Running on rest days a bad idea?



ecandl

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Sep 20, 2006
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I am an aspiring triathlete but really want to improve my cycling. I plan on doing more triathlons but have considered doing some bike racing in place of or in addition to triathlons. I plan to focus on cycling and wonder if running on rest days is okay or counterproductive for improved cycling?
 
If your goal is cycling, cycle. Nothing rewards performance more than specificity. You may become a good cyclist if you do some running in a focused cycling plan, but you will never be the best cyclist you can be if you are still running.
 
I've tried running and cycling training at the same time and find it hard to do both, mostly because--for me at least--running on a cycling recovery day prevents me from really recovering.

One of my worst "spat-off-the-back-of-the-pack" moments was about 30 miles into a 60 mile group ride on a Sunday morning after having run 10 miles the night before. My energy level was just gone even though we were not going particularly fast and I had to limp back 30 miles home all by myself (it was not a no-drop ride).

I vowed not to make that mistake again and have probably only run a couple of times in the 5 months since then.

--Steve
 
It's hard to 'coast' when running, so I wouldn't consider it a 'recovery' activity. I do think you could build running into a cycling-specific programme, however. I know a duathlete who is a national team member and he seems to partition his year so that in the late Fall and Winter he is mostly running, and his cycling is reduced to recovery; in the Spring and Summer he works both pretty hard, but probably leans a little more toward cycling.
 
I generally run on my cycling off-days, not quite sure if it's beneficial or not, but I feel okay getting back on the bike after a run the day before. I don't run more than 3 miles usually, so it's not a huge energy drain.
 
ecandl said:
I am an aspiring triathlete but really want to improve my cycling. I plan on doing more triathlons but have considered doing some bike racing in place of or in addition to triathlons. I plan to focus on cycling and wonder if running on rest days is okay or counterproductive for improved cycling?
With all due respect, I am not sure your question is properly asked.

If you want to train like a triathlete, then ez runs are mandatory, and they will generally occur during ez days. In this case, they are a good idea because you don't even have the choice. You have to run, and from this running volume, a significant part has to be done a low intensity. So I'd say good idea.

If you want to put triathlon aside and focus more on cycling. And if you're wondering about the benefit of running during rest days in order to improve cycling performances, then no. It's a bad idea.

Running, even when it's slow, is taxing. Therefore, say you have a tough bike workout on monday, and an other tough one on wednsday. Running on tuesday isn't likely to improve wednsday bike workout.

1 hr of run <> 1 hr of cycling, no matter the intensity. Though I didn't take time to verify it in the scientific litterature, I'd say that 1hr of easy running = 1hr of cycling at level 2-3.