biking as a supplement

One thing I have found to be real beneficial is doing hill repeats on the bike. I think I first heard the idea from John Kellogg. I will ride the stationary bike, put it on a high resistence, get off the seat, and just pound it hard for 30 second repititions. Great workout. Sort of like hill repeats without all the pounding running downhill. I seem to reap many of the same benefits.

I've had good success incorporating spinning sessions into weekly training. wearing a HR monitor, i could regularly get my HR sustainably around 180 and even over 200 for fast 'downhill' efforts (high velocity). Can do sessions where you remove the saddle and have to stay up for 30-40 mins on double time etc. Found it to be a great supplement when i had a toe fracture that took an age to disappear.

with regards to biking and marathon training - i have found that you need to still do the work on the roads to get your legs stressed enough to cope with a marathon raced in flats. often what can kill your performance is that your legs aren't up to handling that stress over that distance.. one of the benefits of lots of miles on your feet.

I also incorporate riding into my routine. By learning to pedal properly (using clipless pedals and pulling up on each stroke) I have found that my hip flexors are much stronger and my speed / kick has improved as a result. Riding a road bike has also improved my core strength and balance.

Anyone have any more specific examples of success (or failure) trying this? How much cycling did you do and how much did race times improve??

I have been on the opposite end of success here. I aquajogged the crap out of my body during a season of injury, and when i came back, i was worn out. i had pushed my body in the water to the point where i was basically burnt out. (i was generally doing 60-90 minutes a day).

In another season, I biked alot to maintain fitness, but did not feel like I was in shape when i returned to running, and also felt worn out from the biking. The take home message here is to be careful with whatever you are doing. too much of something, especially too much hard stuff, will wear you out. the thing runners dont realize is that biking, for example, does not work exactly like running. many runners feel that they should jump on the bike and bike at the same level that they would run at. This is untrue if you are not used to biking. Being aerobically fit in running does not mean you are aerobically fit on the bike. Biking/swimming can be a great addition to your training, but as I have found out the hard way, you have to play it safe. A heart rate monitor is a great way to determine the proper intensity level. good luck.

Fascinating and wonderful. There's still a reason to come to this board!

I can feel age beginning to do things to me, and I was thinking within a few years I'd have to regularly drop one day per week of running for a day of cycling. My assumption was that I would have to kiss goodbye any thoughts of running near my best under those circumstances. Apparently, that's not so.

I feel the same way. Maybe there is hope after all.

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Two to three hours a day, huh. I thought I was doing something a bit noteworthy by stationary biking 90 minutes six days a week with at least a two hour bout on Sunday.

One more hopeful bump for success stories - any with the marathon in particular?

I posted this on 30/9/2006 on a running equivalent to cycling thread.

'On a personal level I have been injured the past 6 months (no running at all) and have extensively (7-10 hours per week) used a stationary bike to try and retain some degree of fitness. Cycling outside where I live is too hazardous -it's bad enough running! When I first trained on the bike I couldn't get my pulse up at all, however, after a few months I was able to perform LT workouts (20 mins) on it. I use high cadence as I don't want cyclists quads. My max HR is 180 LT 162. I know quite high, but in a 10 mile race I averaged 164. I have even done anaerobic sessions getting pulse to about 175. I started running again 2 weeks ago and like Benjamin decided to keep some cycling in my training schedule. I find I can cycle 70-80% of max HR without the body decay high(ish) mileage tends to bring with it.'

Since then I gradually increased the running proportion of my training, but I am still cycling on an upright up to 4 hours a week. My mileage maxes out at 60 and the additional cycling probably supplements it by 20-30 miles. However, I am in the habit of recording time spent training instead of mileage, as I believe it's all too easy to get obsessed by hitting a certain weekly mileage level (like in the past). I am really happy about the progress I have made and ran close to my 20 year old PB in a 10 miler in December. I 'retired' at 22 back in the days when Brits ruled the middle distances and I needed haircuts. If you are injury prone you should seriously consider using cycling as an alternative, certainly for your easy runs. Because I have knee problems I don't feel I can risk doing hillwork. I am looking forward to doing some 1 minute hard repeats on the bike like those mentioned above. They are painful but simulate well the last quarter of an 800m. It's great to fill your legs with lactic while you try to watch TV as a river of sweat cascades down from the handlebars coating your bemused pet.

Thank you Brit git - very much appreciate your input! Congrats on the nearly 20 year old PB, too! It definitely keeps my hopes up to hear that.

I am considering that 75 or thereabouts might be a red line for me and I might be better off with 60-65 and an additional 3-5 hours on the stationary bike too.

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Has anyone ever tried a bike mount that turns a regular bike into a stationary bike? I was contemplating getting a stationary bike but have seen these mounts and was wondering if one of these would be a better buy?

http://www.modernbike.com/itemgroup.asp?IGPK=2126175046

My thinking is that I may do some triathlons in the future and one of these mounts would still allow me to train on the same bike that I would race on.

Thanks in advance for your input.

men am I long on this message board today at least 3 hours listening music and webbing. Probably due my half time school with no job possibility (that’s or system) on the other half :-).

I did a triathlon this summer did end well. And if i bike i swear by the 20 minute steady riding on a ergo bike. This with as much cool down warm up as you like.

Fitness in biking like km/hour in running on the bike is watt.

Lance was the first to swear by it. If you can put 5 watt per kilogram you are in good cardio vascular shape, if i ever stop running this might be a good option. This with or without swimming and parkour.

If you work with watt even from your average 100 dollar ergo bike. You learn to train competitive. 5 watt/kg is worth about 42 km/hour on normal weather conditions on a road bike.

Wind can up the watt number quickly.

Lance had a wmax of 600 watt, in other words he could hold that for 5 - 10 minutes in a test. He weighed 75 kilos. So that is 8 watt/kilogram. I'd say 7 w per kilogram putts you at a vo2max at least of high 70's low eighties per kilogram. He had only 80 or something at that weight but he was econommical.6 watt/kg for 5 - 10 minutes puts you at high 60's to low 70's. Probably comparable to 32 minute 10 km road racers.

I take 85% of my maximal watt number and just bike that for 20 minutes. Like in a tempo run. My heart rate is about 82%.

At teh end i increase to near wmax for 2 minutes. For a runner its more leg pain then about high heart rate. My legs really burn already at 85%. After that depending on time i cool down for 5 - 10 minutes. I was at 5 watt/kilogram at wmax. In my triathlon i however only kept the pace at 35-36 km/h. But the plus is it never hurt as much as in my training sessions. And i had fresh legs going in the run. I ran 36 minutes flat for 10 km wich was good enough for the age group medal(youth -23y of my region).

I think long bike rides don’t suffice for building good cardio vascular shape quickly. I did them the previous triathlon and then i suffered to bike at 30 km/h. I didn’t even had fresh elgs to go in the run. This is my experience on 2 triathlons.

No mather what most recreational riders say. It is mostly about how much power you can develop for what amount of time. I think intervals are a bit to hard if you run next to it. 20 minutes hard with a 10 - 20 minute cool down is perfect to me.

Cycling has a couple of advantages to me: less strain on the knee’s, you can burn fat off or keep six pack with such rides even when not running. But i think long bike training is boring and then i can feel bad for the rest of the day.

oh yeah when riding try to keep rpm about 90 - 100. Dont overdo it either,then you wll suffer in terms of bike fitness.

Don't underdo them,then yyou're running will suffer.And you might get injurry.

Remember on the ergo or just road bike:WATT and RPM.

This is how i won my age group triathlon at nearly 2 hours for a quarter triathlon that with just a couple of months of bike training. Swimming i have the height advantage and the youth.

as i went up to 1'10"/100 meter pace in training . 1'18"-1'20"/100 meter at 1500 meter was a breeze. Swimming is big time technique and back,triceps muscles and some aerobic capacity.

I am no good cyclist at all, but i think i couldnt have done any better on other training, to not suffer on my running or swimming quality.And sicne running is probably number one this is a good reinforcement.After ten minutes your quads hurt a bit.and you puff(probably). But its nothing like interval work(if you try to run then you're legs simply feel like blocks, and you are waisted On the otehr side the long bike rides and i never feel like running a bit faster then really jogging and i am tired overall).

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This thread wouldn't exist today. Would last two post before the trolling.