Running --> Biking

The advice i hear around here is to keep the effort equal to running. Heart rate will not be reliable since you are primarily a runner so you might not be as conditioned in the bike as in running with the same heart rate. And in terms of miles, just switch to time. However long it took you to run x miles on that particular day, do that. Some people have posted formulas but they're too complicated and i think unnecessary. Just go by time and effort and i suggest you structure the workouts the same way you do with running. For example:

If tempo pace was 6 min/mile and your easy pace was 7:30 min/mile

Running session: 2 mile WU, 5 miles at tempo, 2 mile cooldown. That would be 15+30+15 = 1 hour

Use those same time breakdowns for cycling

The idea of a conversion rate between bike miles and running miles is tempting, but not helpful.

Start by biking about the same amount of time per week that you would ordinarily run. You can probably do this happily in less than 7 days. Spend some time on the days off on rehab activities or strength training. If you don't have issues with that and have more free time, ride more. You may find that you can ride a lot more. If, say, your knees get sore, back off (and maybe read about bike fitting).

my general crosstrain rule is 10 minutes=1 mile. so if you run 40 mpw, shoot for 400min on the bike. if you can bike outside though and not just on a trainer you can have more fun with it-- go for some 30,40, and try a 50 mile ride. its cool how far you can go on a bike and not feel wrecked.

yes, i agree with knox harrington.

try biking twice a day: 30-60mins and try a longer ride: 2+hrs on the weekends as your long run. i'd encourage taking more off days and focusing on strengthening (listen to your body)

Former cyclist here.

Please, please do not use conversions. Lots of people say like 1 min running = 3 min cycling or something and you should do 3x the volume now. This concept is flawed in many aspects.

1) Yes, cyclists ride a lot. But their event demands are vastly different from runners. Races often take 3, 4, 5 or more hours. So they need to have such long rides and train a lot to prepare their body for it. If you train for 5k or 10k, your race duration is 14 min-35 min or something. Completely different.

2) You are not used to cycling. If you go out and start riding 3 hours, your muscles will be extremely sore and you will cause fatigue that might linger. Your legs will burn and feel weak even at low HRs. It happened to me many times.

3) If you start overdoing it, say bike 3 hours for 3 days in a row each day, your butt will be so sore that you will regret it. Again, you and your muscles are not used to that activity.

Imagine Chris Froome, one of the best cyclists in the world. He gets injured with biking. Say he bikes 30 hours a week. Would you have him run 10 hours a week? No. Would you have him run 100 mpw? (he bikes 300 mpw) - NO! Even if he would run on an anti-gravity treadmill with no impact, he would be fried by 100 mpw of running.

Think about - WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH CROSS-TRAINING? Do you want to become a great cyclist? If yes, then keep building your volume and change your sports. But if you want to just stay in shape for running, and keep your fitness up, train MODERATELY. If you ran 1 hour a day, then bike for 1 hour a day, but not more.

Then, you can slowly start building volume as you get more used to it. But don't go nuts. If you do too much cycling, you get quads that are way too big/strong for an efficient running stride, I'm still dealing with this because I biked a decent amount in the past.

I will also add that runners should ride smaller/moderate gearing combinations (on a standard road bike, use the inner 39 tooth front ring), focus on spinning the cranks at a high cadence similar to running, and use your glutes/hamstrings to pull the pedals through rather than mashing down with your quads.

Ride for time and base your ride on perceived effort. Don't worry about speed and don't chase down every cyclist and triathlete you see. Big quads are great for cycling power but bad for running.

as others have said there isn't an official formula to convert from running to biking. However I would say you probably will end up being able to go longer on a bike than while running. 1 hour of running has a greater aerobic benefit than 1 hour of cycling on similar terrain.

Id try and get a ride in every day you would normally run, maybe less as you get used to cycling. But you can go longer per session. It also is easy to stop pedaling on a downhill but you should do your best to keep your legs moving in order to get the benefit. Just shift into a gear where you can keep putting out effort. I would also try and incorporate fartleks into your rides. Do intervals from 1 to 10 minutes of hard portions with appropriate rest, generally either even or 1/2. Because cycling is no impact it is easier to do these workouts more often

The real key is to ride aggressively everywhere and yell at people for not getting out of the way. ENJOY!

The goal of cross training is to maintain fitness (and not go crazy!) while recovering from an injury, so it's important to not go overboard with biking volume.

However, I find biking to be a bit easier than running as you can relax for certain portions, so you can probably increase the duration of your activities by 1.25 to 1.5 times.

True cyclists do go for 4-5 hour rides, but as LateRunnerPhil said, they are training specifically for extremely long bike races, and these won't help you as a 5k runner.

runnerr wrote:

as others have said there isn't an official formula to convert from running to biking. However I would say you probably will end up being able to go longer on a bike than while running. 1 hour of running has a greater aerobic benefit than 1 hour of cycling on similar terrain.

The thing is, for someone training for distances around 3k (9 minutes), a 2-3 hour ride every day is not an effective/specific way to train. If you could run for 3 hours knowing you wouldn't get injured, would you do it preparing for a 3k? Probably not.

What is better, is to bike up to 1 hour each day, but do 2-3 workouts a week on the bike. One threshold, one VO2MAX, one with maybe some high watt sprints. THAT's really gonna help maintain fitness. Easy riding for 2-3 hours each day, which many people think about doing with cross-training is nonsensical, unless they are preparing specifically for the marathon, an event with 2-3 hour duration (Meb did a lot of long bike rides, also many EU marathoners do long bike rides, but no 3k/5k/10k guys I know).

Also what the other guy said, high cadence (90+) is preferable to avoid building too big quads and glutes (if he actually manages to use them while cycling, which most - myself included - can't). Also very important is professional fitting, it at least gives you a chance to use all muscles properly, but it still depends on you and your riding style.

Also, no one pedals on downhills after a certain gradient, it's useless. You get faster by using an aerodynamic position. Doesn't make much sense to pedal after 40+ mph anymore, just get low, in an aggressive position (doesn't need to be superman or Pantani-style) and enjoy the free speed.