Biking in the place of running (Read 84 times)

If you have a stress fracture you don't want to do any hard pedaling, just spinning, but fast spinning will get your HR up.  Try to aim for about the same amount of time as your workout would take.  At this point you are not going to lose much fitness, and can potentially make your injury worse, so I'd just go for a solid aerobic session and not worry about workouts.

If you have a stress fracture you don't want to do any hard pedaling, just spinning, but fast spinning will get your HR up.  Try to aim for about the same amount of time as your workout would take.  At this point you are not going to lose much fitness, and can potentially make your injury worse, so I'd just go for a solid aerobic session and not worry about workouts.

If you can put a cadence sensor on your bike, that’s helpful to avoid mashing the pedals.  Spin no slower than 80rpm at intended effort.  90+ would be ideal.

Sorry to hear about the injury - hate for it to popup so close to race day!  //edit - gotta agree with MilkTruck!  some nice easy rides are probably all you are going to want to do. (unless you've never biked....then might hold off entirely)

For the everyday aerobic runs - just maintain a similar effort level - a heart rate monitor will really help in that respect.  Typically the zones are lower by ~5bpm due to it being a low muscle count activity so unless you have good cycling specific muscles it can be hard to hold HR up.

So if you'd expect an easy run to be 140bpm.... holding 140bpm on a bike for the same duration could be challenge.

Otherwise all the types of workouts on a bike will be fairly similar.   With the possible injury you are going to want to maintain a very high cadence/RPM which will help with reducing strain on leg while holding same power/speed.

I would take it very easy to start...   then once warm and everything's good, go at a strong medium effort for your Tempo - maintaining a long Tempo effort on a bike can be tough.   Depending on how you structure them it can just be an up tempo long ride, otherwise I find it mentally easier and likely more beneficial to do tempo intervals - 3x8-10min or 2x15min etc - which allows for a good bit of lactate generation but not so long that my legs are shot.  Figure the easier long Tempo is more biking specific muscle conditioning... where the shorter harder stuff helps muscles/body continue to improve processing lactate (regardless of sport).  In your case a lower power output would be preferable i'd think (so longer easier tempo).

Otherwise goto vo2max type workouts would be good after you are cleared (or your bike tests show no injury pain).... things like 5x2' , or 4x5'  with the effort almost as hard as you can (while holding effort throughout)... which can be tricky at first to dial in.     Another goto (although with your injury... i'd hold off) would be 2-4 sets of 6-8x 30sec all out, 30sec recovery.

Otherwise just 'aimless' time on the bike with a few surges here an there will just help keep muscles moving and aerobic engine tuned up.   However great thing with bike workouts - you can feel like death at the end of a hard round of 5x4'... and the next day be ready again.... much easier on body.

I have a different perspective than the previous replies...you're only 12 calendar days out from this HM.  You need to heal, not add a new activity which in itself adds risk as you stress your body in new ways.  Enjoy your 12 day taper with walks and stay the heck away from new, heavy biking loads.

Oh my, I actually agree with the milk bottle.