Smite me

I was having a conversation with a good friend and fellow cyclocross aficionado at CX practice. I mentioned that I'd been lifting quite a bit more over the past few months and that I was kind of tired after many sets of box squats last night.

She said that she had been lifting more this semester too, but she wouldn't train her legs in the weight room until racing season was over.

I've gone back and forth on this in the past. It is a very common approach among cyclists to not train the lower body in the weight room in favor of bike specific training. I think the conclusion that I'm coming to is, yeah, my bike specific fitness is probably *a little better* when my training is split in 5-6 days on the bike every week and 0-1 days in the gym every week and I leave my leg training up to the riding. I probably race a bit faster, ride a bit stronger, and I'd probably finish a little better.

However, it seems like my total body fitness suffers quite a bit when I don't get in the gym. Mostly, it manifests itself in tightness in my hips, soreness in my lower back, and bad posture.

If you are going to take racing bikes seriously (which I do), I wonder what is the ideal split between gym time and bike time. And is there any merit to the approach--favored by many in the cycling community--of not training their lower half during periods where they are spending a lot of time on the bike. Friel's book is probably the most widely used self coaching manual and even he suggests that riders (especially older riders who need all the help they can get in keeping their maximum force delivery up) benefit from weight training throughout most of your season, with the exception of any big peak periods you have planned, in which he suggests you taper on the bike and phase out weight training entirely.

I just feel like my high end hasn't suffered that much in doing the 3 days in the weight room/3 days of hard bike workouts each week. Yeah, I probably would suck it up on a 6 hour ride right now. But a) I don't really have time for 6 hour rides, b) I don't really enjoy spending my entire day on a bike, and c) most of my competitive efforts on a bike are confined to less than 45 minutes. So why not train that way?

I speculate that most folks can't really handle more then 3-4 workouts on the bike every week. And by "workouts" I mean hard workouts. Anaerobic work, repeated hard hill efforts, threshold intervals, etc. I do not mean "base miles."

I can ride base miles 7 days a week. And while I do believe in the claim that you need a solid base mile foundation before you can do any serious, focused hard training or racing, folks typically prescribe a lot of 4-6 hour rides. I"m sorry, but that is ridiculous for the average Joe. I also speculate that, once your base fitness is established, you gain very little fitness by continuing to engage in base pace riding. Which, if my guess is true that most of us in decent shape can handle 3-4 hard workouts a week period, those extra miles you get in days 4, 5, and 6 on the bike are all mediocre, base miles at best that do little to improve the shape you're in.

If anything, I speculate it'd leave you overtrained and insufficiently recovered for the next (ultimately more benefitical) hard workout.

There has to be a point of diminishing returns with cycling. And maybe training 6 days a week on the bike will leave you better off than training 3 through a sheer volume effect alone. But I can't imagine it's more than a marginal increase at best.

In contrast, if you are doing 3 hard workouts on the bike every week, would your other 3 days not be better served by getting into the gym and strengthening those areas that tend to be sorely underdeveloped in cyclists? Posture? Upper body strength? Poster chain development? I guess what I'm saying is 6 days a week only on the bike might get you 100% on a bike but only 50% total overall fitness.

Whereas 3 days of each gets you 95% and 95%.

Well rounded is likely better, I'd say.

Anyway.

Monday, 10/20/08

Off

Tuesday, 10/21/08

@ Gym

Warm Up

3 x 6 OHS @ 65# to a box maybe 2" below paralell w/ feet flat on ground

Work

Box Squats
6 x 3 @ 155, 175, 175, 185, 185
1 x 2 @ 195
1 x 1 @ 205

1 Arm DB rows
4 x 4 @ 80

Pull Ups, Wide Grip overhand
3 x 4,3,2 @ BW + 10,20,30

Planks on stability ball
3 x 45"

Bench

4 x 4,4,4,2 @ 135,155,165,185

Wednesday, 10/22/2008

CX Practice. Drove out to the park which lopped off a whopping 100' off back and forth commuting that I normally have out there. Managed about 9-10 laps @ ~4-5 minutes a piece. Two easy. The rest harder. Solid night of riding and I was feeling good in the corners by the end of it.

First lap was easy then the 2nd and 3rd built in intensity. I had started at the back and kept trying to pass whoever was in front of me and catch the next guy. At some point I caught up to Eric Knuth who is a pretty dominant time trialist in the local master's circuit. I hung on his wheel a bit but he eventually put me in the box and rode away from me. While recovering I saw elite mountain biker and good buddy Eric Lau gunning me down from behind.

I fought hard to keep him off my back but he passed me at the end. He's an incredibly good bike handler.

After the lap I asked him if he'd take an easy one with me and give me some pointers on getting through corners quickly, which he did. That was pretty cool. I tried to ride on his wheel for the whole course and take his lines. I managed it about 40% of the time, typically going in too fast, losing my nerve, and drifting wide around the turn. We'll get there eventually though.

He and I picked up the pace with each lap until on the 4th one it was full bore. We passed someone going and simultaneously bunny hopped a log in the course and I started to bury it for the finishing quarter mile or so of the course. He stayed on me and we were neck and neck coming through the last barriers. I was in front and doing my best to keep the pace high. Corner, corner, corner. Bam!

My tire caught on a root or divot or something and I got thrown down Hard. Eric laughed at me and gave me props for pushing it through the turns and we rolled in together.

One of the more fun CX practices I've had.

I went out for a couple of cool downs with Elicia and then let it rip for one last lap while they were tearing down the course. I felt good. I stood up and sprinted out of turns and went hard out of the saddle up the climb.

It's been months since I felt like that.

Don't know what happened. Maybe I need to start warming up better before races. The legs didn't come around until I'd already been riding hard for 20 minutes or so.