Good runner, slow cyclist

You are already a strong runner so focus on your weakness.  Ride lots and go hard!  Your skinny runner legs and genetics have little to do with it.  Look at the top climbers in cycling - lots of skinny legs there! 

You say you had your bike fit, was it by a professional fitter or just someone eyeballing it?  Could you post a picture or video here for people to check out?  If your position is off you could be robbing yourself of a lot of power.

The bike fit was by a professional. I did not know what he was doing but he spent alot of time fitting me. He seemed to know everything about bikes. A few people have noticed that I rock or move my body when cycling, which is using energy. One person did suggest that my seat could be a bit high if I am rocking, I will get this checked, but I don't think the bike fit was wrong. I just can't understand how I am soo bad.

One 25 miler. One 10 TT and now recently I am adding in another 25. Going to up the cycling

more now though. I know you are going to say that is not enough cycling, but it is the same

cycling or more than alot of the people including the newer cyclists in the club who are beating

me on the bike. 

Two rides a week seems to be a very low amount of volume to make many fitness gains at all, for anyone, given the length of those rides.

I would suggest you begin to allow your run volume to drop but keep some of the higher intensity runs, if you do them, and pick up at least one more bike and if your schedule allows pick up a fourth.  I would also add TONS of intensity on the bikes.  Focus on making things hard for brief periods of time and allowing a much shorter time for recovery then go right back at the hard reps again.  Do something like 10-15 minutes of warm up, 5-8 hard reps of 5:00-ish then back down for 2:00 then back up to the hard rep.  Repeat this and get a good cool down for the finish.

Intervals have taken me from a 2010 beginning of season 19 mph for 20 miles to 22 mph for the same 20 mile ride.  I also ride a low end road bike with clip on aero bars so our bikes aren't all that different.

Other better cyclists will weigh in here but the intervals are very key to getting faster.

I'm willing to bet there are people who run as much as you but can't run a 17 min 5k like you as well right?  Comparing yourself to others is a good way to get discouraged as everyone is different. 

I would agree with the overall tenor of what Dirk suggested, but diverge on the details. Like you, I come from a running background and am relatively new to the other two sports (2 years biking, 8 months swimming). The run is still my strength, though I'm slightly slower than you, but the bike is not far behind the run at this point.

Investing some time in a 'bike focus' could yield some real gains. Doing harder interval rides can go a long way. Because of the lack of impact in cycling, it's possible to do intervals that we wouldn't normally consider in running. Rather than doing shorter (< 5 mins) intervals, a more common recipe would be to do longer intervals of 10-30 minutes, e.g., 2 x 20 mins at 100% of FTP (5-10 mins easy riding recovery), or 3-4 x 25 minutes at 90% of FTP (3-5 mins recovery). As others have said, a couple of these per week, plus a longer ride and one more medium intensity ride (or your regular club ride, if it's not just noodling along), could go a long way. Try to track your progress. And keep it up throughout the year. Many of us are limited by the US winter weather, and get much of our bike fitness from indoor trainer rides during the winter (look up Jorge's winter training plan here on BT for examples). Seems that you're in Ireland, so you may face similar limitations. A well-calibrated trainer can make it easy to track your progress in detail. And can also make it easier to really get in some sustained efforts without worrying about hills, traffic, potholes, etc. etc. 

As for the running, agreed that you might need to dial it back a bit if it's your current focus. But I would caution against just dialing back to retain the more intense workouts. If you have any susceptibility to injury, that's a recipe for problems (been there, done that). Unlike on the bike, where intensity is king, for running it seems that you can get a long way on just volume. You can maintain some run volume by simply adding easy/steady runs after some of your bike workouts. This year I've done zero hard training runs, but the running is going fairly well nonetheless, to my surprise.

The seat height issue may be worth addressing - post a picture with your leg at the bottom of the pedal cycle - but it wouldn't be enough to account for what sounds like a very large discrepancy between your running and biking.

Just do as you do in running in which early runners must run for long periods of time to build cardio endurance, THEN do speed work. Same with the bike, do long rides first, then work on speed.

Again, ride often, ride more! I ride 3 times a week, then do my run/swim days 3 days a week. One of those ride days is a brick. Sunday is usually day off.

I can tell you that 10 miles on a bike is nothing. Try doing 2 hrs of cycling as a base. That should get your legs better in no time.

They are beating you on the bike because they are putting in more mileage. You want to work up to the point where you are riding 4x per week, with a long ride of between 2.5-4 hours, and 3 sessions of 1.5-2 hours with a couple sessions of tempo and interval riding.

To run in the 17's, you're probably putting in minimum 40mpw for a 3 mile race, or about 13x the distance. To get that on the bike, you need about 150 per week. :p That's a little bit of overkill, but not by much.

John

Great runners often make great cyclists (but not the other way around), so I'd set a high bar for expectations.

If you're social, go on group rides that kick your @ss. Ride with friends who will nearly drop you, sprint out of corners, attack on climbs, and go so fast in a pace line you have to hold a wheel or get dropped. Normally, I just suggest that new cyclists simply put time in the saddle, but with your 5k, I'd expect a lot more.

I do respect the advice here to do intense intervals on your own, but if you have the inclination and opportunity to ride with real cyclists, do so. I haven't done an interval on my own since the '80s, but frequently win my ag bike split.

But whatever sort of training you do, if you ride hard, a year from now, you'll probably be one of the fastest riders in your club, and kill your bike split.

This.

As others noted, comparing yourself to others based upon them doing the 'same amount of work' as you is a bad idea.  I would bet that those people would have the same issue if they compared their running speed and training to yours.

Obviously, if you want to get better, you have to work at it.  It might take you more than it takes somebody else to show the same improvement.  Tough.  That's the way it goes. 

Also, try lowering your seat and see how it feels (just make a note of where the seat is now in case you want to raise it back).

Right. It might not take much of a change. The traditional rule is that at the bottom of the stroke, your sole should be level and your knee is still slightly bent. Most people ride with their seats too high, and their toes point down to reach for the bottom - it sounds like you're higher than that. You should feel powerful all the way to the bottom.

This is hopefully unnecessary but I'll toss it in just in case.  Are you a good bike mechanic/maintenance guy?  If not, have you had it tuned up at a shop lately?  I'm an idiot about this sort of thing, but there are a lot of ways that bikes can start to lose speed on you without good maintenance.

Just to show you how behind I was at first, I didn't even buy a tire pump.  I rode my bike ~25-50 miles a week the first month I had it without putting air in the tires once.  Once I got a tire pump I was much, much faster.

I agree with others that you need to stop comparing yourself to others.  Don't worry about how many miles other people ride.  I'm sure there are some people in your group that could run 60-80 miles a week and not come close to a 17 minute 5k...so it works both ways.

You want to get faster on the bike.  The answer is to ride more miles than you are now, and to ride at a higher intensity than you are now. 

If you are rocking while you pedal seat height is likely to be to high.

Mark it and try lowering it and see how it feels and if your hips are staying even.

Like others say you have great potential as you are a solid fast runner, ride more and shorter you ride harder you should ride.

I am just in the door, so I cannot reply to everyone as it's late, but I am overwhelmed by the

responses, some great advice for me to look into, and some stuff that is really

encouraging. I will crack it.

10-15mpw 

Yep will mark the saddle and move it down. Will get someone to look to see if I am still rocking

my thoughts too

I would have ran maybe 20-25 over the winter. So I got a good base fitness. If I run 2 times a 

week I can keep the running at the same level