Realizing, at about age 21, that I was not going to ever run in the Olympics, so running was no longer the focus of my life. College, faith, then work, then family life took priority and so running became something I did because I enjoyed it and was somewhat good at it. Stopped beating myself up in 100+ mpw and constant stress over race performance, and my times dropped. All my PR's were run after this revelation.
Hiking and biking five days a week got me from out of shape and over a 30 minute 5K time to under 25 minute 5K
Running 25-30 miles per week but me from 25 minute 5K to 21 minutes
Lifting weights 3 or 4 times a week focusing on legs, back and chest along with explosive drills like box jumps and lunges in additional to running 25-30 MPW got me from 21 minutes to 19:15 for the 5K
Lifting weights and upping my mileage to 45-50 miles per week got me under 18 minutes for the 5K and under 39 minutes for 10K.
Adding speed and other track drills with a running group got me under 17:30 for the 5K and under 37 for the 10K.
Ultimately the best non-running activity for you depends on what type of shape you are in and what events you want to run. In my experience for events under 5K things like box jumps, squats, and deadlifts will have a big impact on your time. For over 5K having enough distance will be more impactful i.e. running more than 50 miles per week.
Once you get to sub 39 10K and sub 19 5K it is the running drills that will really make a difference, so many people trying by just running at the same or similar pace and that limits your upside.
Finally if you aren't in great shape now, other activities like biking, hiking and even fast walking will improve your endurance and cardio base and can pay high dividends.
This is mainly based on my personal experience and those of my training partners so your impact might be different.
Playing in a soccer league has worked well for me, though the caveat is you need to have some basic soccer skills in order to get the most out of it. I play x2/week and have noticed that when running I have a more powerful stride which translates to a faster pace.
But the 'impact stress' is an essential part of running technique and training.
yes but too much of it is when the niggling injuries come in and they force you to drop your mileage. if you are aiming for 2 hours of training per day, and you do 1 hour of running with half an hour of cycling either side, you get the same endurance benefit but only (roughly) half the impact forces, and you are still building the bone density and muscle strength or whatever from the hour of running.
No. An hour of biking is not worth 30 minutes of running. Not even close.
If you can't run the mileage you think you need, then you are doing something wrong. If your bone density and muscle strength is decreasing, you are underfueling.
But the 'impact stress' is an essential part of running technique and training.
yes but too much of it is when the niggling injuries come in and they force you to drop your mileage. if you are aiming for 2 hours of training per day, and you do 1 hour of running with half an hour of cycling either side, you get the same endurance benefit but only (roughly) half the impact forces, and you are still building the bone density and muscle strength or whatever from the hour of running.
30 minutes of cycling is complete piss, better off sleeping in that time
yes but too much of it is when the niggling injuries come in and they force you to drop your mileage. if you are aiming for 2 hours of training per day, and you do 1 hour of running with half an hour of cycling either side, you get the same endurance benefit but only (roughly) half the impact forces, and you are still building the bone density and muscle strength or whatever from the hour of running.
30 minutes of cycling is complete piss, better off sleeping in that time
It depends on the type of cycling. 30 minutes of uphill cycling or undulating terrain at a fast speed is actually a pretty good workout and can be effective if done to augment other workouts.
Cycling. It taught me how to fuel and hydrate properly. Also, while I think runners can be annoying, cyclists are on a whole other level of annoying so it definitely helped me appreciate running a whole lot more. Made me realize how chill and friendly the running community is even if I mostly run alone. I've never had anyone comment on my leg hair while running, put it that way. So glad my PF is healed and I can get back to running more and just using Zwift for cross training or when injured.
unless you are a student or work from home, it is IMPOSSIBLE to sleep 40 hours a week.
Self-report
I mean work week.
If you have a job that starts later than like 8, a short commute, or get tired around 7 I'm happy for you. Most adults do not. Its a lot more realistic to maximize sleep without stressing out over it.
yes but too much of it is when the niggling injuries come in and they force you to drop your mileage. if you are aiming for 2 hours of training per day, and you do 1 hour of running with half an hour of cycling either side, you get the same endurance benefit but only (roughly) half the impact forces, and you are still building the bone density and muscle strength or whatever from the hour of running.
No. An hour of biking is not worth 30 minutes of running. Not even close.
If you can't run the mileage you think you need, then you are doing something wrong. If your bone density and muscle strength is decreasing, you are underfueling.
At the same effort level, its not, but the cycling could be a 60 min work out which would include much less pounding than 30 mins of running workout. Still, this is what op asked for. There will be weird outliers who get fast from splitting their time cycling and running.
Two wheeler nailed it. Bike, even just a stationary bike is good to cross train. Spinning is EXCELLENT for developing quads for sprinting. When I switched to barefoot I used the bike to make up the bulk of my training as I adjusted to the new style (80% reduction in running miles initially).
For me it was adding a second workout every day. I was running about 60-70mpw and was getting in good shape and racing well. My wife and I bought a gym membership to a place that was a block from our house. After dinner, every weekday, we'd go over and workout for an hour or so. I always did the elliptical and id go pretty hard. Weight dropped and I got significantly faster. Those were the good old days.