Can lacing up your running shoes actually boost your cycling performance – or is it a fast track to injury? Discover the real pros and cons of mixing kilometres on foot with time in the saddle, and learn how to strike the right balance.
Running for cyclists can support cardiovascular fitness, bone health and overall athleticism, but it will not replace sport-specific cycling training for peak bike performance.
Because running is high impact and places greater stress on joints and connective tissues, it should be introduced gradually, with conservative volume, smart scheduling and adequate recovery to reduce injury risk.
Adding runs to your exercise routine can be an effective way to improve your cardiovascular fitness, make you a better all-around athlete and keep things fresh, particularly by mixing outdoor runs with indoor training miles during the colder winter months.
Done correctly, combining running and cycling should create a complementary cross-training effect and enhance overall athleticism.
Done poorly, however, running can quickly cause injuries due to the high load it puts on the body, specifically joints, bones and connective tissues.
In this article, we’ll cover how running and cycling differ, the benefits and possible downsides of running for cyclists, and how to minimize the risk of injury or overtraining if you add running to your exercise routine.
Whether or not you should add running to your exercise routine depends on your goals and the time you have available for training and recovery.
As one study in the journal Sports Medicine states, cross-training effects will not exceed those of sport-specific training. Therefore, if your goal is to maximize performance on the bike, and you have limited time to train, it’s probably best to add more cycling-specific workouts to sharpen your fitness.
If you don’t mind sacrificing some sport-specific benefits, or you have extra time for training and proper recovery, running can help keep things fresh and serve as a useful, time-efficient alternative to the bike. And, as the above study indicates, there is “some transfer of training effects” between running and cycling.
Because running puts a greater demand on your body than cycling, it’s essential to give your body time to recover fully before adding more load, especially in the beginning, while your tissues are adapting to the new stimulus. If not, you may experience the effects of overtraining or suffer an injury.
The main difference between cycling and running is the impact or load each has on your body.
In cycling, the weight of the body is supported by the bike, so the load is lower.
In contrast, running is a weight-bearing activity with high impact due to the high forces that the body absorbs when the feet meet the ground. This places greater stress on muscles, bones, and joints. This difference is why cycling is often used as a recovery tool for connective tissue injuries (tendons, ligaments, cartilage) frequently experienced by runners.
Cycling is also a much more limited movement than running, done in a relatively fixed position. On the bike, most of the lower body is working, but the glutes and quadriceps do most of the work, and the cardiovascular demand is high compared to the musculoskeletal demand, meaning recovery can be shorter.
In running, the work is more equally shared between the upper and lower legs, and the cardiovascular demand isn’t as high in comparison to the demand on the musculoskeletal system, especially for less-experienced runners. As a result, recovery is longer as connective tissues take longer to adapt to stress.
As mentioned above, if you’re training as a competitive cyclist, running probably won’t make you a better cyclist, unless it’s used in addition to a cycling training program that already maximizes cycling-specific adaptation and ensures optimal recovery.
For cyclists with limited training time and (probably) lower recovery abilities than competitive athletes, it’s usually not possible to fit in enough hours of training to maximize our performance on the bike, if that’s the goal.
Again, while running isn’t as effective as cycling for on-bike performance, there should be some transfer of cardiovascular benefits. It will also contribute to a healthier, more balanced physique by training more muscles and putting load on the bones to maintain bone health.
Cyclists are up to seven times more likely to have low bone mineral density (weaker bones) than runners, according to a study published in Metabolism, though this may not be a causal effect of running.
Cycling is an excellent low-impact way for runners to maintain their cardiovascular fitness and develop the musculature in their legs. Cycling’s low-impact nature makes it especially useful for active recovery. Replacing some low-intensity runs with cycling gives the body’s tissues more time to recover.
The cardiovascular training effect was shown in a study performed on 11 female collegiate runners and published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. By replacing 50 percent of their running volume with cycling, these athletes could “adequately maintain aerobic performance during the recuperative phase between the cross-country and track seasons, comparable to the primary sport of running.”
The same journal published another study of high-school male runners that also showed a beneficial cross-training effect by replacing two easy runs per week for four weeks with bike rides. These runners made bigger improvements to their 3,000-metre performance than those who kept everything the same.
Of course, aerobic performance is just one facet of overall performance; cycling training will not impart running-specific benefits such as improvement to running economy and tissue conditioning.
| Factor | Cycling | Running |
|---|---|---|
| Impact Load | Low (non-weight-bearing) | High (weight-bearing) |
| Bone Density Stimulus | Low | High |
| Connective Tissue Stress | Moderate | High |
| Cardiovascular Demand | High | Moderate-High |
| Recovery Time Needed | Shorter | Longer |
| Injury Risk (if new) | Lower | Higher |
| Cycling | |
|---|---|
| Impact Load | Low (non-weight-bearing) |
| Bone Density Stimulus | Low |
| Connective Tissue Stress | Moderate |
| Cardiovascular Demand | High |
| Recovery Time Needed | Shorter |
| Injury Risk (if new) | Lower |
| Running | |
|---|---|
| Impact Load | High (weight-bearing) |
| Bone Density Stimulus | High |
| Connective Tissue Stress | High |
| Cardiovascular Demand | Moderate-High |
| Recovery Time Needed | Longer |
| Injury Risk (if new) | Higher |
Cycling is not inherently bad for running. But if you’re a competitive runner or your goal is to achieve a certain time in a marathon, for example, you shouldn’t sacrifice running time.
This is especially true if your total available training time is limited; running-specific adaptations are key to maximizing your performance.
Again, the aforementioned studies indicate that cycling can help you maintain cardiovascular fitness while giving your body extra time to recover, so if your joints and tissues are struggling to recover between runs, cycling is a useful cross-training tool. But it’s an incomplete replacement.
As we’ve seen throughout this article, both sports can be used as cross-training for the other one.
Available evidence suggests that runners benefit more from adding cycling to their training plan than cyclists do from adding running to theirs.
But cyclists can still expect health benefits from mixing in some runs into their routine, especially when the goal is overall health and athleticism rather than peak performance in cycling.
Here are the main benefits of adding runs to your exercise routine:
Running uses different primary muscles and places greater load on the bones, joints and connective tissues, which, when done without sustaining injury, improves overall athleticism and resilience as the body adapts to that load.
Mixing outdoor runs with indoor training might help you stay motivated during the winter months or spice up your routine the rest of the year. Running is also a great social sport for socializing, with various run clubs and park runs hosted in most urban areas.
Running is an excellent way to maintain or improve aerobic fitness in a short amount of time, similar to indoor cycling.
As cyclists who are new to running, our cardiovascular systems can sustain much more load than our joints, connective tissues and bones, so it's easy to injure yourself if you don’t consciously hold back, progress gradually, and give your tissues time to adapt.
If you’re new to running or returning to it after an extended break, you can follow these three principles to reduce the likelihood of injury or negatively impacting your performance on the bike:
Begin by running once or twice per week, depending on how much time you have to recover. In the first few weeks, you may need a day to rest your legs after a run, such as by programming a recovery ride or an upper-body gym session the following day.
The duration of your runs should also be short; around 15 to 20 minutes will be sufficient. Repeating two-minute intervals of running with one minute of walking is a helpful tool if you can’t sustain 15 minutes of running at the beginning.
Finally, try to maintain a pace that keeps your heart rate below 70 percent of your maximum (Zone 2 or lower) or a pace at which you can maintain a conversation. Running at high intensities will eventually cause a breakdown in form and may increase injury risk, especially in untrained runners.
In running, the “10% rule” is widely considered to be a safe way for new runners to progress. It states that you should only increase your training time by around 10 percent each week.
Of course, there are many exceptions to this rule. For example, younger individuals or those with better recovery capacity can add more than 10 percent. But if in doubt, following the rule should reduce the likelihood of injury.
Once you’ve been running consistently for a couple of months, you should periodically (every four to six weeks) reduce your running load for one week to give your body time to recover.
Throughout this process, it’s essential to listen to your body and prioritize good nutrition, hydration, and sleep.
“You gotta respect recovery as much as you respect the grind,” Sam Long – a two-time winner of IRONMAN 70.3 St. George – says. “Sleep, nutrition, mobility, and knowing when to back off – that’s where the real gains come from.
It can be difficult to add running to your exercise routine without negatively impacting cycling workouts or performance. To minimize the effect that running has, try to programme your runs the day before your less-intense cycling sessions or leave a full day between running and a high-intensity or long training ride.
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