Benefits of cycling?

[Hanneke]

No its not, waste of time. much better to work on the core. Cycle for fun but dont see it as a worthy accompniment over swimming or just the gym

Do you even know how to ride a bike? You need a strong 'core' as those fashionable pilates types call it, to ride a bike properly and riding a bike properly works the core muscles...

[Hanneke]

Interesting for me... as I will be juggling fell running and cycling next season.

I started off being a road runner, then became a fell runner when I moved to the Black Mountains a couple of years back. I started cycling this season, because I got injured and could not run.

I focussed exclusively on cycling from December last year until about now, as I could not run for about 6-7 months. After that I found it hard to get back into running because I love riding the bike so much...

My findings: I started cycling on fell runners legs and the coach and trainer from the club I joined were very impressed. I subsequently started running again after 6-7 months of exclusively cycling and found the running very hard to begin with. Now that I am back into it, I find I have the aerobic and anaerobic fitness for it, as well as the leg strength, especially to run uphill, but I have completely lost my speed

While converting from running to cycling, I clearly had the endurance and aerobic and anaerobic fitness but did not have the leg strength at all to power the bike at any remotely acceptable speed...

My simplistic conclusion after focussing on racing the bike this season is that it is easier to convert from cycling to fell running than it is the other way around. I needed to put in a lot of hard work to get myself up to scratch on the bike, but am very quickly getting back into a reasonable running form.

Next year I am hoping to combine fell running and cycling, racing in boths disciplines, but am unsure how to combine the two. I can't help but feel that, in order to give myself a good chance in either, I should just focus on one.

Any thoughts on how to combine training and racing both on the fells and on a bike? Oh and I am talking road racing on the bike, not off road...

[TurboTom]

i see cycling as nmore of a substitute as with John Brown but i believe (opinion here not fact) that swimming is more beneficial. This may be because i am good at swimming, i enjoy it more or it does actually help. All i know is that my times are tumbling down and im starting to take minutes of PBs and i put it all down to swimming and core work. whereas last year i had a bit of a cycling buzz and just flat flat all the time again it may just be me

[Derby Tup]

i see cycling as nmore of a substitute as with John Brown but i believe (opinion here not fact) that swimming is more beneficial. This may be because i am good at swimming, i enjoy it more or it does actually help. All i know is that my times are tumbling down and im starting to take minutes of PBs and i put it all down to swimming and core work. whereas last year i had a bit of a cycling buzz and just flat flat all the time again it may just be me

Tom you're at an age where your body's still developing and getting stronger. Your pbs might have improved irrespective of whether you are swimming or cycling or neither

[TurboTom]

Tom you're at an age where your body's still developing and getting stronger. Your pbs might have improved irrespective of whether you are swimming or cycling or neither

Not grown for 2 years though.
I suppose i have also tripled my general training as well

[steadyeddy]

What! i dont think you an compare swimming and cycling in terms of benifits for running! for a start i think you first have to be a very good swimmer to get any cardio benifits from it! also yer maybe ok for the core but i dont think it really works the quads/calfs that much, maybe breaststroke more than front crawl. In comparison cycling is great for running especially fell running! it works the quads no end! also have a think about how many of the top guys use it;
jebby!
andy peace
jim davies
ben barnsley
ian holmes has done 3peaks cyclox so must do some training!
read in profiles in fell runner simon bailey, simon booth, scoffa, rob hope, ricky lightfoot.... all the saab salomon team as far as im aware! doesnt do al brownlee any harm!
Hey and look at how well Nick craig does in results!

dont think you can argue with that evidence

[stevefoster]

Ben Barnsley, cyclox
Totally agree eddy, cycling beats swimming as a compliment to running, young Tom is one chip short of a buttie sometimes, still love 'im though

[steadyeddy]

sorry didnt mean he'd done any cyclox just cycling in general saying that would be good to see how he'd do! look at his fred witton times and a veryyy good mtb'er

[TurboTom]

As i said its in my opinion. Maybe fellrunners do prefer cycling but then again unless some of them try swimming then we will never know.What about all 3 perfect mix look at Alistair Brownlee.

Cheers ML

[stevefoster]

sorry didnt mean he'd done any cyclox just cycling in general saying that would be good to see how he'd do! look at his fred witton times and a veryyy good mtb'er

Don't apologise mate, just taking the rip out of your spelling
Ben Bardsley has done the 3ppp's cyclocross and posted a good time. Hell of a fellrunner and mtb'er as well, apologies to you eddy for mocking your spelling