Going For A Run
A different look at endurance sport.
This weekend, my book The Longer Road - The Rise of Long Distance Cycling is FREE (in digital form) on Amazon. I am only telling select groups know about this, so please take a look. If you do read it and like it, leave a review please (currently 4.7/5 stars). This helps something called an algorithm apparently. Here is a link. Thank you. The Longer Road
This weeks SubStack is also out a day early because……….
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Depending on when you are reading this, I will either be about to start or be in the middle of an Ultra-Marathon run. I may even have finished a 50 km trail race through the beautiful South Downs National Park.
I know, cyclists are not supposed to run. But for the last 8 months, I confess, I have ridden my bike less and devoted my time to running - a lot. This has not all gone well.
I carried a calf injury for a couple of months that meant running was not a thing, and that if I wanted to maintain some of my hard-won aerobic fitness, I was going to have to get back on the bike.
This worked. My aerobic fitness levels were good, but the resilience and durability of my legs, built up over many miles of cross country running, diminished considerably.
All this tends to be rather polarising with more than a few coaches insisting that running should never be a part of a cycling training plan and that I am a dangerous heretic for suggesting as much.
The way I am coming to look at it though, becomes clearer the more I do of both. Running is not part of my cycling training plan any more than cycling is part of the run plan. Doing both is an interesting Endurance Training Plan though.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Georgia Hunter Bell a world-class middle-distance runner who almost uniquely as far as I can see, combines bike training into her running plan.
She does this to avoid injuries, and this is allowing her to fulfil her potential after years of injury struggle. She rides to build endurance in different muscle groups and in the whole cardio system, as well as improved neuromuscular coordination.
However, research suggests that there is likely to be more physiological training benefit to transfer from running to riding than the other way around.
But one study also showed that swapping some cycling volume for a focused treadmill-based run-interval sessions boosted VO2 Max by over 10% with cycling time trial performance improving by almost 15% compared to a control group who did not do run intervals.
Some athletes have been busy of late, proving it is good to do both.
Former triathlete, Heather Jackson takes her bike-run lifestyle to a new extreme. In 2024 she finished 7th in the Western States 100, a brutally hard trail running race in California. Last year she won Unbound XL, a 350-mile gravel bike marathon.
This year she finished 4th woman and 12th over-all in the gruelling 250 miles Cocodona trail race. That is 250 miles of running. Most would not consider that in the car, or even a bike, let alone running it.
She then made it to the start line of Unbound XL to defend her title. The proximity of this race to Cocodona (and the sucking mud that stopped so many in their tracks) meant that she didn’t finish. But fair play for having a go!
To help get over the Unbound disappointment, next weekend, Heather sets out to ride the Tour Divide, a 2700-mile ride along the spine of the Rocky Mountains from Banff in Canada to the Mexican border. She says she is not chasing records but that the ride will be a voyage of exploration, but don’t be too surprised if she threatens the FKT for this route.
Her 2026 calendar was deliberately designed to create uncertainty around what she might achieve by combining ultra-marathons with long bike races, and, in her words, it might break her.
Uber ultra runner Kilian Journet has also taken to his bike recently. He completed an epic human-powered project in the United States, called States of Elevation, where he climbed all accessible 14,000-foot mountains in the lower 48 states.
He linked the 72 summits entirely by running and cycling, covering 3,200 miles with over 400,000 feet of elevation gain in just 31 days.
I am inspired by these feats. I have not been completely absent from cycling, using steady bike rides for active recovery. Interestingly, despite running up to 80 kilometres a week, I have noticed only about a 5% drop in my power numbers.
I am, ‘touchwood’ free of injury as my Ultra Run approaches, a fact I put down to recovering well between long runs by riding my bike.
Over the last few years, both ultra cycling and ultra distance running races have increased rapidly in number as people have found that running a marathon or riding a hundred miles, is just not enough of a test for them. Maybe riding and running long distances will be the new, new thing, as people find ever more extraordinary ways to test themselves to destruction now.
I have always thought that bike riders should run and runners should ride their bikes and do core work, strength, and conditioning and stretching and even swim.
All these things have been proven scientifically to have huge benefits to your wellbeing, your mental health, your core stability and how long you will live! The challenge is joyous and very exciting. What more motivation do we need to mix it up?
Wish me luck.
Mike
My new book - The Longer Road - The Rise of Long Distance Cycling is now available to buy in both digital and paperback formats. (4.7/5 Stars on Amazon). Here is a link:
In addition it is now possible to buy the e-book version at several other places including Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Fable and Bookshop.org. More coming soon.
Here is a link to the book at all the retailers who are currently stocking:
Good luck. Years ago I was riding the SDW and saw a bunch of trail runners coming the other way. It was 100 miles event I think.