i am currently on a break at he moment from running! i was wonderin if cycling will melp me stay in shape and if it has ne benifits in relation to mountain running??

Hi Perils,
My mate in England is a keen cyclist, but he completed the New Forest Marathon (in England) in under 3:30 recently, and followed that up with a fantastic run in the (hilly) Snowdonia Marathon (in Wales). Because cycling is his main sport, his running schedule before the marathons wasn't structured. He doesn't post on this website, but I'm happy to give you his email address if you're interested.

Here are the websites for the respective marathons
NFM
Snowdonia

beep beep!! hahhaha
hey road runner!
an e-mail address for your friend would be great!!
thanks

Hello there Perils, Ill give you a few tips a good area to look into is fell running and the mountain running in uphill work. also do turbo sessions on the bike or the other one I told you about.

I remember reading an interview with Ben Dubois (Aust. mountain running representative) where he mentioned that sometimes he did up to 1000k in a week of cycling, and only a couple of runs a week, depending on where he was at in training. He felt that huge bike mileage gave him an excellent aerobic foundation..... Stalky would know more.

From my experience- only riding bike for the last 3 wks before Two Oceans 56km this year- the cycling is excellent for climbing of course, because the quads do most of the work in pedalling in same way as pushing uphill.

However, if you are completely missing running at same time (like I did) then you will go soft on the excentric loading which is accentuated when you run downhill, because cycling doesn't simulate that. The result will be very painfull downhills.

Mr G,

Ben De Bois has been in different running/cycling modes over the years. He has definately gone through phases where he has done loads of cycling and it is a sport which he is well above average. At a 10 day training camp at Hampton around 5 years ago he did around 50/50 mountain biking/running. This ratio has varied over the years for Ben. He is currently living in the Eastern subs and is looking at picking up his running over "flatter" courses for a while.

For the record, I have never seen, or known of, Australia's current world mountain running champ Lara Tamsett, to ride a pushbike of any sort. In fact, she only did minimal running on hills leading up to the world champs in Switzerland this year. I did have her on a specific strength program, however.

Placegetter in last couple of national mountain running champs Cindy King (my wife) does regular spinning classes and, coupled with a lot hill training has improved her mountain running performances.

Another good hill runner whom I coach, Tony Fattorini (6 ft track record holder), has done quite a bit of specific hill training- both up and down hills. Cycling has certainly not been a formal part of his training.

So what works for some may not work for others.

Some runners are naturally strong on hills whilst others are weak. Some are bettter on the ups whilst others excell on the downs.


Arms

If you can't run and are able to cycle then that's definitely your best option. You can do wind trainer sessions for your equivalent tempo running sessions, you can find steep hills and do hard reps and of course long slow aerobic miles.

Perils,

I just noticed you are from Batemans Bay. What an awesome area for cycling- particularly mountain biking in the national parks. Apart from that, it is a kayaking paradise- especially up the Nelligen River. I raced in a few of their kayaking club races whilst on holidays around New Years last summer. What a great way to keep fit! Nice people in the local kayaking club too.


Arms

A lovely lady introduced me to Ben Dubois at Homebush not long after his BIG cash victory in Nigeria. I asked him about his prep for the race, he said it was almost all bike training. I can't remember if he had been injured or if that is his preferred prep for mountain racing.

Jeremy Horne, apart from being an excellent road runner is also a great stair racer. He swears by the wind trainer as prep for stair climbs, which i guess would be similar to mountain running.

Paul Crake, one of the best ever stair or mountain runners made a transition to pro cycling before his terrible accident.

I agree with Long Arms how some people respond to different types of training, but its an even year next year, this year was a odd year so the courses were up and down the elevation gain is not as hard as even years for example
The elevation gain in in odd years 2005,2007 reduces to about 400metres for the ladies 7k course and the mens to about 500m to 700metres the courses are up and down so doing some bounding and weight conditioning work on top of the cross country season will get you by.

The elevation gain in the even years 2002, 2004 , for the women around 700meters, for the men around 1200metres all one way, finish at the top of the climb no respite on the downhills.

The training the leading Mountain runners were doing athletes such as Ben Dubois he did a lot of riding up and around the local mountain passes in and around Wollongong and sat in the saddle and pushed the high gears and a lot of endurance rides and reps on the bike I know Steve Brown was running reps up Mt Keira also with Ben. The same goes for Paul Crake he did a lot of bike work with a mixture of running and Dave Osmond is a very good endurance mountain bike rider he has represented Australia I think the most in mountain running, Trevor Jacobs another mountain runner who mixes mountain running with push bike training.

The athletes who do cross country, cross country skiing, ultra running, bike riding and rogainers and triathletes usually fair well in mountain races.

I think there is also a mental aspect involved, particulally with the cross-over to longer events, as cycling is very time consuming. I come from a competitive cycling background to Ironman triathlon then to running, and after spending 30 hours a week on the bike some times, at 6 to 8 hours a day some days, going for a 3 hour run is very tolerable.

Although it never made me a good hill-runner!

From watching several mates over the years and my own experiance I think that there is a huge cross over between mountain biking and mountain running. I have several mates whom ride mountain bikes a lot, and occasionaly they join me for a run and are always strong on the climbs. I run a fair amount - but every spring I hop on the mountain bike a few times (to toughen up the rear end) and ride the Highland Fling with my mates. I have found that mountain running pretty much keeps the body right for mountain biking and vice versa. Perhaps doing both is not always in the best interest of the elite, but for the rest of us it adds variety and fun.

And Wollongong is the home of many great cyclists, MTBer's and Runners

I thought you lived in Newcastle

Once a Wollongong girl, always a Wollongong girl

I would love to consider myself to be in that list, but no.

There is another positive thing about combining the 2 disciplines, you are strengthening and conditioning different muscle groups and it helps with preventing injuries by cross training, just like if you start weight training you try to strengthen the opposite muscle groups to condition the whole body if you only condition half you leave one lot of muscles weaker than the muscles you have strengthened leaving a chance of injury.