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Anyone do a good amount of both? I'm finding the two hard to juggle with recovery times needed.
I always ride Tuesday night and Sundays, both of these rides are with clubs so end up pushing quite hard. If I can I try and squeeze at least one commute a week on the bike and I'm trying to fit 2 runs in, one fast with Fartleks and the other a bit longer and at about zone 3.
It's not excessive but feel achy a lot and I've just had to take a full 4 days off everything as I could feel myself burning out.
Anyone got any tips for balance to get enough recovery in but still get plenty of training in when you work full time?
When are you running relative to biking? If running the day after biking then I find I'm running in tired legs which makes recovery skier and more prone to injury. If time constraints mean no other option then I always try to run on fresh legs and bike on tired rather than the other way round.
Try to ride after run rather than the other way round.
Every 4th week should be a recovery easy week.
Eat and sleep well.
Lots of stretching and core strength exercises.
Running is a bit sporadic but tend to try and go out when I'm feeling freshest. Should probably put more of a plan together but my working week can vary a lot so squeeze it in around the riding.
4th week easy... that could help, I've ramped up and up since July.
Have you built up gradually to this load?
What is it?
Stretching, diet, rest?
Yeh I've been building it up since July. Not really taken a rest week though and felt like collapsing on Wednesday last week so did nothing until this evening when I've been for a run.
In fact I've ramped up since January really when I realised I'd got a bit tubby but really switched it up a gear in July when I had 6 weeks off work. The twice a week club rides started in September.
I have managed to develop a very good run/bike balance over the past two years. What I have learnt:
- Run Hard - Bike Easy - Alternative Days - yet ensuring there are a few hard bike efforts so when you go out for a 'proper' ride you can still nail the power.
- Use cycling to build endurance - low impact and can have so much fun for longer.
-In winter this gets hard, so substituting one or two of the hard runs for turbo interval sessions usually works well.
- Go by what feels right- Yes running takes longer to recover from, yet to notice a REAL difference you probably need 3 runs a week. I always notice that when getting back from winter and running maybe 2 times a week, the body takes a little while to adjust.
- building a good running base and doing 10-15mins core work and stretching(especially planks and dynamic core exercises) keeps your upper body in good nick for running. I have always found that cycling never tightens my muscles as badly as running, yet developing well stretched legs keeps most niggles away.
- As others have said, find a good pattern, e.g. let your body go easy every few weeks - but don't stop running!
Cheers, some useful info so far.
I ride club Sunday (long usually 4-5 hours) and Tuesday night (shorter but sharper 2-3 hours).
Any advice on best days to run?
Your problem may be that you are running/riding too hard. At most 2 tough workouts a week is about right for me, occasionally fit in a third but rarely are they all really hard. I find running and riding work really well together, reduces the risk of overuse injuries from doing just one of them too much. Of course I'm not a top-level athlete, but I like to keep fit and am moderately competitive (more so at running than cycling).
thecaptain has it, 2 hard workouts a week, all the rest easy, maybe a 3rd hard workout if you do much lower volume in the week than usual.
Combine that with cutting volume and intensity in half every 4th week to recover.