Incorporating Cycling into Marathon Training

Audio Transcript

Michael: Hey Runners Connect fans. Today’s question is about incorporating cycling into your marathon training.

Question: How would you recommend incorporating cycling into a marathon training?

I’m a fairly experienced marathoner who recently purchased a road bike for cross training and recovery.

I’m not necessarily looking to replace running workouts with cycling, but I’m considering some easy cycling on recovery, rest and off days, where I would otherwise not be running or possibly doing some easy cycling for recovery during the evening of my long run days.

My long runs would be performed early in the morning. Any recommendations would be appreciated?

So first off, that’s how we like to use cross training. We really like to use it as more of a supplemental tool, not necessarily a replacement for running.

Many runners, especially in the case of marathoners, try to replace too much running with cross training. This just doesn’t work.

Sure, you’re getting a proper aerobic workout but it’s just not in the same way that running is.

A great example is a few years back when Lance Armstrong trained for the New York City marathon. He ran relatively poorly given his cycling acumen.

He’s one of the best cyclists of all time, has an incredible VO2 max naturally and yet even though he did some training for the marathon, he just wasn’t really there, didn’t have a great performance.

You have to strengthen the muscles, you have to work on your running economy and running requires recruiting the glutes and the hamstrings just so much more than the bike.

The reasons that biking is a fantastic cross training tool, is that, first off, it gets your heart rate up. Unlike swimming, with swimming aqua jogging, your heart rate is actually pretty low. If you check even when you’re swimming really hard, or aqua jogging very intensely, your heart rate isn’t very high. With biking, you can get your heart rate sky high if you want to.

Secondly, you can alternate between a higher heart rate and a lower heart rate fairly easy. This is more the case on the stationery bike where you can use the resistance, but even when you’re out on the roads, it’s going to be a lot higher on the hills.

It’s going to be a lot lower on the flats and down hills where you’re able to cost a little bit, so it’s sort of like fartlek and interval training in running.

Thirdly, this is the obvious one, it lowers the impact. It’s an easy opportunity to get some really quality aerobic training in without the pounding on your legs.

Fourthly, it gets blood flowing to your legs. This is, in my opinion, one of the best features of cycling.

A 30 minute bike on a rest day still gives your legs a break but also draws some fresh blood to help your legs recover.

This could make you feel better when you run the next day. Some runners feel a little lethargic, a little tired on their run the day after a rest day, and so this could really help alleviate that.

Now, in terms of how to supplement, if you’re very experienced and you’ve been running for several years, fairly high mileage consistently, you can implement cross training on all your rest days if you really want to.

If you’re more of a beginner, I highly recommend taking at least one or two complete rest days per week.

This is just necessary for your body to properly regenerate and recover as you get more experienced.

Since the question is from a more experienced runner, I’ll address that, but still important to know to include full rest days if you’re more of a beginner.

Let’s say you’re running five days a week or even six but perhaps you’re looking to add an easy bike instead of an easy run on one of those days.

The true rest days, are the days that are just complete rest, and this is especially true if these are between two workouts. Maybe you have a workout on a Tuesday and a workout on Thursday, and we’re looking at Wednesday.

Or if it’s between a workout on a long run, you either workout on Friday and have a rest day on Saturday before a long run on Sunday.

You want to keep the bike at an easy or maybe a moderate effort. You don’t want to make it a hard workout.

Even though it’s low impact, biking is still tough on your body as a whole, and you can look at your endocrine system, stuff like that.

It’s still tough on your body and you want to make sure that it’s nice and easy when it needs to be. We’re going to look at about 45 to 75 minutes, maybe a little shorter and perhaps a little bit longer, depending on your overall mileage, and what you’re trying to accomplish that week.

If you’re tired, take it nice and easy. You want to have a nice comfortable bike where you’re getting your heart rate a little bit without necessarily giving a hard effort.

Otherwise, you can throw in some surges, some steady sections.

Here’s a couple of examples. You can do a 20 minute easy bike followed by 30 minutes of steady biking.

That means getting your heart rate up, working a little bit without necessarily biking hard, followed by a 20 minute cool down.

Another great example would be a warm up, with about 10 minutes easy. Make sure you’re always warming up on the bike, 10 or 15 minutes easy, then do 10 times a minute moderate to heart effort. Not all out but just a moderate to heart effort with a minute rest, then you’re going to get 10 times 30 seconds hard.

That’s where you’re really working, pushing the peddles with 30 seconds rest, and then just a 10 minute light spin to cool down.

Now, if there’s a day where you’re replacing a run, you can make this one a bit harder.

One would be, you do a 10 minute easy warm up and 10 times two minutes hard, so you stand on the peddles with high resistance.

That means you’re up, as if you’re climbing a hill on the bike.

I’m talking about stationery bike here but basically 10 times two minutes hard, whether you’re on an uphill section, or a flat section.

Try not to do on a downhill section for safety reasons, but go hard and really up the resistance if you’re on a stationary bike for those two minutes.

You’re going to take two minutes rest between each one. Again, that’s 10 minute easy warm up, 10 times two minutes hard with two minutes rest.

By rest, I mean a light spin, easy effort and then a nice 10 minute cool down. Another great example is, you can do a 10 minute easy warm up, and 10 minutes medium.

That’s like 10 minutes of moderate effort, five minutes hard, and that’s where you’re really going, not quite all out but you’re giving a good effort.

Five minutes easy and then you do two times two minutes hard.

If you’re on the stationery, add some resistance with one minute easy between and then a 10 minute cool down. To repeat that, that’s 10 minutes easy warm up, 10 minutes medium, five minutes hard, five minutes easy, two times two minutes hard with one minute easy between, and then a 10 minute cool down.

Basically, anything where you’re implementing some really good surges is going to help a lot.

You’ll increase your aerobic capacity without the impact on your legs like you would with a run. All in all, biking is a fantastic cross training tool. Just make sure it’s more of a supplementary tool than a replacement.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t replace one run a week with biking, but you still want as many running days as you can handle each week while staying healthy.

Don’t forget to submit your questions at runnersconnect.net/daily-running-podcast.

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