Road Cycling - running and biking

My old friend, former and running champ in his small town, now switching his hobby to road bike, told me that it's easier to change from running to biking, rather than biking to running. I disagree, you thought?

Also, would it help your biking if you running once in a while? From what I have heard, running and swimming can't go together, you have to choose either one if you want to get serious.

well running doesn't help my biking any because i have ITB probs so my quads get tight and ouchy. to me the funny thing is how specific muscle memory can be. you'd think the hearts on some of these roadies would make them great distance runners and vice versa but it's like a fish out of water or something.

i'm just thinking out loud - i'm not one to talk about getting serious. with all my overuse injuries i'll be lucky if i get _up to a 100miles a week by the end of the summer.

i'm curious what the tri ppl here would think tho.

well i guess tri people dont really ahve a choice. its a do all or die sorta thing...i have a lot of respect for triathaletes..especially at the ironman distances

On a personal level, I'd say it's definitely a lot easier to go from running to cycling than from cycling to running. Especially if the running is hard-*ss long distance trail running. But then I also have asthma, so that might have something to do with it too. I've made both transitions several times, and going from riding to running has always seemed a lot harder.

running to biking is definily a lot easier. running gives you a crucial aerobic base, and that helps a lotwhen cycling. the main limiters are muscle strength for a runner=>cyclist, and that can be counteracted by spinning faster.

a cyclist going back to running gets screwed, becuase they have all of this excess muscle mass, and it cant really be put to use unless you are running like 800s or less. In addition, the cyclist is not used to the shock that running does to the knees and hips and ankles.

I remember way back when I switched from running (alot) to the bike. I then thought I might to biathlon or tri, so after a year or so, I went for a run on my usual route.

Felt fine, no feeling winded or anything, and legs felt OK.

Until the next day....

I planned (notice the past tense) on doing a local sprint tri this summer. So, last fall after a 20 or so mile ride I decided to try and run a little ways down the road. I walked to the bottom of the driveway, turned right, tried (operative word) to run and got all wobbly and almost fell down. It was actually pretty funny. My leg muscles had trouble adjusting to the motion of running after being on the bike.

I decided to make the tri attempt as a relay with two people from work instead. I know I could complete the race but decided I'd like to walk the next two weeks after it.

PJ

Another thought about this issue...those tri guys are really impressive, or is that insane?

Last year I photographed (newspaper photojournalist) an Olympic distance triathlon. The winner (traingin for the Olympic team) crushed everyone else and finished strong. He crossed the line and within a minute and a half was back to normal breathing and conversation.

I was amazed! He just swam a mile, biked 20 something and ran a 10K and he recovered enought to talk normally in less than two minutes.

PJ

I run, but I'm not happy about it. I'm not into tri's or anything; it just seems like good crosstraining. It's much easier to run intervals than to ride intervals, for me. Plus, the aerobic benefits are amazing. It's harder than cycling mentally, but maybe that's because I consider it "work." Cycling affords the ability to check the cyclocomputer, watch traffic or trail, switch gears, etc, but with running, you just run and maybe check the hrm or distance.

I deffinatly agree that running to cycling is easier, somewhat. I went cycling to running and my legs hurt so bad for so long. I do distance running. That was about ayear ago, now I've just recently started cycling again and it's much easier of a transition. Still tough though, because as people say, it's totaly different muscle groups. I'm going to start doing tri's every once in a while, but my emphisis is on running.

I know a lot of overweight (not obese) veteran road cyclists---fit in the cardiovascular sense, but carrying a noticeable spare tire. This is not a pheneomenon you often see among long-time runners. Anyone else notice this?

I know a lot of overweight (not obese) veteran road cyclists---fit in the cardiovascular sense, but carrying a noticeable spare tire. This is not a pheneomenon you often see among long-time runners. Anyone else notice this?

its because you get injured if you run while fat. plus, its easier to fit in workouts when running. an 8 mile run only takes less than an hour (for me) and thats a pretty decent workout. to get a good workout on the bike, I need at least 2 hours. so, maybe these guys dont ride as much as they should...

you can bike from when your 2 to when you 102 (perhaps beyond :)

you can only run for a limited number of years. regular running not only results in the incessant tearing of your leg muscles, but it also permanently erodes the cartilage from your knees (yikes!)

as my wife says, the only reason to run is to catch the guy who stole your bike ;)

Running is high impact and places a lot more stress on the body vs. cycling.

So going from high impact to low impact is easier than the other way around.