Maintaining Running Fitness Through Biking/Swimming

Read this thread and do what it says it has worked the best for me in terms of maintaining fitness.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3359162

Thanks so much!

When I have been banged out I have lifted a load and Biked 150-225+ miles a week. Just watch it when returning to runnign as the engine will be a lot stronger than the chassis and it can lead to a cycle of injury (my whole Spring 18-to Spring 19)

I was out for 8 months and only swam. Since you’re out for a short time, you can actually GAIN fitness during this time. I would swim 4800m a day, with 3 interval sessions a week. On intervals, you want to get your heart rate and keep the rest SHORT. The worst thing you can do is to stress over it. Hope you heal soon!

I am sorry to say but the only way you can really keep running SPECIFIC

-fitness is by running, if you cannot run at all and you are swimming and biking then only your swimming and cycling fitness will improve, your aerobic capacity will likely not decline dramatically either but seeing as running is a notch above the two latter sports aerobically, if you were in extremely good running shape aerobically before injury then you cannot expect to keep 100% that fitness and no amount of swimming or cycling will cut that.

If you have access to an underwater treadmill then that is great, do that a lot!

Thank you so much!

1 mile running = 500yd swimming = 4 miles biking,

in calorie expenditure

San Diego Hobby Jogger wrote:

1 mile running = 500yd swimming = 4 miles biking,

in calorie expenditure

Most cross training should be done based on time. The only metric your body knows is “how long was I working out for and how hard was it?” 50 minute run = 50 minute biking if the intensity is similar. Interval work is tougher to do in the pool as your heart rate soars much faster, but you can at least get a similar amount of time spent working in as you would running.

Do you know all of the strokes and can you put swimming workouts together? Just swimming laps isn't going to do much for you unless you can do some intensity. the HR stays pretty low.

On the bike, work towards getting your HR up to what you would run an easy workout. It's hard if you don't bike. Once you can do this, start putting together track workouts on the bike using time instead of distance. this is much easier to do on a trainer than on the open road unless you live in the middle of nowhere and don't have to deal with traffic.

Hard biking will keep you in great shape. Once you come back, you will find your speed won't be there but you will be really strong.

The quality workouts should be kept at the same lenght. High cadence biking might actually be good for you. Easy training should be longer than your ordinary runs, but remember that you body is not used to this. So it would be pointless to say a distance. Use time and feeling

I agree with all the comments about cycling. Start with 100 miles/wk maybe if you're a beginner but try to build up to more as you can. I've been running 20 mpw and biking 200 due to nagging running injuries (for the past 6 wks) and yet whenever I try to run hard I have full fitness. Also agree with the comment, "Be careful getting back into running. Your engine will be stronger than the chassis."

The comments about swimming 4,000m/day is stupid. People without a swimming background will be tired or sore after swimming 200m. Cycling is a much more realistic transition for runners.

Physical activity is very important. If you can't even afford maximum effort for sports, have nowhere to go, and are generally under quarantine, it's better to exercise online. There is such a psychological attitude. One recent study found that support, healthy competition in online groups, and the increasing responsibility that comes with it can help you stick to regular exercise. Online exercise classes or chats with girlfriends/acquaintances in which you share your results, photos, healthy recipes, etc. can help.

https://jordibhealthandfitness.com/