DopeyBadger
Imagathoner
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2015
Do you feel like you get an equivalent workout on them, as compared to running? I know it wont be identical, of course, but do you finish 30-45 minutes with that feel-good, post-run kinda vibe?!
I didn't get the same response from cycling as I did from running. Ultimately, my personal data supported the idea that an equal effort indoor cycling ride needed to be about 1.5-2x longer than an equal effort run to be a similar workout. So an easy 45 min run was a 70-90 min indoor ride. This worked from a training load standpoint. But when I attempted to run a marathon off this substitution of some running with some cycling, I found that the cycling didn't translate as well. I had relatively poor marathon performances. But I could run a good half marathon as my still PR from 2019 stands when I was doing cycling and running. I went the path of indoor cycling to lessen the injuries I was getting from running. But after 3 years of doing it, I was still getting injured (just new different injuries) and I had to commit 12-15 hrs of activity instead of 7-8 hrs of activity for the same running fitness level. So I've since gone back to exclusive running and haven't used the indoor cycle since April 2021.
Over those three years despite all the added training volume, I gained a decent amount of weight as well. So in retrospect I believe that I wasn't burning as many calories as I thought I was doing the cycling as I was doing the running.
Lastly, my resting HR was significantly higher during that three year period than when I did running exclusively. This was likely due to the advantages of running on heart stroke volume that isn't present for cycling.
But the workouts did provide a different type of burn that running didn't ever give me. My quads became much stronger during that time and I had some decent muscle growth right above my knees that I didn't have before and don't have currently. I also enjoyed being able to really zone out on the rides by turning on some TV and watching some movies/shows that I typically don't have the time for. So I definitely got something out of the rides, and enjoyed many of them. But I enjoy running more.
Are there best practices for swapping a short ride for a run? Do you try to hit the same HR ranges, for instance? Mix a ride in with some other indoor exercise? Are there pace equivalencies or something?
In my experience, my HR was about 10 bpm less than a matching effort run. The best "equivalency" to run pace is the use of "functional threshold power" for determining zones to work in for cycling. I used the following % zones from FTP to determine effort levels for cycling.
So if I wanted to do a VO2max workout (like a VO2max workout for running), then I would aim for 106-120% my FTP value that was in watts. If my FTP was 262, then my VO2max zone was 278-314. And similar to a run VO2max workout, I'd maintain that wattage for something like 2-5 min and then have equal rest. So if you're just looking to swap out an easy run with an easy ride, then just do about double the time on the bike at something like 55-75% FTP.
I used TrainerRoad when I was doing indoor cycling. It can be paired with a bike trainer (I used a Wahoo Kickr Core) or can be followed alongside other indoor bikes that can't pair with it. I believe it was something like $15 a month when I was using it. But if you're going to be relatively infrequent user of the indoor bike, then it may not be worth it.
I had a pair of cycling bibs (link) that made a big difference in the comfort of the ride. I had originally purchased a few cheap pairs on Amazon (like these) that absolutely ate my backside up. Then there's clip-in shoes, and on and on it goes from there... At the end of the day I ended up doing an estimated 12,000 miles and 788 hours on my indoor cycle. It held up very well.
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