I can’t really comment because I only cycle. Friends however that do both are getting constantly injured from running and that impacts on their cycling. They have great cardio vascular fitness but seem to get a lot of calf injuries and seem to struggle on longer climbs due to muscle strength

When I moved to London a couple of years back I switched to running as cycling down there was no-where near as pleasant as what I was used to in Edinburgh. I have had more injury issues though – mainly calf strains – although being somewhat on the weighty side doesn’t help.

While on holiday I’ve been doing quite a bit of cycling over the last 3 weeks and was quite surprised at how much my fitness had improved compared to back when I used to cycle regularly. On my 2nd outing on the road bike I did 2.5 miles more in an hour than I’d ever managed before and when I went out on the mountain bike in the Pentlands yesterday I set PB’s on 9 Strava segments, without setting out go particularly quickly. All uphill Strava segments however – my already limited technical skills have completely gone!

There is no evidence that running on paths/grass etc is better for muscles/joints than roads/pavements. It would seem intuitively to be the case but is a myth.

There is no evidence that running on paths/grass etc is better for muscles/joints than roads/pavements. It would seem intuitively to be the case but is a myth.

It’s more pleasant though, running off road I mean. The whole ’causes less injuries thing’ is one of those running things that gets attributed to anything with equal dubiousness: viz, barefoot running shoes cause less injuries, stretching causes less injuries, drinking strawberry vodka causes less injuries etc.

The reality is that most regular runners seem to have regular injuries. I once went riding with someone who confessed that there was a regular evening riding group in his village comprised entirely of injured fell runners, which tells you everything you need to know about running 😉

Logically runners will grasp at anything that they’re told may reduce the chance of them injuring themselves, including bikes…