An Olympic bronze medallist just proved that your Sunday ride isn’t “just cycling” – it’s elite-level endurance training that can power world-class performance.
Georgia Bell stood on the podium in Paris 2024 with an Olympic 1500-meter bronze medal and a new British record of 3:52.61.
An guess what? She only runs about 30 miles per week.
The rest of her endurance engine is built entirely on the bike.
Bell logs roughly 100 miles of cycling every single week, and she’s not shy about why. “It will be a part of my plan forever,” she told Cycling Weekly.
Her story isn’t just inspiring. It’s validation for every cyclist who’s ever been told their sport is “just a hobby.”
Bell was a standout junior runner in the UK, earning national titles before heading to the University of California, Berkeley. But the high-mileage American system broke her – literally.
Running 60-plus miles per week caused repeated stress fractures in her shins. Her bones couldn’t handle the pounding.
She stepped away from competitive running for nearly seven years, working full-time in cybersecurity while staying fit through duathlon and cycling. She won the 2023 Duathlon World Championships in her age group, proving her aerobic engine was still firing on all cylinders.
When she decided to return to the track, her coach Trevor Painter designed a radically different approach. Instead of grinding out long runs, Bell would build her base on the bike.
Her weekly structure now looks like this:
• Monday: Easy run plus one hour of Zwift intervals
• Thursday: Track session in the morning, hard Zwift race at night
• Sunday: A 3-4 hour road ride covering roughly 60 miles
No traditional long runs. No 10-mile tempo efforts. Just smart, high-volume cycling mixed with targeted speed work on the track.
The results speak for themselves. Bell has been injury-free for five consecutive years. She set personal bests. She won British titles indoors and outdoors. She made the Olympic team and brought home hardware.
Bell credits Zwift races specifically for sharpening her finishing kick. “They feel even harder than many of my running races,” she said, explaining that the platform lets her push to her absolute limit without the injury risk of extra running miles.
The science backs her up. Cycling builds the same aerobic adaptations as running – increased mitochondrial density, improved oxygen delivery, enhanced fat oxidation – without the repetitive impact that causes stress fractures and overuse injuries.
For runners, cycling is the ultimate insurance policy. For cyclists, Bell’s story is proof that the hours you’re logging aren’t secondary training.
They’re building an elite endurance foundation.
Bell’s approach flips the traditional script. Most runners treat cycling as “active recovery” or something to do when they’re injured. Bell treats running as the supplement and cycling as the main course.
And it carried her all the way to the Olympic podium.
So the next time someone asks if your Sunday century “counts” as a real workout, tell them about Georgia Bell. Tell them about the British record holder who runs 30 miles a week and cycles 100.
Tell them about the woman who rebuilt her career on two wheels and proved that cycling isn’t just cross-training.
It’s championship-level endurance work.
Sources: Cycling Weekly, Citius Mag Podcast, Team GB, ESPN Olympics coverage