Many people who bike commute are making a healthy lifestyle choice that will benefit their long term physical and mental wellbeing. In many cases, bike commuters enhance their health and fitness with a combination of physical activities such as combining their bike commute with run training. There are examples where people put off combining these activities as they are daunted by the prospect of juggling two individual and separate fitness disciplines.
Combining bike commuting and running can be beneficial to overall health and fitness. When recovery is managed effectively, you can use your bike commute and run as complimentary exercise regimes for additional long term improvements and benefits.
There are many arguments over which is better for all-round fitness between cycling and running, but for me, ‘better’ is a subjective term which largely depends on your personal circumstances and goals. For you, ‘better’ could be fat loss, cardiovascular fitness improvements, strength improvements or a whole host of other metrics.
It is common for bike commuters to procrastinate over picking up other activities alongside their daily commute to improve health and fitness. For people with a long and challenging commute, there is a worry that they will struggle to work out in other ways and run the risk of making their commute unbearable and difficult to maintain.
A lot of people ask if you can train for a marathon whilst bike commuting with many opting to drop the daily commute during training programmes for running challenges and events. It doesn’t have to be this way. The daily bike commute can absolutely contribute and enhance your running goals. They can be complementary activities, with the daily bike miles contributing significantly to your run training but there are a few things to consider.
Cycling and Running Differences
Cycling and running are both forms of aerobic exercises and can both be enjoyed outdoors, in nature, whether that through countryside tracks and trails or in the city. Both exercise forms can range from low to high intensity but they are generally activities that are sufficiently supported by aerobic metabolism and can be performed for extended periods of time.
According to Health Line, neither cycling nor running stands out as a far better option than the other when it comes to health. Pick whichever one fits your lifestyle best to give yourself the best chance of enjoying it and to make sure you can stick with it consistently over time. You can also switch between the two to reap the benefits of each activity and prevent boredom.
The key differences are in the level of recovery needed for each exercise and this will play a key part in combining the activities if you are training for a running event.
Cycling helps improve running performance by developing fitness, stamina and endurance with a lower impact on your leg muscles due to it being a much lower impact exercise. It is also a great additional cardiovascular workout too and by adding it to your weekly training regime it will help you to do more with less stress on your body.
In a lot of cases, you can maintain a cycle for longer periods of time meaning you can hold an increased heart rate in a beneficial zone for longer. Consider the table below. When the heart rate is within 60%-70% of maximum capacity, basis endurance is being developed as well as active recovery.
| Heat Rate Zone | Max HR % | Benefits |
| Zone 1 | 50%-60% | Improves overall health and aids recovery |
| Zone 2 | 60%-70% | Improved basic endurance and fat burning |
| Zone 3 | 70%-80% | Improves aerobic fitness |
| Zone 4 | 80%-90% | Increases maximum performance capacity |
| Zone 5 | 90%-100% | Develops maximum performance and speed |
Cycling, due to the lower intensity than some other training forms, allow these lower rate, but highly beneficial increased heart rates to be achieved and held for longer periods of time meaning the calorie burn during the cycle will increase.
Running, especially for prolonged distances and time, whilst using more muscles than cycling, puts more impact on your body and is generally considered a tougher workout. From personal experience, and hours run will leave your muscles sore and will take much more time to recover than the same period of cycling.
Does Cycling Interfere with Running Training?
There are some views as to whether you can compliment training for a running event, such as a marathon, with a bike commute. The key t combining these is making sure your recovery is sensible and you do not overreach. I personally combined running with bike commuting to complete the Derby Half Marathon. It can be done.
When combined correctly, your bike commute could become your faithful companion in assisting you in training for a running event, or just trying to increase the amount of physical training you do.
When you run, your body utilises a number of certain muscle groups to perform the functions needed to propel your body forward. When you cycle in between your running or as a complementary activity, you use different muscles in different ways meaning you strengthen the overall muscle in a manner which will aid running performance over a period of time.
Your bike commute will use different sets of muscles to running and makes more use of your quads, glutes and core muscles. These muscles complement those used for running which, in turn, will help to make you a stronger runner. Your efficiency will also improve too which will help you run faster.
There are many reasons that bike commute and running can be complementary activities. We delve into the key benefits of combining these further.
Muscle Building
Cycling helps to build up muscle more than running and will strengthen the glutes, hamstrings and quads whereas running just uses them. Variety may be the best approach here to improve your overall running performance. Cycling can be a great contributor in building stronger legs and a stronger core which will be highly beneficial for running.
Muscle building from cycling will have its limits though. If you want to become a stronger runner or cyclist then ideally you need to combine the running and cycling activities with a strength and conditioning programme to increase progress further.
Aid Active Recovery
Cycling on the days following running can exploit the low impact nature of the exercise to get your muscles working again and aid recovery. Low impact exercise as an active recovery improves blood flow and circulation, which helps promote nutrient and waste product transport throughout the body and help the muscles repair and refuel faster.
Recovery after exercise is essential to muscle and tissue repair and strength building and a muscle will need anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to repair and rebuild, and working it again, too hard and too soon can lead to tissue breakdown instead of building, risks injury and introduces physical and mental fatigue.
There are potential psychological detriments too as training when not fully recovered can impact your motivation and make it less likely for you to sustain a good healthy training routine and lifestyle.
Bike commuting can be a great way to improve recovery following an intense training run. As you are only commuting to work, and not competing for the the Tour de-France, you can ease off a little following a period of running in order to still get the recovery benefits without pushing yourself too hard. Cycling lends itself well to dictating a pace that is beneficial for recover when required.
The best thing for recovery is to listen to your body. It does know best after all!! If you feel your body could do with a rest from exercise then let it rest. If it is crying out for a break then give it one. The most important thing you can do to recover quickly is to listen to your body. If you are feeling tired, sore, or notice decreased performance you may need more recovery time or a break from training altogether.
A few days rest will be more beneficial in the long run in order to reduce the risk of injury. Injuries can set your training regime back weeks and so is far more impactful than an extra days rest to your overall running goals.
Whilst it is easy to let the small aches from exercise talk you out of training again, you need to make sure you have an awareness of mind to know when enough is enough. It is easy to dismiss aches and pains as a lack of motivation and talk yourself into training anyway, especially if you have a running event on the horizon. You will need to work on listening to your body and acting accordingly for optimal recovery.
Only you know if you are ok to bike commute after an intensive running training session, so make sure you listen!!
Adds Additional Aerobic Exercise on Rest Days
Getting out on the bike whilst while training for a running event will give you an extra boost of aerobic exercise, and help to build general health and fitness, on days you would be ‘resting’. This contributes to your cardiovascular fitness can give you an ‘edge’ in your running.
Working of different muscles, which cycling will offer, will also aid the strength of muscles needed for running which will improve your overall running performance and help to increase your running speed.
Improved Flexibility
Cycling can aid in the development of more flexibility and can assist in the loosening of the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and hips and can help maintain flexibility in the lower body. Improved flexibility reduces the risk of injury and so is complimentary to a running training programme.
Flexibility plays a role in running. When you run, your lower leg joints and connective tissue tighten. That’s a good thing in terms of strength and running economy, but it’s not so great for your joints and muscles. The more inflexible they are, the more prone you can be to injury.
It is important to add here that long cycling can have a detrimental impact on flexibility and shortening of muscles over time. It is important to maintain a good post cycle stretching routine to maximise flexibility performance.
Injury Management
If you are nursing an injury then you should consult a doctor or a physio to ensure that bike commuting will not aggravate the injury further. However, cycling is generally a great activity to do if carrying a running injury and to aid injury recovery.
As mentioned in this article, cycling uses different muscles and is, in general, lower impact and so can help to keep your legs ‘ticking over’, at least maintaining the condition in them. This will help with circulation and blood flow which will improve recovery on the injured area.
As mentioned previously, it also helps to maintain your aerobic endurance, meaning that you won’t lose as much fitness as you would just not training at all. Your daily bike commute would be a great way to recover from a running injury which will increase the speed at which you can return to your running training.
Impact on Motivation
There is a limit number of hours in a week that people can perform a physical activity such as cycling or running. After working a full-time job, doing the household chores, shopping, socialising with friends and all other normal life activities, it is unrealistic to think training for a running event and additional hours of bike commuting is achievable in a week.
This is the main advantage of using your commute for some of your daily and weekly exercise. The time you would spend stuck in traffic on your commute can be used to increase your level of training, but even with this, there is a limit.
Let say you are training for a marathon. Early in your training, you will be gradually increasing your running distance and duration, starting at around 30 to 60 minutes and increasing this over time until you are marathon ready. 30 to 60 minutes running for 3 to 4 times a week can easily be combined with a bike commute but what happens as your running time increases?
For the average Joe, training for a marathon, you can expect to be running the event in around 4-5 hours. If you have to run this type of distance 3 to 4 times a week in preparation, then piling a bike commute on top may start to just eat too much of your normal life and impact the amount of motivation you have for training.
This will be a personal choice and will depend on many factors, one being the distance of your bike commute. A few miles and you will be able to cope just fine. If you have a 10+ mile commute then you may be pushing yourself too much. Again, listen to your body but also listen to your mind.
Your motivation may be affected by overdoing it here. If you overreach with regards your training then you are more likely to have bouts of de-motivation where you don’t train at all which will have a detrimental impact on your overall goals.
Think about the amount of training you can realistically do in a week and, if you are training for a big running event, permit yourself to limit the amount of bike commuting you do on top. Use it as a complementary activity and not a dominating or over powering one.
Bike Commute and Run
If you are seriously training for a running event and still want to maintain a car-free commute, then combining running and bike commuting may be a good option for you.
This can be used as a form of multi-modal commuting method and as such you can look to run all, or part, of your commute on certain days. Swap out your bike commute and run to work. If your commute distances are too far then you can cycle part of the way, lock up your bike and run the remainder of the way.
Here at True Commuter, we are not obsessed with bike commuting being the only answer to leaving your car at home. Bike commuting is not the only way. We are passionate about all forms of alternative commuting. Running to work is as effective as a bike commute for improving overall health and wellbeing, saving money and doing your bit for mother earth. It is another good habit to build.
Running to work and cycling combined can be a great way to utilise your commute, and time usually spent sitting in traffic, to get a good dose of running AND cycling training. Training for a running event can be done during your commute and recovery from these running days can be in the form of a bike commute.
Make a Plan
The key to combining your bike commute and run training is to make sure you have a plan. A routine and a plan will make it easier to know when to train and when to rest. How will you combine your bike commute and run training and when will you deliberately do neither and rest fully.
It is easy to let your determination to override common sense and train when you really know you shouldn’t. The overreaching will risk further injury and forced rest which will impact your training way more than planned rest.
A plan for training means that when you should be doing a recovery ride, you are reminded to do so and don’t overdo it. Even if you feel great, if the plan says you need a recovery ride, then have a recovery ride. Pushing yourself too hard here could be detrimental to your overall training goals.
Summary
As can be seen from this post, there are benefits to be had from combining a bike commute with running training and the two can exist hand in hand as complementary activities. Cycling is a great way to recover from and improve your running and so this shouldn’t have to be a choice of bike commuting OR running.
If you are training for a big running event then make a plan. Try to combine your bike commute into that plan and be realistic about the amount of physical activity you can perform in a week. As you increase your running, you may have to reduce the amount you bike commute as you approach an event such as a marathon.
It is important to listen to your body and your mind when combining activities and knowing when two rest is just as important as knowing when to train.
