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Learn to Master the Bike-to-Run Transition
By Rod Cedaro, M.Sc.
Triathlete magazine

Anyone who has ever competed in a triathlon or duathlon knows the horrendous feeling of heaviness in the quads as you leave the bike rack and enter the run.

Your free-flowing running gait, which was the hallmark of your style when you ran fresh, is reduced to nothing more than a pathetic shuffle as you struggle to maintain contact with those with whom three minutes earlier you were riding shoulder-to-shoulder.

Take heart: there is hope. By undertaking a couple of practices and incorporating them into your normal training regimen, you can improve your running off the bike.

The Heavy-Leg Syndrome

Let’s consider why heavy-leg syndrome occurs in the first place. Basically, there are two physiological reasons why your legs are reduced to sides of beef as you exit the bike-to-run transition:…

In Training

During the base phase of your training, incorporate at least one “brick” session into your weekly training. By definition, a brick session means a moderately long ride followed immediately with a moderately long run—preferably mid-week. This will force your legs to get used to firing the appropriate neural pathways and shunting blood from previously active to previously inactive muscles a lot quicker, without the pressure of competition…

In Competition

In a smartly executed triathlon, your run starts well before you hit the bike-to-run transition. With about five to eight minutes of the bike portion remaining, start thinking “run” and prepare for it appropriately.

First, get out of the saddle in a slightly bigger gear and ride a couple of hundred meters standing up. This will alter your muscle firing patterns to make them more akin to running; it will also stretch your running muscles and start redirecting blood to the appropriate muscles…

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