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- Cycling is a non-weightbearing sport
with little or no impact,
whereas running is a weightbearing sport
that actually has impact on every stride.
As much as five to seven times your body weight.
So is there any way in which these two sports
can complement each other?
- Well clearly as triathletes we can't escape
the need to do both.
Now having spent quite a bit of time around cyclists,
I know that they particularly dislike the idea of running
because of the effects it has on their cycling.
So today we thought we'd take a closer look at this
and explore the impact of running on our cycling.
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- Running can actually help your cycling and admittedly
it's a different movement but you're still going
to be using one leg at a time and working
your cardiovascular system.
And on top of that there are quite a few other pros
which we're going to cover.
- Now compared to cycling, running creates
a far greater load on our cardiovascular system
for any given period of time.
So in simplest terms if we're running for an hour,
it's gonna cause an awful lot more stress
on our CV system than riding for that same period.
So essentially we get fitter quicker when we're running.
- Running is time efficient.
Simply put, you get good bang for your buck
for a short period of time.
So say you don't have much time or you haven't
got your bike, all you need is a pair of trainers and
you can go out for a run and get a really intense workout.
And if you're traveling it's also really great 'cause
you just need to pack your trainers.
Several recent studies have shown that cyclists
actually have lower bone density than the control group,
or the general public who don't do any exercise which
is pretty shocking findings and probably something
you don't really want to know.
- Yeah, but it isn't all bad news thankfully because
it's been shown that cyclists who supplement their cycling
with running have a lower bone degradation over time
and this just lessens the chances of broken bones,
stress fractures or any other health-related problems
associated with low bone density.
- Everyday skills such as balance and proprioception
aren't necessarily utilized that much on the bike.
When it comes to running they suddenly are,
and especially when it comes to off-road.
- Now running helps develop these balance skills
through our feet, our ankles, our knees and our hips.
And in particular it improves our reaction times
as we move across different types of terrain.
And these improvements in our balance and proprioception
can really have an effect on our handling skills
particularly on the bike.
So for many athletes solely riding a bike can cause them
to have a lack of engagement in certain muscle groups
and for lots of others it's simply a lack of core strength
that allows them to produce their peak power on the bike.
With the exception of a pure fitting bike fit,
the majority of body problems from cycling,
stem from these muscle imbalances or just a lack
of appropriate core strength.
- Yes and by incorporating running into your training
you are naturally or most likely to be
activating those gluts and hamstring muscles,
which will then in turn actually help you when you come
back to the bike because it's gonna make you
more efficient in the pedal stroke.
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Well we've covered a lot of the positives of that impact
of running on cycling.
There are a few cons you need to consider as well.
- There are and firstly that weightbearing benefit
we were talking about earlier can actually become
a little bit of a negative if we're not careful and
mindful of the running volume that we're building up.
- Yeah if you speak to pretty much any runner or triathlete,
at some point in their career they're likely to have had
a lower limb injury.
And that's probably as a result of increasing
their training volume too quickly.
So remember that 10% rule that we've talked
about a lot on GTN.
If you stick to that and only increase
your training volume at a low steady state,
you should be able to stay injury free.
- So running does what it says on the tin right.
Well there is unfortunately no escaping the simple fact
that replicating a bike specific workout
with a run equivalent just isn't going to be possible.
- Yeah there's another downside to the crossover here.
You're obviously using different muscle groups,
now partly because of the position.
Obviously cycling you're sat down.
Running you're standing up and the biggest difference
there being that angle at the hips which is really
going to make a difference in your muscle recruitment.
If you're coming from a cycling background,
a thought of losing some of those hard-earned Watts
can be a little depressing.
But if you are new into the sport of triathlete,
you're gonna be supplementing some of those bike sessions
with run sessions especially hard ones,
you're quite likely to see that power drop off,
well actually up to as much as 30 Watts or even more.
Don't just drop your runs in anywhere
in your training schedule.
Think about the overall picture because a hard run
a night before or the day of a bike race could
seriously affect that bike workout.
- Yeah, so just taking a little bit of time
to think about where you place your workouts and
your overall training plan can make the world of difference.
Now it isn't necessarily intuitive to think of running
as a tool to help improve our cycling but
with a sensible approach there can be some positive effects.
- And us triathletes that's certainly encouraging to hear.
If you like that fact then, then the natural fact
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And if you wanna see a video on how to train
for a marathon we've got some tips
for you down here.
- And to see a video about top four bike workouts,
you can get that here.