Weight Lifting & Cycling... When You're Old! - Page 2

Actually I am in the same boat as you guys.
It has been hard for me to let those days go, but after 5 different strains/micro tears in my legs over the past 5 years, nerve damage in my foot that required injections to deaden the nerve and some other things I have backed off the amount that I am using on leg day. I have dropped down to using 275 lbs on full squats and just keeping up the reps and volume. I may try to get back up to 315 lbs. and stay at that weight, but I have also leaned out 7 lbs in bodyweight and that is helping me on the bike for sure.

Father?! Noooooooooo!! It can't be! I'll never fall to the dark side!!!


No need to get back into hardcore bodybuilding for that. I'm already there. Been having such trouble improving on the bike, in fact, that I'm losing motivation and am entertaining the thought of just doing 30 - 45 minutes a few times per week as a blah blah general fitness routine. For example, on March 7th I had my best 1 hour session ever on the trainer. It was a paltry 16.7 MPH for 1 hour with an average HR of 163 BPH or 85.3% of my known max of 191. I took 3 quick 40 second breaks at each of the 15 min marks where I stopped pedaling long enough to get a drink of water. In that brief period my HR would drop from ~170ish to 155ish. That's why my average HR was only 85% as much of that ride was around 90%. Truly pathetic and very discouraging after about 2 years of cycling.

As of today I've had 13 days off the bike (or any exercise for that matter) due to a case of chronic bronchitis which I seem to have about 3 times a year. I've actually had it for several weeks but it's not been so bad. In the last 4 years I've had quite a few problems related to breathing and catching my breath.

For example, a sedentary friend of mine asked me to help him carry a couple of trash cans out of his basement that were filled with basement tiles he'd removed for remodeling. After helping him carry 2 trash cans up stairs and out to his van I was quite literally gasping for air and he was hardly breathing. I'm starting to wonder what the frack all of this cycling is doing for me if I can't even do stuff that a sedentary person can do with ease.

Add on top of that is the fact that I've gained about 25 lbs in the past 18 months. I started cycling with hopes of getting my lungs into shape and losing some weight as diabetis runs in my family. So far it ain't happening. Cycling, or rather any exercise just makes me hungry. Ravenous is actually a more descriptive term.


Hardly.


The only thing I'm sucking at worse than cycling is weight training. It quite literally takes me months to work up to doing 5 sets per bodypart. And once I get there I easily overtrain. That's if I even make it that far. And the amount of weight I can handle these days is pathetic. We're talking 5 sets per bodypart here, Felt_Rider! For upper bod that's 30 - 35 sets every 4 to 5 days. For legs and abs that's 20 - 25 sets every 4 - 5 days. I've tried the "train each bodypart once per week" routines and felt that 7 days was too long between training sessions to be effective. Besides, when I did that I had to make sure that every workout counted and some days that just isn't possible.

Long gone are the days when I could handle 350 lbs for 5 sets for 5 to 6 reps on the bench. Unfortunately, now I have the rotory cuff problems to show for it.

Add to that frustration is the fact that my resting HR is only about 56 BPM on a good day! It was 68 tonight. After 2 years of aerobic exercise I would expect it to be a little lower than this, especially when it was 58 BPM after only the first 6 months of training!! All I did for the first 6 months was to do 10 miles in about 41 to 43 minutes on an old beater MTB with slicks 4 to 5 days per week.

I'm seriously considering switching over to a GPP (General Physical Preparedness) type workout. Something that would include cycling, stair climber, squat thrusts, high rep freehand squats and some other bodyweight only type calisthenics.

Sounds to me like you're being a touch hard on yourself, Doc. To me it sounds like your focus should switch from performance to actual enjoyment of the hobby.
From previous posts, you shared you're quite a big guy so if you can attain an average speed of 16 mph on a training run, that's actually quite good and not so poor as you imagine. There are times my speed drops to about 11 mph when I ride back from work and I'm far lighter than you and, yes, it occasionally pisses me off (we all get a bit frustrated at times by sticking points).
Now another thing you seem to have indicated is you're experiencing some health problems which I'm sure must be frustrating for you. Let me share that I myself suffer from absolutely chronic hayfever and have breathing troubles in Spring. I also have a hernia to add to my woes and I'm sure there are many other riders on this forum who have health problems, bad knees, heart conditions, injuries through crashes or whatever.
I think the main thing is to try and enjoy this hobby of ours because if you enjoy cycling and spend time cycling, you'll eventually get fitter and healthier. Correct?
The incident with the trash can seems to me you may have been run-down at the time after an episode of bronchitis which left you physically drained. Try taking supplements for your immune system (I myself started taking copious amounts of honey for my allergy as well as fish oils).
But my principal advice is that you could consider leaving aside your bike computer readings for a time and spend more time on the bike at a more leisurely pace, enjoying your training and giving time to time.
On a personal note, last Summer I had real chronic pain throughout my body, possibly due to allergy. My knees were killing me and my hips gave me sleepless nights while my shoulders, lower back and wrists ached from riding. Then I was getting testicular pain from the possible hernia.
Ever since I cut down on my training intensity, reduced my weight-training and stuck with the supplements I have felt a lot better and my principal motive for cycling is enjoyment anyway. So, don't despair and remember that both Lance and Schwarzennegger suffered major health problems as well and that's what makes us human.

I agree with what Carrera said. And I'd also add that you shouldn't put too much stock in your RHR. While a lot of pro cyclists and other super-fit athletes have extremely low RHR's (which they seem to love to publicize), many of these athletes have pretty 'average' RHR's. I remember reading an article about this. Resting Heart Rate is something that varies drastically from individual to individual. The fact that your RHR isn't super-low is nothing at all to be concerned about. Keep on ridin'!

You're right (thankfully). Do you recall the incident at the market I described in an earlier post? I stuck a coin in a fitness testing machine where you put your finger on a sensor and it tells you how fit you are. Top rating was "athlete", second rating was "very fit" and third was "average".
Now I knew I wasn't going to score "athlete" but I was shocked and mortified when the machine rated me as merely average.
That would mean that despite my cycling up 20 per cent climbs and busting my ass, I'm really no fitter than the average Joe who guzzles beer at the local bar.
Well, O.K., I don't dispute the machine hasn't detected a resting heart rate that isn't really so low at all, but that's not everything. Deep down I know I'm better than average on other scores, although, sure, I'm no Lance Armstrong.
I think if the Doc can cycle at 16 mph average, carrying a muscular bodyweight of well over 200 pounds, that's really quite good and something positive to build on. And I recall Marco Pantani once casting aside his bike monitors and instruments while declaring:
"All these gadgets are ruining the sport of cycling!"

http://www.lesmills.com/site/program...s-program.aspx

http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/...h/bodypump.htm

Check this program out. I've been doing it for about 6 months, and it seems like the perfect complement to cycling. They offer it several times a week at Gold's Gym.

After 3 months total rest I did my first set of squats a couple of days ago and had a shock. I've been cycling quite intensely since Christmas and even did a few leg-presses. However, to my surprise, soon as I did some squats with just 130 pounds on the bar I was left with severe muscular pain in my legs the following day. My leg muscles were destroyed.
I guess it goes to show that leg-presses are far milder than squats and it seems my cycling activity had conditioned my legs to cope with them O.K. But squats seem to hit the very deep fibres of the legs.
You have to be careful with squats, though. When I squat I put weight on so easily it can kill my cycling in the hills with the extra baggage and drain on recuperation.

I'm 49 and what I do in the off season is 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps of various exercises three times a week to build strength and during cycling base training drop the poundage and do 3 sets of 20 reps with one min rest between sets to build endurance. When racing starts I drop to twice a week.