Cycling Fitness / Training Advice

Ah fuck. Someone on twitter reckoned it's because you lose blood volume. Do you really detrain that quickly?

I've had it a couple of times after this year, but that's after 6-7 days off and I've come back pretty quickly. Hope I can get something back by Sunday!

My understanding of physiology is that blood volume is the first thing to decrease if you stop training, so that figures.

Short, sharp stuff this week for you I reckon.

Mmm, even 1 minute efforts on the front were tough this morning. Swain's on Thursday will be the acid test.

Yarp "Significant" reductions afetr 2-4 weeks

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2692122

Taken me 3 and a bit weeks to get back to where I was before 2 weeks in the Canaries not touching a bike.

I've heard your top end vo2 etc can go in about a week.

Your diesel engine remains longer though, like 3-4 weeks

A two week holiday doing nothing but sleeping, eating and drinking has just been followed by a 70 hour work week.

Just did an hour on the turbo with some digs and nearly puked. Anything over tempo was grim and v02 nearly made me puke. As @andyp mentioned, steady stuff is fine though. It's going to be a long month getting back to normal.

On a side note, this winter I'm looking to train a bit differently. Long stretches at tempo and some intensity once a fortnight. I also have access to a gym on a Saturday morning while my youngest is at basketball training. I have 90 mins to play with, but little experience and don't want to do anything silly. What's a good resource for weight training to compliment cycling?

On the gym work: Are you looking to shore-up weak points and help prevent injuries or do you want to build sprinter's thighs?

What's a good resource for weight training to compliment cycling?

https://www.velopress.com/books/weight-training-for-cyclists-2nd-ed/

I'm no sprinter, so it's definitely to help with injury prevention and anything else that will make me a stronger rider. So core work id have thought would be good too.

Great stuff, thanks.

Just did an hour on the turbo with some digs and nearly puked. Anything over tempo was grim and v02 nearly made me puke

Been sick for 2 weeks and planning a turbo session tomorrow. This did not help :(

Soz

I felt better after about three hours. Better?

Just did an hour on the turbo with some digs and nearly puked

I felt better after about three hours

Lesson learned. Never spend less that four hours on the turbo.

I've been following some tips from a video of Nathan Haas you can find on YouTube.

Low weight, high velocity, lots of reps seems to be the mantra.

Jumping up repeatedly onto a 1 metre high box is exhausting but I feel more springy than when I started a few weeks ago.

Jumping up repeatedly onto a 1 metre high box

To OP: Plyometrics are in the very advanced end of scale.

I didn't even know it had a name. I'll start calling it that to make me sound like I have any idea I know what I'm doing.

Perfection :)

That's the video I've been trying to remember, thank you. It's excellent.

I didn't even know it had a name. I'll start calling it that to make me sound like I have any idea I know what I'm doing.

You're now 2/3rds of the way to becoming a qualified personal trainer!

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I've agreed to go on a mamil friendly mountain trip in June next year. It's six days based on the Raid Pyrenees North to South, so quite bumpy and I'm looking for some help and advice (basically I want to win at mountains and need some free coaching).

So, attached is a first draft of a training plan based on TSS and a ramp rate that shouldn't see me injure myself (something for which I have history). I've never had a CTL over 88 in my life, so have aimed to have it around 90 just before the trip happens.

My weekly TSS includes commuting miles which I've measured with a PM and averaged out over a week. It's a not insignificant 300 TSS a week. Is this right to include? If not I worry that I'll struggle to find the time to do the 700+ weeks on top of commuting miles.

My plan is to also drop 4kg over the next seven months to hit 66kg. I'll be honest here and say I don't know how realistic this is as I've never been much below 69kg. However I've also never really tried to cut back on bad foods and I've never given up alcohol, both of which I am doing for this.

The next step will be composition, but for now I'm after advice on whether this looks too conservative/ambitious in terms of ramp rate etc and also thoughts on the use of commuting to hit TSS targets.

Cheers all.

1 Attachment

• 9E471B8F-57EC-4128-B17F-ED23A0AEAC16:ATP.pdf

My first comment would be not to take it all too seriously and getting too sciencey. If you're going on a mates trip with Benj and co there's no point ruining your life (aka cutting beer) for it. You're a strong and fit rider. You just need to adapt that to the unique demands of riding uphill for a long time.

Will get back to you with some better comments when i have a bit more time

Getting sciency is my thing though!

Seriously though, I'm not intending to take the trip seriously at all, I'm planning to enjoy every scenic km. I do however also like a challenge and a project, so I'll also enjoy the training.

Cutting alcohol is purely a benefit as I've begun to realise how tired it makes me. Combined with how much I work, that's not a healthy mix. I'm cutting mid week booze until Christmas and then no booze in 2017.

I'm looking forward to this in a geeky way.

Would be good to have your thoughts, especially on the benefits of weights/off bike work on injury prevention.

Cheers

I pretty much cut out booze for the last two months while training for hill climbs. Totally worth it. It's easy when you consider the turbo the morning after a drink will be a waste of time and a drink in the evening after a session will ruin your recovery while sleeping. Had a big effect I reckon. Feel way better in general too. The weight will be much easier to loose while off the sauce.

Last race was in Sunday. I filled my head with Guinness and felt well wonky yesterday.

You lot are completely mad. One year I'd love to try and do hill climbs, !but this year the 'season' coincided with weekend work....