Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Sprints win races!

I can punch well above my Cat in terms of sprinting.

Shame those higher Cat riders wont wait for me over the hilly bits, so I can show them though. Rude bastards.

Am just eating oily fish. On Friday my right leg was thirty percent of left leg bench press last physio session after hip fracture. So I did 12h 200km 3000m climbing on Saturday. Should think it is now well over thirty percent.

Lifting weights = Testosterone boost.
Also boosted metabolism.
Injury prevention.

I dont know is this is a thing in the UK.

But up here there is a big push to include a solid Climb at the beginning of every road race. Especially the Shorter ones. Something to split the Group up and reduce the risk of a mass crash later.

This is a bit of a PITA for me. The stronger riders drop me, and are long gone before my endurance or sprint can be of any use.

Hopefully I'll be able to hold on better this year......

I am very glad to see that i have provoked a healthy discussion / mild argument here.

From my experience, I have found that cutting back on leg work at the gym has definitely made me feel less comfortable pushing bigger gears on my bike, and i do think that the stabilising effects mentioned above of free weight squats etc does me good for core and back etc.
So whilst I'm not sure that it has had a hugely noticable positive effect from gym, I have sort of noticed the impact of not doing it. And i feel like my overall body composition and definition was better when making gym trips more frequent.
Note that my legs and ass are about the size of a 14 year old boy's.

But I do agree with the bigger gear /low cadence work to build strength. i did quite a lot of it before trips to the mountains last summer, and although it may not necessarily have made me more powerful, I certainly felt more comfortable grinding away in the saddle at a low cadence.

And @dan, i've been going to the gym for years on and off, but focussed more on legs from autumn. And yes, lots of protein after gym. Always some whey powder asap after and then a decent meal within an hour or so.

Low cadence work (<70) at around FTP for a few minutes on the turbo is pretty brutal. Defintely feels like it helps.

Genuine question, but helps what? I don't climb at anything under 80rpm, so am not sure what training at less than that does. I'm not saying there's not a good reason, I just don't know what it is.

You climb at <80rpm if climbing for 90mins in the Alps on a 36-28... Well, I do anyway!

You're not going fast enough then.

;-)

Firstly. I said 'feels' because I share Your sceptism. For the most part I feel I'd benefit from 'upping' climbing cadence.

Secondly. This isnt a session I do very frequently. I just heard some of the guy in my Club do a similar thing pre-season.

But I did do a quite few drills in the run up to my Mallorca trip. My thinking was that I spend too much time out of the saddle on a Climb, and maybe this would help me sit down for longer. I kinda feel that it had this affect. But I have a terrible time working out on the turbo. I suspect that whatever the reason is that my Power is far lower, while sat static, on the turbo. Is also holding me back when climbing seated.

I think one of the ideas behind high resistance turbo work. Is maintaining form under pressure (for this I also do high cadence intervals). So it could just be an inprovement in form.

Thats specifically my own needs though. If I felt I lacked leg strength, I think I'd do these more often.

Even if I have the gearing for the gradient. I tend to lapse to 75rpm.

I'm in 2 minds as to whether this is a personal biomechanical preference I should just live With. Or whether I should try and Train higher cadence. I find I get a feeling of stress at high cadence though.

hmmm 'force reps' sounds very cool.

http://www.joefrielsblog.com/2010/11/force-reps.html

'Force reps' - makes my knees hurt just saying it.

Oh shit joe freil. Shut down thread. Delete life.

Basically just invoked godwins law.

Lol

/thread

So, I'm taking this new Beefcake 4000... I'm like totally ripped but I've noticed my balls shriveling up? Is that normal? Also, my man boobs are giving me a sore back. Should I only eat egg whites? My creatine tastes funny, can I mix it with low-carb beer?

FDJ Team Car... just sayin'

Yeah, all that rubbish can >>>>

Also increases bone density in most people too. Definitely a bonus.

hehehe he said "bone density" hehehe

Haha.

Yeah lots of benefit beyond just getting 'stronger'. @dan

That video of the French mtber is perfect example of good stuff. Proprioception and muscle activation.

@Smallfurry please never read Joe freil. He'll take your cycling back to the dark age.

Has he accepted that long periods of 'base' training make no sense for non professional athletes yet?

Take up track racing. Eat all the things. Win races.