{"id":892208,"date":"2026-09-11T21:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892208\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T21:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T21:10:12","slug":"is-running-good-for-cyclists-heres-what-the-science-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/892208\/","title":{"rendered":"Is running good for cyclists? Here’s what the science says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Does<\/p>\n

Performance<\/a><\/p>\n

Running is a convenient form of cross-training; here’s how to get the biggest benefit on the bike, and what might have an even bigger effect.\n<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Cor Vos, Kramon, Unsplash<\/p>\n

Ask me to describe myself and, for as long as I can remember, I would have called myself a cyclist. But in early 2024, for anyone looking in on my life, that would have been hard to believe. I\u2019d swapped cafe rides for solitary runs, chasing a 100 km ultramarathon and sidelining the bike for months.<\/p>\n

Despite running over 3,000 km in eight months, hopping back on the bike felt surprisingly tough. My aerobic fitness was good, but my cycling power and bike-specific endurance were a shadow of their former selves. That got me wondering: How much does running actually help your cycling?<\/p>\n

With running on the rise<\/a>, even within the cycling community, I wanted to know whether it really works as cross-training. To find out more, I spoke with Gregoire Millet, former British Triathlon performance director and professor of exercise science at the University of Lausanne. He has also worked on several studies<\/a> with Groupama-FDJ United coach and physiologist Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Grapp\u00e9 that explore why running may not be ideal cross-training.<\/p>\n

Does running fitness translate to cycling fitness?<\/p>\n

To cut to the chase, the short answer is \u201csometimes,” but only if you run the right way.<\/p>\n

Both are leg-driven endurance sports, but the physiological demands are very different. Analysing when each muscle engages through the motion of a pedal stroke compared to a running stride reveals that what you are asking of your muscles in each activity is completely different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n

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\n Performance<\/a>
\n training<\/a>
\n running<\/a>
\n cross training<\/a>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Performance Running is a convenient form of cross-training; here’s how to get the biggest benefit on the bike,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-892208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}