biking base, will it work for running??

You keep general fitness. But to run fast you must run.

dude, 60-90min/day on the bike is NOTHING. it's actually hardly worthwhile. to really get in a decent base you need to be cranking on that puppy at least 2 hours a day with frequent days up to 3 hours and a long weekend ride of say, 4-6 hours. It's much easier to do if you have a road bike and can occupy yourself by riding to the next town and back or up some mountain passes or something. I use road biking as injury-time training all the time and find that it makes a huge difference in how fit i am, cardiovascularly, when i work back into my running. having said that, you need to be careful that your conditioned engine (heart and lungs) don't outstrip your gears (muscles and tendons) once you start running again because you won't be used to the pounding.

An hour on a stationary bike can worth 1.5-2hrs on the road. If you keep the heart rate at a moderately high aerobic level you get a great workout. 2hr a day like that is more than good enough - and worth 3.5hrs on the road, IMHO.

If done well, stationary biking will help you preserve much of your running fitness. The best way is to wear a HR monitor and made sure you are getting yourself into a range where you are getting aerobic benefit. Keep in mind that HRs differ depending on the exercise. As a rule of thumb, I aim to hover around 130 bpms. An hour of doing that is decent exercise.

The time conversions between biking and running are based on the general belief that one gets a rest in biking, by coasting down hills, and so forth. Any decent cyclist will tell you that the time comparisons will be closer than that if you, like a good cyclist, never stop peddling. A fixed gear bike is a good way to enforce quality time on the road.

A few thoughts:

1) if you can get on an elliptical trainer, do so, it's a lot better

2) if you can get on a real bike, it's significantly better...although you have to watch your flexibility and range of motion if you ride too much

3) swim too...it'll break the monotony

Que? 1 hour on a stationary bike worth 1.5-2hrs on the road? Maybe mentally, but physically it's the other way around. I've done both and a 2 hour bike ride on the road in my opinion and experience is worth about an hour on the run. That is of course if you're not coasting any. That's the only benefit of a stationary bike. You have no choice but to maintain pedaling.

Alan

Alan,

I think he meant to compare stationary biking vs. road biking. I too was confused but that's how I interpret what he wrote.

I wouldn't say that the biking base would be as good as a running base; but, it's sure as heck better than nothing. In the rare occasion that I'm injured, I do all of my training on a stationary bike, and do workouts equal in time to what I'd do if I were running. In my opinion, the stationary bike is potentially a much better workout than is road biking for someone less skilled than a professional cyclist, as I personally would be much too afraid to bike as hard on a road as I do on a stationary bike, and would probably crash into something within a few minutes. When I return to running, I most assuredly don't feel as strong as I would if I had spent the last 3 months running instead of biking; but, I imagine it would have been much more difficult to get back into running without having done any aerobic exercise for those 3 months.

After running in college I started racing mountain bikes seriously. During that time, I would run the annual big local 10k with a couple of weeks of runs here and there. The results: me and my gigantic biking quads stunk up the 10k pretty badly to the amazement of my old running buddies.

The biking in addition to running might be beneficial, but you can be a beast on the bike and a lousy runner. So, the "biking base" must not be that good.

I was off a year and a half ago for about a months with runners' knee. During that time, I did hard cardio workouts on the life cycle and elliptical trainer, usually 90 minutes, plus or minus, typically 6 days a week. I would guess that my heart rate was generally in the aerobic conditioning range (say 70% HRmax give or take) for most of the workouts, most of the time. I'd finish my workouts standing in a puddle of sweat, with my clothes stuck to me. I probably looked (and smelled) pretty gross.

My 10k PB (which I'm still trying to re-write) came a week after I started running again. In looking back, I think that the aerobic work I did in the gym was at least as good as what I was getting with my running (in those days, I usually ran hard and low volume - I'm not sure if I'd see comparable benefit these days).

I agree. If you're out cruising around easy, all the road biking in the world---be it 45 minutes or 5 hours--isn't gonna do squat. But last night I did an hour on the Lifecycle--one with a heart monitor built in--and stayed in the 65% to 70% range a lot better than I would on the road. And like you said, I was beat and soaking wet with sweat. Mechanically, yeah it's different than running...but aerobically, 143 beats a minute is 143 beats a minute.

Dumb Ass wrote:

my muscles atrophied into fat.

That's hillarious. Muscle can magically turn into fat. Please explain that to me doc.

Did you take into account calories?

It is quite possible that you were expending a great deal less energy while in the spinning classes than while running.

So, if you were taking in the same amount of calories that you took in while running, problems may occur.

Take a look at real cyclists. Purely shredded.

(Vaughters on Mt. Evans:)

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos.php?id=photos/2003/jul03/mtevans/BSjv

Ben

I returned to running in March after a long achilles tendon injury rest period. I continue to road cycle, but only to exercise on my easy/moderate days; on my hard days, I do the usual hard run workouts. I have cut back significantly on the bike mileage, and those sessions are approximately 70 minutes. I get in as many hard runs as I would if running exclusively, use the bike sessions for recovery, and believe I am reducing injury risk. I continue to get stronger as a runner. Note: I am 58 years of age and began running in 1979. Yesterday, I did a strong run; today, I will do a short/brisk bike session, allowing my run legs to recover. Tomorrow a run is scheduled.

I was out of commission for about 2 months with a stress fracture. To maintain some level of fitness, I bought a mountain bike, and I hit the roads. I'd ride about an hour each day, and then do a long bike on the weekends. I also tried to hit as many hills as possible. Those rides made for a nice fartlek workout.

I found that I stayed in pretty good shape once I returned to running. Even when running, I still hit the bike once a week for awhile.

don't it shortens your hamstrings

depends on how you ride, what your riding background is, etc. i came back from a two month layoff and was running mile reapets in 450 within one week, so it is possible. try to ride at least 200mi per week though. and high cadence so you don't build bulk in your legs.

Dumb Ass wrote:

from running. Spin classes turned me into a FAT ASS!

I think the problem is that cycling tends to increase appetite more so than running. I know after even a 2-3 hour ride, I come back ravenous, whereas after running 2 hours (and burning more calories compared to riding), my appetite, ir anything, has decreased.

This is probably why a lot of elite cyclists watch their weight more carefully than runners--if they don't, their appetite will get the best of them, and they'll get fat. Cyclists like Lance weigh their food (or somehow monitor their food intake) in the weeks prior to the Tour, while most runners get lean enough just by training hard and eating healthy.

HEY! Listen to me! I have learned from experience...DO NOT, under any circumstance, take up biking! I decided to begin biking last fall to take a break from running. Spin classes turned me into a FAT ASS! Of course, at first it was all muscle, but then, when I tried to start running again, my muscles atrophied into fat. I gained so much f***ing weight from using the bike (from 135 to 165) and EVEN NOW am still recovering, trying to get back to where I was. It made me minutes slower in every event. Listen to my advice, and do NOT use the bike! I hope you will continue to run well....