How Cycling Made Me A Better Runner
Happy Tuesday friends! I hope your week is going well so far and that you are finding your groove. I wanted to pop in today and touch upon one of my favorite things to talk about: running! I mention again and again that running is my first love. As with every relationship, there’s ups and downs there’s definitely been a share of those with running. Right now, I’m slowly making a comeback so it’s only a few miles here and there. However, something that helped my running had nothing to do with running at all! Today I’m touching upon how cycling made me a better runner.
Related: My Experience With The Peloton Bike
It’s not too much of a stretch to say that cycling and running do have some things in common. Clearly, they’re both excellent forms of cardio. You have a huge community of cyclists and runners wherever you go. Plus, cyclists and runners won’t be against getting beat up by the elements for long periods of time to get that endorphin high. Since I can’t swim, triathlons never interested me and I never really batted an eye when it came to cycling.
That all changed when running and I started not to get along. There was a time where pounding the pavement brought zero joy to my life for a while and it just sucked. I searched for a different outlet that helped me stay in shape and brought me the same amount of joy that running did. Enter indoor cycling! After trying out a few boutique studios around town, I heard about Peloton. The idea of having a bike in my house and being able to ride whenever I wanted seemed perfect. Unfortunately, at that time we could not make it fit in my budget so that idea was quickly abandoned.
Fast forward to fall of 2017 when our budget had more wiggle room and a flyer arrived in the mail at the right time! My husband was all for it. By then my running was better and there were moment of joy but performance wise, I hadn’t really improved. While running and I had made up, our relationship didn’t really flourish. Once the Peloton came home and I really focused on it, I began to think of running differently.
The great thing about the Peloton is that you can train however you’d like. There’s multiple instructors with different personalities. One instructor that I really took a liking to Matt Wilpers. This guy ran Division I track in college and was definitely a runner through and through. His approach to training on the bike easily translated to running. There’s a program within Peloton called Power Zone training where you learn what your exertion levels are and tailor each workout to your abilities. Once I learned about this type of training, I dove right in and I worked HARD. Here’s the crazy thing, I began to get stronger on the bike AND off the bike.
Since Power Zone Training is effort based, my cardiovascular strength was improving. This meant that running “easy” meant running at paces much faster than before. Power Zone training also made me focus on using ALL the muscles in my legs to pedal more efficiently. This made me focus on my stride and really making sure that I wasn’t overcompensating when I was running. Everything I learned on the bike, I made sure to apply to my running. It seemed like the light bulb went off in my head and now running was a breeze!
When I first started Power Zone training, my running was so-so. After 6 months being diligent with Power Zone training, my paces picked up quite a bit. Longer runs don’t wear me out as much as they used to (thanks to hour long endurance rides) and speed work kills me but I’m able to recover quickly (thanks to sprints on the bike). With all the hard work on the bike, I can now see how cycling made me a better runner. Now, I’m not saying that all the riding on my Peloton would even come close to actually riding outside. However, it’s good to see how other forms of exercise can improve our running if we just approach them with an open mind and the willingness to learn!
Have you ever had moments where you stepped away from running and tried something new? Did you apply those principals to running and see improvement? Ever just need a break from running to come back refreshed?
