Why include cycling in your running training plan?

For sports lovers, July often rhymes with yellow jersey and passes filmed from a helicopter 🚁. The Tour de France takes over screens and conversations, even among those who only run on foot 🏃 . Watching elite athletes pedal for three weeks is bound to spark ideas 💡. What if this grand loop became your next training ground rather than just a TV show? 📺 Spoiler: cycling is in no way unfaithful to your running practice: when well dosed, it strengthens your prep without ever betraying it 😈.

Protected joints 🦦

The first argument can be summed up in one image: on a bike, body weight rests on the saddle, not on the joints 🦵. The heart works, the lungs kick in, and yet ankles, knees and hips stay calm (only your backside will suffer😂) . This difference changes everything when a training week already loads the body with ground-impact sessions 🥵. Adding a home-trainer ride or a road spin lets you rack up cardio volume without adding extra impact, a real lever for anyone stringing strides together nonstop 💥. Concrete result: MAS improves, active recovery gets better, and the body can handle more overall load without breaking 👊.

Climbing a hill on a bike strengthens exactly the muscle groups used on a tough uphill in trail: quadriceps, hamstrings, calves 🤓. Each powerful pedal stroke somewhat reproduces the final drive of an ascent on foot, without the repeated pounding on the asphalt 💪 . Many distance runners therefore slip one or two bike sessions per week into their plan, to strengthen the thighs on days when the body is asking for a break from impacts 🧨. Triathletes know this complementarity well: they even link cycling and running in a so-called brick session, to get the legs used to that sudden change in movement pattern 😨.

Do we climb it by bike first? 😵‍💫

Nothing illustrates this marriage between handlebar and stride better than certain Tour passes 🚴. Mont Ventoux is the perfect example: pro cyclists have dreaded its slopes for decades, and trail runners are now taking it on too thanks to the “ Semi-Marathon du Mont-Ventoux Kookabarra ”. Start in Bédoin, finish at over 1,900 m altitude, for 21.6 km of continuous climbing and 1,610 mD+ without a single flat section 🥵 . What better way to prepare the toughest half marathon in Europe than by climbing it first by bike? 🙌 That way, you prepare your body for the continuous effort, the elevation gain, and the route that awaits you 👏. Two climbs, two disciplines, one same identity as a mythical pass. Riding it helps you learn the profile, manage the progressive effort, and anticipate the steepest sections on race day 🫡.

How to add cycling without throwing off your training? 🔧

No need to ride for hours to feel the benefits 😇. One to two weekly rides, as a complement to running workouts, are more than enough for an amateur runner 🤪. On days of muscular fatigue or after a demanding race, the bike becomes a gentler active-recovery option than a classic easy run 🚲 . Conversely, a more intense ride on rolling terrain lets you work your threshold without multiplying strides in the same week 📆. The key is balance (at the same time, you wouldn’t want to fall off the rocket 🙃): cycling is there to support training, never to replace it entirely, otherwise you risk losing movement-specificity 🧚‍♀️.

The Tour athletes may not have finished their stage of the day, but yours can start as early as this weekend 😉.