pace.

3 workouts:

1. 1, 2,5, 10 min intervals holding this effort. This can be done over the course of hour - 1.5 hr rides. these shouldn't be all that hard. the idea is to mimic running effort.

2. ladder up and down hard efforts i.e. 30 secs on/off, 1:00 on/off etc...up to 4:00.

3. 4 x 5:00 tempo intervals. these are pretty hard. Need to be able to do workout 1 before being successful at this one.

How long rest would you put between the tempo intervals?

injuredrunner1848 wrote:

moanswers wrote:

First work on being able to get enough leg strength to get your HR up to an easy running pace.

3 workouts:

1. 1, 2,5, 10 min intervals holding this effort. This can be done over the course of hour - 1.5 hr rides. these shouldn't be all that hard. the idea is to mimic running effort.

2. ladder up and down hard efforts i.e. 30 secs on/off, 1:00 on/off etc...up to 4:00.

3. 4 x 5:00 tempo intervals. these are pretty hard. Need to be able to do workout 1 before being successful at this one.

How long rest would you put between the tempo intervals?

2:00 is usually sufficient. you can use HR but unlike running, it drops really fast on the bike. But your legs need a breather to be able to get back up to tempo effort.

another workout i like are 20/40 intervals. 20 secs as hard as possible with 40 secs recovery. i've heard that 20-30 sec all out efforts can increase T.

injuredrunner1848 wrote:

I tend to do stuff by HR. Like I’ll aim for an ‘easy ride’ to be in my easy run HR or a bit higher. I know I can do more speedwork since there’s no impact, but I dunno how much i can ‘get away with’ or is optimal.

I go by effort not heart rate. Don't use heart rate. That would hold you back.

Go as hard as you can while being able to recover day by day and do the same thing again and again,

adjusting day by day for minor changes in effort.

For example some days I think well I went a good pace yesterday so I'll back off a little today,

but then I end up going just as faster or faster, sometimes for four or so days in a row.

Sometimes I'll do a reset where I purposely hold myself back, then the following days go faster again.

As long as you're recovering day by day and feeling good doing it, you are fine.

This training can make you very strong.