Can a serious runner go straight into 200-mile+ cycling weeks?

No, that's not too much.

Your risk of getting injured just increased by a few thousand percent, however. Be careful.

I took a long break from cycling then got into running almost exclusively for two years then injured my ankle. I rode 650 miles in the first month after my injury. I'd have biked more if I had the time. Biggest thing with cycling is being properly fit to the bike so that you 1. don't wind up with saddle sores that sideline you for weeks and 2. don't mess up your knees with a saddle that's too low (most common) or too high. I had this sorted already so it was easy to just jump back in and go, aside from some slight sitbone tenderness during the first week.

If you rode 30 miles every day for a week already you must not be having any major issues so I don't see an issue. As you extend your rides be aware that going for 3+ hours on a bike starts putting you into 'bonk' territory. Bring some food and start to eat an hour into your ride and then at whatever increment feels best after that. Hydration becomes a lot more important past 30 miles, too, so keep that in mind. Salt and water are your friends if you sweat a lot.

Short answer. Yes. Easily.

As to injury risk... it's not so much from overuse, by mostly from crashing.

Make sure seat positioning is correct and use lower gears for uphills to avoid knee strain.

It has been mentioned, but your greatest risk of injury is if you have a bad fit/positioning and are grinding hard gears. Otherwise, cycling is great because you can murder yourself physically and not really get hurt (very different from running in that sense).

The real question is why are you doing 200 miles a week? If its just recreation, then have it it. If you want to get fast, you should structure your riding, because 30 mile rides at sub 200 watts isn't really going to do much for you. Per my previous comments, you can load up heavily on intervals and see a much more rapid trajectory in your training without hurting yourself. That being said, cycling gains don't always translate to running.

Thanks for the advice and words of wisdom. It's been a while since I adjusted my seat height, so I'll have to give that a look and make sure it's right. I also appreciate the reminder that fitness doesn't seamlessly cross over, and that I'm working a different set of muscles now and need to exercise caution.

Man, I miss running.

Are you using a power meter to measure watts? if not 200 miles is just spinning.

I'd say not to worry, but various things like your butt/etc will need to 'toughen up' a bit to withstand that many hours in the seat. I think that wouldnt take more than 2-3 weeks tho

imateacher wrote:

Are you using a power meter to measure watts? if not 200 miles is just spinning.

30 miles with 2k ft. of vertical at ~18mph is not 'just spinning' for a non-cyclist.

Little point to just jumping in to 200 mile weeks. Ride less but harder. 160 watts is piddling.

Shoot for 1.5-2 hours at 200+ a few times a week. Shoot for 230+ on a ride.

Doing the same wattage every day is a complete waste of time.

Joe Jackson wrote:

imateacher wrote:

Are you using a power meter to measure watts? if not 200 miles is just spinning.

30 miles with 2k ft. of vertical at ~18mph is not 'just spinning' for a non-cyclist.

It is for someone that can run a 15:30 min 5k, i.e. anyone with some aerobic ability.

duder wrote:It's been a while since I adjusted my seat height, so I'll have to give that a look and make sure it's right.

Rule of thumb: your seat will be at about the right height if you can keep your heel on the pedal while pedaling backwards without rocking your hips. From there, it has always just been a minor tweak for me. Keep in mind that changing footwear and even the number of layers on your bottom half can affect saddle height. For that matter, where the pedal contacts your foot plays a large role, too, hence the popularity of clipless pedals which keep this relationship fixed.

Longer rides will clue you in re: saddle height, if you haven't already gotten clues. In general...

Pain behind the knee = saddle too high (over-extension of your knee)

Pain in front of the knee = saddle too low (overloading your quads)

Leg length and flexibility discrepancies can make this *fun* to sort out.

Bring on the questions about hand numbness, neck pain, dealing with road rash, etc. :-)

real cat 1 wrote:

Joe Jackson wrote:

30 miles with 2k ft. of vertical at ~18mph is not 'just spinning' for a non-cyclist.

It is for someone that can run a 15:30 min 5k, i.e. anyone with some aerobic ability.

After just 1 week of cycling? Cycling works different leg muscles and it takes some time to adjust.

sit and kick wrote:

I'd say not to worry, but various things like your butt/etc will need to 'toughen up' a bit to withstand that many hours in the seat. I think that wouldnt take more than 2-3 weeks tho

I'd agree with that. I periodically have to stop running because of injuries and jump back into cycling roughly 200 mpw. It never bothers my legs much but is really hard on the butt for the first week or two.

As others have said, the injury risk is not so much from overuse at 200 mpw but from crashes. Be careful.

FFF wrote:

No, that's not too much.

Your risk of getting injured just increased by a few thousand percent, however. Be careful.

This. There are only two kinds of cyclists:

Those who crashed and those who are about to crash.

I'm a 70+ guy who runs about 45-55 mpw. I recently got my mountain and road bikes cleaned up and lubricated to get back to doing some cross training with them after just having them as garage wall art for the last 5 years. After about 30 minutes of riding my right hand gets so numb I can barely shift or brake with it. I have decent padded bike gloves and good padded grips on both bikes. Any wisdom on reducing the numbness would be appreciated.

Train on the stationary bike instead like a "30 year old Kenyan"

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1065781

you have too much weight over your hands either due to (A) your bike fit and/or (B) your core is too weak. Hard to give any more specific feedback without seeing your position on the bike. (A) can be the result of a seat that's too far forward, bars that are too low, or many other things.

A strong cyclist can be very low, but with core strength, balance and proper positioning, there is only a small amount of weight on the hands. With good core strength you should be able to ride a very aggressive position actually take your hands off the bars and not fall forward. The less aggressive the position the easier this should be.

200 miles a week biking is barely a warmup. 30 miles a day. That's about equivalent to running eight miles a day. If you were doing 3 days of 70 miles, or two days of 100, that would be a challenge.