How to Use An Outdoor Bicycle To Train For Running

If you regularly run outdoors on asphalt roads, you can appreciate the strength your leg muscles and bones develop in response to impact forces. Still, granting your legs the occasional respite from those impact forces helps reduce the risk of injury, and many runners cross-train by working out on treadmills, in swimming pools or in spinning classes. However, if you do not have a treadmill or don't enjoy swimming or indoor spinning, you can take a regular bicycle outdoors and "go running" on it.

Things You'll Need

  • Outdoor bicycle
  • Bicycle helmet
  • Bicycling shoes
  • Sneakers and pedal straps
  • Reflectors, lights, bell
  • Illustration of the human leg's anatomy
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Instructions

    • 1

      Memorize muscles. Your calf muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps, hip muscles and gluteal muscles are all involved in running-stride biomechanics. These muscles power your body forward, work against the forces of gravity and automatically shift your body weight throughout various planes. Study these muscles' anatomies; mentally picturing their positions and functions can help you execute the movement more efficiently.

    • 2

      Take your bike outdoors and warm up. Put on your helmet and ride easily for five minutes. This warmup should be playful, not strenuous. Take hills slowly. Your warmup is not the time to burn rubber; instead, keep your breathing -- and muscles -- relaxed.

    • 3

      Activate your rear-leg muscles. Emphasize for the next five minutes pedaling with your hamstrings and calves, not with your quadriceps. This may feel odd, since normal bicycling has plenty of quadriceps action but hamstring activation is more important for running training. If you wear shoes with cleats that clip into your pedals, focus on using your hamstrings and calves throughout the entire pedal stroke. If you wear sneakers, keep the same focus on your hamstrings and calves but remember to prevent your feet from slipping backward off the pedals by pointing your toes hard at the bottom of each stroke. Invest in pedal straps, and adjust each strap snugly to keep the ball of your foot -- not your midfoot or heel -- on the pedal.

    • 4

      Increase your pace for two minutes. Keep the hamstrings and calf emphasis, but increase your effort level. Pretend these two minutes are a race, but still pace yourself. Every 20 to 30 seconds take a 10-second mini-break by coasting or reducing your speed so your muscles do not ache too much and you do not breathe too laboredly. You will feel achy and breathless enough in the next step.

    • 5

      Stand on your pedals and run. The transition from sitting to standing can be tricky since it requires you to shift your body weight forward at the same time your are steering. Be careful if you are new to this transition; if necessary, perform a few quarter- or half-stands to habituate your legs to the rising maneuver. Once you are standing, concentrate on form, not on speed. You will feel your quadriceps, hips and glutes working hard. Keep visualizing your hamstrings and calves as the main power-generators to reap the most benefit for running. Pretend that you are running in mid-air. These standing runs can be strenuous, so keep them under two minutes at first. Increase duration as your skills improve. Reaching 10 minutes is a sign of excellent fitness.