Off to Daegu and the Cycling Debate

I am heading down to Daegu to watch some of the track and field world championships shortly. Started the day with a hard 13.1 mile run in 1 hr 33 min.

I am still debating the benefits of cycling during hard training. I don't do long rides, but over the last 2 days I have covered 20 miles, some of it pretty high intensity. I'm pretty sure those miles made today's run more difficult, but is that good or bad? What's more effective, running 1:33 on tired legs or 1:28 on fresh ones?

Almost half of today's run was on dirt and stones, not very fast, so I am optimistic that I can knock this time down further (last week I did 1 hr 36).

The Cycling Alternative

(that's me in the Izena Triathlon, Okinawa Japan)


Today was one of those days I just did not feel like running- so I took out the bike for 15 miles or so, forcing the pace a few times just to give my legs and aerobic system a little workout. Cycling is a great complement to running- in fact if you are so inclined it wouldn't be a bad idea to bike and run an equal number of miles on a weekly basis. You should be able to do that comfortably on 2 rides a week- 40 miles running, and 2 x 20 mile bike rides. I think you'll find that after a few weeks your legs will feel fresher on your runs than when you ran daily.