Another "How do I balance running and cycling" question

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So another one of these questions…I’ve just completed my last planned cycling race for a while and plan on concentrating on running towards my A race in April 2020.

Like all of us I’d like to give up as little cycling fitness as possible during this time. I used to be a triathlete so I’m used to balancing more than one discipline.

My running plan is to run 4-5 times a week.
Monday : Off
Tuesday : VO2 max session (either hill repeats or a track workout)
Wednesday : Easy run
Thursday : Threshold workout
Friday : Easy run
Sat/Sun : Easy long run

My thinking is to use a low volume TR plan alongside this with two workouts during the week and one social ride outside on a Sat or Sun. When doing triathlon I did a hard run and bike workout on Tuesdays and found I could manage both on the same day. Running will be in the AM now as it takes priority for the next couple months

Does it matter what LV TR plan I go with? Should I just start with Base and work from there, hopefully supplementing my running fitness?

I’ve just come off SSB1 and 2, sitting at 3.9w/kg.

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Have you thought of looking at the triathlon plans , and forgetting about the swimming element?

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Yeah I did think of just using the LV triathlon plans possibly and using the bike workouts from that. Its what I was leaning towards.

I have 20 weeks until the race so I could do HIM base 1 and 2 and then build into race day.

Sounds good.

Any other ideas?

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What is your A race?

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I’d echo @WildWill , @chad himself recommended run/bikers and duathletes use the tri plans in one of the old podcasts.

Otherwise I’m in SSB2 LV and will move into Sustained Power Build.

Ignoring lifting and swimming, I try to align my
Tempo Run on the same day as my Threshold TR, my interval run with my VO2 TR. At the moment I’m keeping the long run and longer sweet spot/threshold TR on separate days.

All that’s fine, but as @Irondad45 says, what’s the goal (race)?

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A race is Two Oceans Ultra Marathon. A 56km road race.

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Hmm, what’s your weekly run volume now and what’s it ramping up to?

I’m thinking more about cycling as active recovery, in your case. Perhaps have a look a the speciality Maintenance plans?

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I have done a 30miler (48k) on the back of IM training, however, I would look to tweak the training for a longer ultra

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This is a great suggestion and what the programme is for, I found VO2 efforts on the bike when trying to train properly for running events absolutely ground me down. I’ve found tempo and sweet spot much easier to combine with running. As always… it depends/YMMV!

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Coming off some injuries so haven’t been running much. I normally average 40-60kms a week if I’m not focusing specifically on run training.

I’ll be building up to peak weeks of 100kms I think, but at that point I imagine that any cycling would be easy recovery rides. Until I get there I think I can still work in some intensity on the bike a couple times a week

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Hmmm…maybe Maintenance LV. Although thats actually a bit more TSS per week than the HIM base plan

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The real problem behind all this is that I battle to concentrate on one thing…I’m always trying not to lose the other fitness and so I expect I compromise everything. Its the usual thing of not resting or recovering as much as we should.

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Same here - every time I think “focus on running!”, I sign up for a triathlon…and this time I’ve added weight lifting too! :see_no_evil:

I’ve only done one marathon and am training for my second, no experience of ultras beyond watching YouTube - hats off to you, and good luck.:+1: