I've been thinking about getting a bike for some time now. What are other peoples thoughts about using cycling to improve your running ability?

Also, was thinking about getting a road bike. Budget of £300-£400. Can anyone recommend a particular model?

i bike a bit, and it's not quite such a good CV excercise as running as you can coast.

what sort of cycling do you want to do - road r mountain bike?

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I'm a bit tubby.

I was thinking road cycling, would like to do some duathlons in the future.

Excellent! I've got a duathlon tomorrow.

For that sort of proce you will be getting a budget bike which will be ok for starting to race. If you are near a decathlon store they do decent bikes in this price range as do carrera at Halfords.

If you can streatch to £500 you can get some really good bikes, in fact now is one of the times in teh year to buy as you may get a £500 bike in a sale for £400

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I'm a bit tubby.

A basic giant ocr4 or trek1000 can have mud guards fitted, which are good for british winter cycling.

As gumps says - lots of bargains at this time of year.

Gumps - which duathlon?

Debbo - just a short one in MK. Actually hope to get an hours run in before and hours ride after to make it 3 in total for the morning. 3rd cat race so just practicing transitions.

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I'm a bit tubby.

Hope it went well Gumps.

By all means get a bike, however I understand that the best way to improve your running is to run - training has to be sport-specific to a large extent, but cycling has a lot of benefits, such as being low-impact for example.

As Geg says..to become a better runner you need to run. For mere mortals then doing extra training on top of your running will also help.

The Edinburgh Bicycle Coop do a great entry level bike for £375..I've got one and have done loads of miles on it and a decent bike split in an Ironman (got to get that in lol)

Good luck in the Duathlons