Training & Nutrition - Mild running: Helpful or harmful?

I’m trying to help a friend lose weight (his main problem is motivation, so I’m there as motivation) and at the same time make up for the lack of riding time I’ve had during the week recently. He’s thinking 2 miles of mild running every night (except weekends) but I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with that, so I’m shooting for maybe 5-10 a day. Will this running cause undesired effects in my pedaling, power, endurance, etc? or will the extra workouts for my legs be beneficial? Not to say I'm going to screw over my friend if it's not great for me, but at the same time I'd just like to have a better picture of where it will take me.

running is a great form of excercise, although uses diffrent muscles groups than cycling should not be harmful to your cycle skills. Although if you give up cycling time to go running, then you might have some issues.

Ray

Whatever the guy can do to elevate his heart rate would work for him- if he's overweight and not used to exercise, he MUST start slowly, build up a solid endurance base and increase his stamina before getting more into exercise. Don't go and push him because your exercise agenda is different than his. You are obviously both at different levels, and if you can't work within his schedule, better for you to give the moral support from the sidelines.

Having said that, if you did do the running, I think it would be an excellent way to cross train for your cycling. Running does use some different muscles, but the muscles you use for cycling that you also use for running will be used in different ways. I really do think this does help to increase the overall strength of your muscles, as long as you don't overdo it with the running.

It does sound like you and your friend have different agendas. Keep in mind, when someone decides to start exercising, they need support but not pushed to the point to where they hurt themselves, don't have fun with it, and can't keep up- all of these results will end up leading to the person quitting exercise due to discouragement, and that's the last thing you wanted to do since you're supposed to be the motivator, right?

Koffee

I completely agree about not isolating him and putting my intentions first. I wouldn’t call him horribly overweight, but he’s just out of shape. He did cross-country in the fall, but after the season was over he stopped running. I went out and ran this morning for what was probably around 7 miles at a moderately fast pace and didn’t feel to fatigued. I think I’ll be a bit ahead of him in the endurance, but running with him until he decides to take a break is no problem for me. Thanks for the suggestions and information.

Try The Couch-to-5K Running Plan (http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml) Many people have used it to start a running program.

Mild jogging is helpful mainly because of the cardio aspects you get from it. Yes the muscles you use aren't quite the same. Running up hills has been shown to help some of the cycling muscles. Too much running can hurt your cycling a bit. I say get out there and run.

this is about running, i figured I had to chime in a bit.

What I have found is that running is much more taxing on the cardiovascular system then cycling is. At the moment, I am much more of a runner then a cyclist. what I find when I ride is that I almost never get out of breath, even when spinning at 100 rpm going 20 mph. however, my legs are killing me from the exertion. for me, the limiting factor is the muscular strength that cycling requires.

The catch-22 is that too much muscle from cycling hurts the running, becuase that is just extra mass that you have to swing, that you don't use while running. Consequently, if you lay off the cycling for too long, you will develop tight, toned, hamstrings and skinny, well, runners quads.