Why I hate training in road biking / what should i do?

Hey Everyone,
Well I just finished my first year and half since i hit the bike. I lost 65lbs (230 to 165), I went from barely being able to do 10 miles with a rec. group to now being able to do 50 miles with a 20mph avg with local racers. Through my year and a half, I have come to found training for biking is not like any other sport. Im a senior in highschool this year (dang it school starts in 3 weeks!!) and i have tried almost every sport (wrestling, football, volleyball) and in all those sports, you can train all day long and your performance suffers, but it doesnt seem like it. In road biking, if i train hard a day, im screwed the next two.
For example, on a thursday i went on an easy cruise with my friend for 25 miles (i averaged 15) and then hit the gym for 2 hours and worked out upper and lower body. Then in the evening, i went on an easy cruise with some friends. Then the next day, i rode with some friends up to a local lake (measly 25 flat miles real easy pace, one friend was on a mountainbike) and i struggled on the way back. Im the fastest out of all of those friends, and i got dropped on the 16mph pace on the way back (okay on the way back we stopped at a mom and pop burger place called Dam Diner and i had a big double meat burger with a plate of fries and loaded both with salt and buckets and ketchup). Then Saturday morning, i had my usual ride with the fast group and boy was it not fun. They were doing a 70 mile loops with some hard climbs.
The ride starts out flat and then rollers (about 25 miles in) and then after a rest stop is when the climbing begins. Well we wernt even on the rollers yet and i got dropped from the 20mph warm up pace. Then i struggled to just keep them in sight. I decided on turning around before the climbs started and rode back at a pace to were i was hurting, but would be a breeze if i didnt train hard at the gym the day before, not 2 days before.
Soo what should i do? Should i keep training how im doing? I think what killed me is i started the gym this week and i think working out the legs is whats killing me. I started the gym to start working out my real "bad" upper body and decided to do the legs also. I know us bikers dont want an arnold upper body, but chicks in high school theese days dont dig pantani (may he rest in peace and ride through the heavens forever like he did on earth in the alps) arms . Im sure they wouldnt mind boonen arms .

Sounds like you might have overdone it at the gym, considering that you're just starting out. While you're an accomplished cyclist, you might do well to build up that gym program over time if you intend to train both concurrently.

Boonen really doesn't have big arms either... Besides, highschool chicks aint where it's as. Get a fiesty roadracer-ette and I'm sure you two could have much more fun 'riding' I you know what I mean *nudge nudge, wink wink*

Are you using a HR monitor?

If you keep doing what you are doing, you won't be happy. So my advice to you is to not continue what you are doing.

I think that certainly the gym work didn't help matters. If you feel that you need to do gym work, that's your own decision.

As for the bike, you may just be trying to do too much too soon. You need to understand the concept of gradually building your fitness to the point where you can handle these things (and it seems like you have some perspective on that based upon your opening lines about where you've come in the past 18 months) and you need to understand the concept of when and how to take rest and recovery. That's a big topic and it would not be easy to put down here. I suggest you read a book or read something online about it. Specifically, you were tired on Thursday evening. You didn't say anything about Friday (maybe you took the day off?) but then you were not able to hang with the group on Saturday morning, where they were going farther and harder than you had all week. Doesn't sound too surprising. You've over-extended yourself. You need to build up your base fitness to the point where you can recover from your daily activities and handle what you are trying to throw at yourself on a daily basis. You hadn't recovered from all the other stuff during the week and you couldn't handle it.

Also, cut back on the ****food like burgers and fries. That stuff is way too fatty and without enough carbohydrates to replenish your body's stores that it taps for exercise. What you ate (or didn't eat) on Thursday could very well be a big part of your problems on Saturday too. All the good junior riders that I know eat smartly and make intelligent choices about food.

I'm not a junior but I did a lot of hard training this weekend, over 70 miles both days with lots of hills and strenuous threshold work. I was pretty beat when I got home on both days. What did I have for dinner? It wasn't crappy burgers. On Saturday, I had pasta with chicken and steamed broccoli. On Sunday, rice with stir-fried vegetables and shrimp. I also drank several liters of water over the weekend, not soda. I feel great today, fully recovered and I could train to day if I wanted to (but I'm not going to).

Whoa there cowboy, slow down!

Sounds like you just need a rest week. I know what you're saying about the roadie arms and being in HS, that was me 6 years ago. Well, I've been hitting the gym consistently for almost a year, and I've managed to look 'decent' for an endurance athlete. (My arms don't look like swords anymore when I stretch them out - there are 'some' curves). I wouldn't be doing any leg work during the riding season, it's only going to hurt you. If you want a resistence workout for your legs, do some big gear hill sprints - win win.

And just remind the chicks how badly you would wreck the football players when it comes to fitness and endurance. Tell them how high up on the power profile your power to weight ratio is. That gets the panties wet real quick. haha

__________________
"friendship, family, religion. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business!" -Mr. Burns
The faster you go, the fewer passing cars

If you want to continue doing both types of training that is your business and your goals. I am a former nationally qualified bodybuilder in the NPC federation so if you don't mind me throwing out a couple of thoughts to consider and these thoughts are based on your writing not by what I have personally observed of your actually lifting volume or intensity since that is not revealed in your text.

Since lifting is my first goal and cycling is secondary I do still balance the two knowing that I cannot achieve the same results as someone who specifically trains for cycling, but I have improved greatly in cycling in comparison to my former ability. My lean mass has remained and unfortunately recently increased a bit more putting me at 5'6" / 170 lbs due to my continuance of lifting.

The first observation is no one that I know as a successful bodybuilder trains (lifts) with the required volume and intensity for 2 hours. That is just too much to do if drug free and if not. It is too much to train upper and lower body all together in one day and is why most lifters break down each bodypart through the week. I focus on one bodypart a day to train that area specifically and to keep recovery time down.

For example you state that you did all of this on one day, Thursday. The next day you continued to ride. Meanwhile your body is trying its best and using every resource to recover each of the trained areas at once and it sounds like your body just couldn't pull it off.

If you desire to continue cross training consider a training split and as you noticed arrange your schedule to make best use of recovery for each training event. Also better nutrition to give the body what it needs to recover.

For example my training split for cross training (not competitve cycling):

Monday - AM Weights: Legs PM Cycling: recovery spin
Tuesday - AM Weights: Chest PM Cycling: Intervals
Wednesday - AM Weights: Back PM Cycling: Intervals
Thursday - AM Weights: Shoulders PM Cycling: 60 minutes SST
Friday - AM Weights: Arms PM Cycling: recovery spin
Saturday - AM Cycling: spirited group ride 60 - 80 miles typically
Sunday - recovery spin or short single track mt. biking or rest day depending on how I feel

Since I am opposite of almost everyone here in that my first love is lifting and 2nd is cycling I can still accomplish my lifting goals in less than an hour and cycling performance is increasing though at a slower pace since I have to balance out recovery between the training events. Some days I suffer on the group rides because I have not recovered enough, but I know those days are apt to happen from time to time. Notice that I train legs with weights on Monday to give a number of days to recover before I do my group ride on Saturday.

Just some things to consider

__________________
My Blog