Biking to supplement running:

on the days that you aren’t doubling, make a 2nd session 45-60mins high cadence spins. get clipless pedals and quality shoes for this.

if you take a day totally off, that is another opportunity for cycling. but think of cycling as pool running, it’s no impact but it’s also not the same as true running. each time you pull out the bike and go out into the countryside, remember to ask yourself, “how much can i do out here without negatively affecting tomorrow’s run?”

there is still a lot of opportunity to use the bike to build out your aerobic engine, but tell your coach that you are motivated to go the extra effort for long term advancement and he might have more sport specific opportunities to work harder than your mates to get good.

Thanks for your feedback. I also asked this on another forum and the general consensus was to get my coach's input first so I'll definitely ask him closer to the end of track. Thanks again! I think extra biking in moderation would probably help me out quite a bit, just have to be smart about it.

This is good advice & I agree with getting advice from your coach. I think a small amount of biking can be fine. Aqua jogging & swimming are both probably more specific to improve running performance. Nothing beats running tho. If you start entering into decent bike training, there's a risk that it can impede your running -- increased injury risk, added muscle/weight, not recovering for your running sessions, etc.

JFR

I am an older ultra runner and I try to do a long run and long ride each weekend when the weather permits. I’ve found that for me 3 miles riding equals 1 mile riding. This might mean a 13 mile run Saturday and a 40 mile bike ride Sunday at 18 mph or so. Biking is a way to add aerobic volume with a lower injury risk. If I were a competitive college athlete I’d want to make sure I got as many running miles as possible before introducing cycling unless you were doing it on recovery days.

Having been a runner and a cyclist I can say that the cycling doesn't really add that much to your running goals. Although cycling up hills might have some benefit. Cycling uses different muscles than running which is why it doesn't transfer as much as one would like.

Nigel_Bikes wrote:

Having been a runner and a cyclist I can say that the cycling doesn't really add that much to your running goals. Although cycling up hills might have some benefit. Cycling uses different muscles than running which is why it doesn't transfer as much as one would like.

This is true with one exception.

For completely sedentary individuals, any type of aerobic activity will make them faster. With lots of swimming and cycling, I was able to go from not being able to run 3 miles, say a ~35 min 5k to a 20:30 min 5k. That's a massive improvement without almost any running!

Then however, no matter how much I biked or swam (even 8+ hours a week), I didn't get any faster anymore. I was able to go out very fast in races, but after half a mile, my legs were dead and I had to slow down. Also the HR was at the max. I was extremely inefficient and had no running muscles. The only way to improve from that point on and get towards my potential was to run miles and train as a runner. Now I run 5k's in the 15 min range.

The Great Lance Armstrong, who biked around a million lifetime miles, tried running later in his life. He had a VO2MAX in his upper 80s, an excellent lactate threshold and dedicated his entire life to endurance sports. Drugs on top of that. Result? After months of training with running, he was barely scratching a sub 3 hour marathon (2:59) despite having El Guerrouj as pacer and a team of expert coaches, PT's, massagists, etc. consulting/helping him in his preparation.

What also happened to me is that the massive quads from cycling were more of a detriment. Yes it's impossible to get injured there now with running but they add a lot of weight and require lots of oxygen. Meanwhile the calves were not developed at all with cycling, same with other muscles like back, abs and hamstrings.

How can cycling help? It can keep your aerobic fitness up (say resting HR) while injured and not able to run. It can also aid recovery, if you spin really slowly at very low HR. And it is a great way to lose weight if you weight too much for running, since you can go on long rides and burn lots of calories. But never forget - a low resting HR is useless if the mitochondria are not developed in the running specific muscles, and too much/too intense/too hilly cycling can build unwanted muscle mass in your legs that require a lot of oxygen to carry around while running!

It is a myth that cycling builds massive muscles. Endurance cycling builds as much muscle as endurance running. The muscles you employ are different so some limited development can happen but nothing negative for the running. Triathletes manages to run really fast so I think they prove that point.

Cycling is great recovery and general aerobic development.

A world class triathlete said that in case going for just running he would have topped a large running milage with some cycling due to the benefits he already had experienced so far.

It's possible to get injured from cycling too, so easy progression is important. Also good to work on the pedalling technique to use the whole leg and not just the thighs as that can fatigue the running muscles. High cadence is also good.

I have done half of 2020 cycling due to injuries and kept the weekly hours of training and the intensity. When back running it took a short time to get back and the aerobic base was unaltered.

The max HR for cycling is lower than running and your threshold is probably way lower so go by feel as it is easy to push hard cycling and get tired even if the heart rate is low and the breathing easy. My running threshold is approx 170 bpm, and my cycling at 12-14 below so I generally keep cycling 10-12 bpm lower, but it still feels harder cycling than running.

Bike sprints, standing cycling and heavy gears can develop strength to make you a faster runner. So can also hill running though.

Good luck with your cycling