low glycogen stores vs low fitness levels

jjpptt2 wrote: »

Because I don't want to assume anything...

The adaptations that occur during/from base training... do those adaptations translate across disciplines to any meaningful extent? i.e. if most of my base training is on the bike, will there be any meaningful carry over to my run? Obviously it's less than ideal, but there's a big difference between not ideal and problematic.

Tempo work is much easier for me to do, so that part of my training isn't an issue.

Some, but like some things in this world, there is no substitute for the real deal.

We can reason that if we work out our arms, those adaptations will not help our legs. But if we workout our thighs, that won't help our calves. And we can filter that down to all the small minute muscles. Cross over exists, but optimization across one sport or two sports or three is different. Its the same reason you can go get your lactate tested running and on the bike and can have 2 different "aerobic threshold" HR numbers. And the final example, world class triathletes can't go head to head with world class marathon runners. And vice versa, yes they can get close, but they don't really "compete."

I would caution doing too much time on the bike. It is a wonderfully efficient machine. And I have found personally that cycling doesn't help my running too much (my highest mileage month was 1200 miles and it did not make me a great runner).