For those of you who actively run and cycle (FF, Sparrow, Drex come to mind, but there are others), how do you get in leg rest days? If you alternate running and cycling every day, do your legs get any rest? Or, is it okay to alternate running and cycling without a rest day in between as they use muscles differently?

this is a great question Rich. The one ement as a tri- athlete that you are missing though is the swim. The swim is primarily an upperbody exercise for me. So swim days give me that break on my legs.

BUT there also comes a time when a couple of days off is just necessary.

I have taken the last two day off, and tonight I will run/bike/run. Tomorrow I will let those taxed to the max legs rest with a long swim day.

another thing to keep in mind is as a tri-athl;ete we are not body building. We are training for performance. And in my case rtight now, I am training fo major endurnace performance, so the BIG muscle that really needs the training is the brain. I truly believe the body is physically capable of alot more than the brain is capabl;e of enduring.

there is my .02

Sweat Daily
FF

I personally don't really give my legs a rest day. I just switch up what I am doing. I don't have any science behind it though, but it has worked for me.

My main reason for taking days off from running is avoiding injury. My achilles tendons and hamstrings wear down if I run too much. However, I can throw in a bike ride or weights on running rest days and it seems to work just fine. Running seems to wear down the back of my legs more, where biking works the quads more. Although they both work my calves pretty good. I will even do two in the same day to get my workouts in (run/bike/lift).

That said, I still feel more fatigue in my legs if I add in a bike ride in between runs. So, it does cut down on performance a little.

That is my experience, but experience only.

Sometimes you don't get rest days and sometimes you don't need rest days. It really depends on your level of fitness.

A standard triathlon training plan will have multiple disciplines in the same day, the same discipline on back to back days, and sometimes there are weeks that do not include rest days.

The more fit you become, the quicker the recovery. Some of the days, called Active Recovery days are lower intensity workouts which have shown to provide a greater benefit for recovery than actually taking a day off. A Google search will yield many articles which can explain the benefits in greater detail.

If you're not using a training plan, you might consider searching for a free one to see what is generally recommended for your distance and modify accordingly.