I am doing the opposite. I am temporarily cutting back on my running while recovering from an IT band injury. I am doing erging as a substitute for my running (3-4 days a week). the rowing motion does not seem to put any stress on the IT band, but I found it very difficult to stay on that erg for any length of time at first after a long layoff, despite being in pretty decent triathlon shape (swim, bike, run). I am now doing 6 x 1000mEnglishman116 wrote:I've recently started running 3 times a week. At first I was really sore but now my body has adjusted to it. Is there any evidence of running benefitting your erg strength? I've noticed I can hold a 177 average heart rate for 45 minutes while running, which is about 10 beats faster than I can average while rowing for the same amount of time. At the same time, it's not erging... so should I just substitute the runs for steady-state erging if I want to better my times?
intervals while trying to keep the pace between 1:50 and 2:00.
I know that the erging will complement my cycling and swimming. It feels great to get in the pool and do some laps right after an intense erg workout.
I don't know how much the erging will contribute to my run fitness. Both require propulsion from the hips but at a totally different range of motion. For optimal running, the you need flexibility at the hip flexors so that the leg can be fully extended. In rowing, the power comes at a more flexed position, and the leg never gets fully extended as in running.