Running Vs Cycling (endurance)

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Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester

I remain skeptical, however I will read in more detail later. All I will say atm is that calories consumed is not necessarily an indication of training stress thus is unlikely to be predictive of aerobic adaptation so even if you can find a relationship between calories consumed in differing sports, you are not really finding a relationship between their impact on "fitness".
 
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GrumpyGregry

Here for rides.
utterly subjective comparison...

ime a half-marathon is about as exhausting as cycling 100km.
 

buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
My brother who is in medical profession tells me that the only sport where your heart actually grows in size is cycling (hence Pro Rider heart rates being so low). So in terms of cardio vascular, I'd chose cycling. Running probably builds your muscles quicker tho as you are physically lifting your own weight off the floor. Just my opinion.
 

Citius

Guest
My brother who is in medical profession tells me that the only sport where your heart actually grows in size is cycling (hence Pro Rider heart rates being so low). So in terms of cardio vascular, I'd chose cycling. Running probably builds your muscles quicker tho as you are physically lifting your own weight off the floor. Just my opinion.

Not sure what your brother does in the medical profession, but athletic heart syndrome (ie the thing where your heart gets bigger) is induced by exercise (any exercise) not just cycling.
 

buggi

Bird Saviour
Location
Solihull
Ah well its a while since he told me, I'll ask him about it again. But I'm sure he said something about all sports make your heart stronger but cycling makes it grow. He's not prone to bull shoot so its probably me that has got it wrong.
 

Tin Pot

Guru
Cardiologists are not endurance training experts.

There's a great article somewhere about how we confer expertise far beyond that which logic would dictate.
 

crazyjoe101

New Member
Location
London
I remain skeptical, however I will read in more detail later. All I will say atm is that calories consumed is not necessarily an indication of training stress thus is unlikely to be predictive of aerobic adaptation so even if you can find a relationship between calories consumed in differing sports, you are not really finding a relationship between their impact on "fitness".
I wasn't the guy earlier who compared HR of cycling to running, I just said you can compare the energy consumption per flat mile relative to speed.
 
A few years back I went on a fitness drive and managed to go from 11 stone down to 8.5 stone in 6 months through a combination of running, cycling, skipping, walking and eating 1600 calories a day. At the time I measured everything dogmatically. I discovered that to walk at 4mph for any distance is actually quite difficult for me and feels like a work-out. At my usual dog-walking pace in mixed terrain a mile takes me roughly 17-18 minutes. I was always cycling as a kid and teenager and thought nothing of cycling 20-30 miles first thing on a weekend getting home in time for my mum making family breakfast. By contrast, although quite a good sprinter, I really struggled with running a mile as a teenager and years later discovered this was all down to poor technique and lack of faith in my own ability. I learned to swim in the sea as a child and can swim miles without feeling tired - although I do get hungry. Now I find it quite difficult to cycle at more than 12-14 mph (although this is improving) but I can run faster than I've ever run before at the age of 45 and I can still swim a mile without much effort at all and in less than 40 minutes. So I take the comparison statistics with a pinch of salt as I think it depends a lot on the individual. It's still interesting to see what people think though i.e. a marathon being the equivalent of 140 miles on a bike. That sounds plausible.
 

Dan B

Disengaged member
Today my resting heart rate is ~40 and my 1 minute heart rate recovery is ~60. I can hold 90% max for an hour, 85% max for 2-3 hours and think nothing of a 6+ hour ride.
Well done on the turnaround, obviously. how did you measure your max heart rate?
 
It's not all about heart rate.

But even if it were, cycling is not as hard on the heart as running. for endurance, this is a good thing.

Whats your starting level of fitness?

Thats because you can coast on a push bike. No such thing when your running. However I would imagine this can be compensated for by pushing harder when cycling. Ironically I often push my hardest on downhill sections chasing big numbers on my speedo.

I definitely agree that cycling is easier but probably because I do a significant amount of it and therefore more adapted for doing it. I do sod all running and I literally cant run more than a few hundred metres without *****in myself up. Yesterday I happily cycled 40 miles without any significant fatigue.
 

crazyjoe101

New Member
Location
London
Thats because you can coast on a push bike. No such thing when your running. However I would imagine this can be compensated for by pushing harder when cycling.
IIRC, I think the maximum heart rate for cycling is always about 5bpm below that of running, for me that implies that running puts a greater load on the cardiovascular system for a given effort.
 

Citius

Guest
Running involves lifting your entire body weight off the ground with each stride - the forces in cycling are much less than that.
 

Tin Pot

Guru
Thats because you can coast on a push bike. No such thing when your running. However I would imagine this can be compensated for by pushing harder when cycling. Ironically I often push my hardest on downhill sections chasing big numbers on my speedo.

I definitely agree that cycling is easier but probably because I do a significant amount of it and therefore more adapted for doing it. I do sod all running and I literally cant run more than a few hundred metres without *****in myself up. Yesterday I happily cycled 40 miles without any significant fatigue.

There is an element of that - different muscles in running and cycling, but even when training regularly cycling is a lower heart rate activity and it is harder to maintain as high a heart rate (Z4/5) on the bike.
 
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