Why should I consider adding runs to my cycling routine?
Incorporating running into your cycling routine can significantly enhance your performance and overall fitness. While cycling primarily targets the legs, running engages different muscle groups, especially the core and upper body, improving cardiovascular efficiency and lung capacity. This full-body engagement boosts stamina, helping you maintain power during long rides.
Running also addresses muscle imbalances created by cycling, activating the hips and lower back, which improves muscle balance, agility, and coordination. This results in better control, more efficient pedaling, and smoother rides. Furthermore, running is a weight-bearing activity that strengthens bones and enhances bone density, providing long-term health benefits and reducing the risk of fractures, especially after falls.
Mentally, running challenges you in new ways, helping to break up the monotony of cycling. The varied terrain and rhythm keep you engaged, which translates to improved focus and mental resilience on the bike. Additionally, running serves as effective cross-training, reducing the risk of overuse injuries by diversifying the load on your muscles and joints.
Lastly, running is a time-efficient workout, providing cardiovascular and muscular benefits in a short amount of time, perfect for cyclists with tight schedules. In summary, adding running to your training not only boosts physical strength and stamina but also improves mental resilience, making it a smart strategy to elevate your cycling performance.
Will running make me a faster cyclist?
Cyclists can benefit from regularly adding running to their training regimen, whether for time efficiency or other positive (health) effects. But will it make you a faster cyclist? Ultimately, you can handle a certain training load based on your current fitness level. If you're already training at a high volume and intensity on the bike, you can't simply add running without consequences. Because you might risk overtraining. Moreover, if you have limited time to train each week, adding running may not necessarily yield benefits, depending on your goals and level. One key principle of training physiology is to train specifically for the outcome you want. Focus on the areas where you wish to improve to achieve the greatest effect. So in the short term the benefits of doing runs are small for becoming a better or faster cyclist.
That said, combining cycling with running can certainly make you healthier and fitter than sticking to cycling alone year after year. Running activates different muscle groups, such as the hips and lower back, contributing to better balance and symmetry—something cycling alone often doesn't achieve. Stronger, more balanced muscles lead to better bike control, more efficient pedaling, and smoother, more stable rides. Running also improves coordination, reduces injury risk, and increases resilience on the bike. Plus, alternating between sports keeps training interesting year-round.
So while a seasoned cyclist may not immediately become faster from running, over time, it can make them a better, healthier cyclist. And our favorite reason to run: having options. If cycling isn’t possible due to weather, travel, or lack of time, the ability to run 10 kilometers is a great backup. However, it takes time to build up to running at a good pace without injury, but once you do, it can become one of your favorite tools for cycling fitness.
How does it work?
JOIN takes into account your preferred number of runs per week, but doesn’t necessarily reach that number every week. As you are accustomed to with JOIN, JOIN only plans a workout when you are well rested enough to improve by the planned workout. Sometimes it’s just better to take a rest day for example. JOIN also gradually builds up the duration and intensity of your runs. Thereby it also takes into account what you have done on the bike. It doesn’t make sense to get a cycling VO2max workout the day after a VO2max run. Of course JOIN also takes into account that running is in general physically more demanding than cycling. This is not necessarily the case on a cardiovascular level, but it is in terms of strain on the muscles and impact on the ligaments and joints. In general, runs are therefore shorter than rides. But you can get pretty long runs, when you have shown based on your training data to be physically fit for that. Of course JOIN will never plan a run longer than your availability. So if you want a shorter run than prescribed, you just need to adjust your availability.