Cole Hocker 42 mi bike/10 mile run

7:30 pace for an elite miler in the middle of a training cycle early season seems just about right to me. I bet you that 7:30 pace felt just right to him because he had a bunch of fatigue in the body.

I like that he is adding in cycling. Adding a couple of hours of cycling will improve aerobinc endurance and reduce chance of injury. Run in the AM and long cycle in the PM seems like a great base season strategy.

He is on his zwift, busting his arse 2 hours a day. What are you on?

I hate to be "that guy", but I mostly just bike commute, can barely break 5:30 in the mile right now and only run about 20 miles per week... even I could do 42 miles on Zwift in that time and then run 10 at 7:34/mile.

Decent pure aerobic day, but this kind of stuff is a walk in the park for an Olympic gold medalist.

For a fit runner who cycles once a week, a 42 mile ride is not hard.

For someone who seldom cycles, it's going to be tough. They will be saddle sore and sore and stiff the next day.

If they don't eat, they will probably bonk and have to crawl the last 5 miles. For the uninitiated, the bonk in cycling is total. You go real fast from fine, to hardly being able to pedal. Losing all power in quads, glutes and hammies is not something you want to repeat.

Hence, the bag of energy bars.

Better metric is to use TIME when on Zwift or indoors/outdoors as there flat or hilly course with elevation so miles/spd really does not matter. I wonder how (minutes) long it took him?

I go by power on zwift/indoors or outside. A hard session for me would be 2x20min at average of 200watts, 5min spin between each.

I know LetsRun isn't the place where people do a modicum of research, but on Strava and Zwift you can see that he averaged 200W for the 2 hours. Let's assume he weighs 140lbs. That's about 63.5 Kg. That means he averaged 3.15 W/Kg for the effort. That's a solid Z2 effort for him. His HR averaged mid 120's.

All in all, this was an easy aerobic effort for him. It's not nothing, but it's also nothing crazy. It's just a solid day of aerobic volume.

Zwift MPH tells you very little. Would look at watts. You can ride flat & go 25+ mph without peddling. You can climb a mountain & go nowhere in 2 hours but push great power.

Editing because I just read the previous post. 200w with a HR in the 120s is probably upper Z2 for him. Seems solid & seems to have taken a good bit out of his legs for the 10 miler even though I'm sure it was supposed to be nice & easy.

agreed.. time and watts! Solid session for Cole

Exactly. It's all about the elevation gain. As this post says, it's a lowkey workout. I wonder how he liked it? I find Zwift quite boring.

There are also many people who can run a marathon who can't cycle 100 miles. I'm one of them. The pain in your rear end alone would stop most fit runners from managing a 100 mile bike ride.

I was wondering if that is part of the Ben T training program. I'm a big believer in cross training in the early season training phase. A great way to build the aerobic system with less stress on the body. It looks like Cooper Teare also is a biking enthusiast as well.

Whatever works, you can't argue with an Olympic Champion.

Hocker has strava? I can’t find it

We upvoted it because we've seen it on other threads and know it is being posted ironically as proof of how dumb AI can be. It is literally backwards. "100 miles on the bike is equal to 300-400 miles of running" is just idiotic.

You're right; he isn't. I saw the ride on the Zwift Companion App.

Average 200W, average heart rate 123 bmp.

Respect to him for keeping it relatively easy. See tons of runners hammer their bike sessions & call it easy. 123 avg. HR is solidly Z2 for him & should be fairly easy but it's not nothing. I've been doing triathlon for 4 years & I'm sub-110 HR @ 200 watts. Leg strength is real. Would much rather see supplemental cross training rides like this for a lot of runners.

You probably don't have your set up correct.

Especially if you are on a wheel in trainer without the right tension. And if you haven't set up an accurate weight its even easier.

Zwift is pretty close on the right set up. 22 mph on a flat is pretty comfortable. Indoor has no wind, no potholes, no cars, and you can focus on just pedaling

Sitting on a bike, indoor on zwift for 2 hours, is a greater achievement

Guy of his caliber generally shouldn't be working too hard at that biking pace. But as you mention, it's part of a monstrous low intensity high volume day.