cbip

My brother in law is training for a Marathon and also rides road bikes. He told me that his coach said that cycling would hurt his running and vice versa. Does anyone have experience with this. I do not run but was thinking of doing some to lose some weight and add some cardio to my riding.
Dont see how 3-6miles every few days could hurt but maybe!

redirekib

Cross training never hurt anyone, it's necessary for total fitness. I don't run but I recently took up some fast paced walking - I found some muscles I didn't know were there and dropped a few pounds in the process.

Grasschopper

I got back into a bit of running this year and there is no way the 20 lbs I lost running and riding has hurt either.

eb314

If you want to be the best cyclist you can be, you will ride the bike 100% of the time. If you want to be the best runner you can be, you will run most of the time and lift weights some of the time depending on what type of running you're doing.

dmotoguy

if you are just a recreational cyclist then running will probably help more than hurt.. if you are a serious racer then it is recommended that you do not run during the race season.

caloso

I think riding helped my running, actually. You can go out on the bike and really punish yourself aerobically without beating up your joints.

damocles1

No good comes from running if you're a serious cyclist. I ran for an hour last week and am still feeling it. My hips, knees, ankles and feet all hurt like I took a beating.

I really like the elliptical machine, as there's no impact, but running on the road is just bad.

huytheskigod

I hate running. So, I have a weekly Badminton game going with some co-workers. Makes me run without thinking about it!

furiousferret

Finally a subject I'm an expert in.

Here's the deal;

There's no way you can train to your max potential in running or cycling at the same time. Your body will not be able to handle it. I'm putting in 25-40 miles a week and 100 on the bike and that is pushing the envelope of injury.

Running doesn't hurt cycling. It only hurts in the matter that the energy and time you use running would be better served on the bike. Plus when I go hard running I have to take it easy the next day on the bike, so half my miles are trash. However, 3-6 miles every few days will not hurt at all, you can easily do a 40 miler and 6 miles running without getting hurt.

90% of the people here will not be hurt by running; in fact running is a better way to lose weight than cycling (but not as fun )

Ttown

I would recommend starting out slow - going from not running to 3-6 miles a day regardless of speed (even just twice a week) is aggressive. You will risk some injuries if you start too "fast". You might want to try starting with 1/2 hour jog/run and move up from there.

Nbois

+1

Check out the Tri sub-forum. Many people do both, and can be successful at both...plus swimming on top of it

The only ways that I could see one hurting the other is by A) taking training time away from the other, or B) hurting/over-exerting yourself in one, thus not leaving enough for the other.

ravenmore

Hey Chuck - running outside in the 'real' world will help you lose weight. If you're going to be a P1,2 rider then you'd want to stick to cycling more - especially during the season. Off season for a lower cat or recreational riding though I think it can be very beneficial. The thing you want to watch out for, especially since you have some aerobic capacity from cycling, is that your lungs will out pace your legs running. So take it easy especially early on to keep from getting injured. Another suggestion is to use a heart rate monitor getting started. Run until you get to the upper end of your aerobic zone and then walk until your HR gets to the lower end of the same zone.

ravenmore

Oh yeah - start with shorter distances too - like 1 - 2 miles. There's a formula for increasing your mileage but I can't remember it off the top of my head.

cbip

Thanks guys for the info. I will probably just stick to a treadmill since it will be easier on the knees, although I may try a few miles on pavement and see how it goes.

ravenmore

Treadmill isn't as good for weight loss. With a treadmill you're kind of lifting your legs up and down while the surface moves underneath you. In the 'real' world, you are pulling and pushing your own body weight along with every stride. The more you weigh, the more effort to push/pull yourself along, the more calories burned, the more weight you lose. Running on a real surface is very weight maintaining. Think back to your days in the military and how thin you were then.

Also, go to RunTex and have them evaluate for you a proper set of running shoes. It's critical to have a shoe that supports your stride.

stapfam

Try to save those knees. I used to run 15 mile Crosscountry as my main event and it was not the XC that ruined the knees- It was the miles pounding the pavement that ruined me for running.

If you just want to run a marathon- it won't matter whether you train on the bike or the road- providing it gets you fit. You would have to do some road running to acclimatise though.

But if you want to be competitive on the run- You should have started training 10 years ago.

cparekh

I can give you my experience. I have run a sub 2:40 marathon, so that puts me in the almost, but not really, elite category. I think the question for your brother (though you asked both) is whether cycling will hurt his marathon. The problem with running competitively is that you have to run a lot, 100+ miles a week, often at a fast pace. Most people's bodies cannot do this all year, and so they will get injured. In order to prevent injury, you have to 1) stretch, 2) strength train, and 3) cross-train. I define cross training as anything that raises your heart rate while using different muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments than running.

Cycling, swimming, running in the pool, orb trainer, rowing, etc. all fit this bill. I ran in a collegiate program with All-Americans and other very successful athletes, and they all spent time on a bike. My opinion is that cycling will help running much in the same way a power nap helps productivity. By using cycling to rest your running muscles, it allows you to train harder and longer on other days.

I am training for a marathon as we speak, and since I am not 20 years old anymore, I need more rest. My training consists of 4 days of running and 2 days cycling (and one day of drinking). I think this is something that should work for must marathoners.

/cp

PS Joint problems from running are not about running itself, but about form. In college, we spent 10+ hours a week working on form in some way (form drills, weights to help form, etc.). Most runners who train with proper form do not have any sort of knee problems. I realize this stinks of a selection issue (those who have no pain continue running), but it is something you can work on.

edbikebabe

Don't increase your distance by more than 10% per week.

rick1

Running and Cycling are different from a muscular standpoint. When you run the muscle contractions you experience are mainly Eccentric meaning as you land your muscles contract similar to a shock absorber. Cycling on the other hand is purely based on Concentric contractions similar to doing a bicep curl with a dumbell. Cyclists tap into their lactate system via the leg muscles much more heavily than runners due to the longer deeper Concentic contractions.

I have a friend who has never biked since he was a kid and started biking this year after being a marathoner for years (45 marathons + numerous races) he definetly struggled when climbing and trying to keep a constant pace at lactate threshold as his threshold pace is lower than mine, but on the other hand I'd suffer attempting to run a 20K with him. From a cardio standpoint we weren't much different but from a muscular standpoint very different.

furiousferret

Beat me to it.

palookabutt

What is proper running form, and what drills will help with it? If you could supply a good book reference, that would help.

When I ran track in high school (middle distance), nobody ever said anything about form, they just pointed us to the track and said "go". Sometimes they had us run quarters, other times we went for a mile or two at a time. On rainy days we ran around the basketball court. I have a sneaking suspicion our haphazard coaching is one reason I suffered from shin splints and knee problems.

riversiderider

I only run if I am being chased!

Billy Bones

Somewhere in this mix should be a consideration for the diversity of active pursuits that beat down boredom, burn-out, and blahs. After all, there's little use in highly focused training that ends in a bad case of the bugger-alls.

edbikebabe

Actually, the difference between running "on a real surface" (wind resistance etc) and running on the treadmill can be accounted for easily by increasing the %incline on the treadmill to 0.5 or 1%.

The higher your HR, the more calories burned. I'm not sure the difference between whether you increase your HR on a treadmill or on the road is really that big of a factor.

skinnyone

Dude do you have any recommendations of books/web sites. I do the usual, strides, knee highs, butt kicks etc but am never sure about how much or how often to do these. I have an ITB issue that keeps me from running as much as I want to or as hard as I want to.