So I began riding 5 years ago. I raced for two years and ended up with a few top 7 finishes in cat 4. College got pretty heavy with 21 credit hrs, classes at the worst hours of the day, and worked part time. I ended up switching over to powerlifting due to the university gym was open late and early during the semester. In just over 2 years I went from a cycling weight of 153 to 195. Now that I am out in the real world working with normal hours, I am begining to ride again to compete (not sure if I will road race, do crits, or TT). I have a long way to go, and I want to get my training in the right path. Do you guys have any suggestions on coming back? My first ride back was 20 miles with 1000 feet of elevation. Never jumped out of the saddle once was pretty excited about that! ( i am much slower due to I have not cardio since I raced). I also notice I need seat time to get use to high cadences again cause my hips begin jumping once I get close to 95rpm. I blow up pretty fast on rollers too. So what do you guys suggest for getting back into the grove? I will weight train 3 times a week still but my focus is 100% on cycling again.
From cycling to powerlifting and now back to cycling
- Thread starter vrotsos991
- Start date
If you have not been on this board long I am one of the few here that still strength trains (31 years and still going, former competitor and former coaching) just to let you know.
Don't take my following nitpicking too harshly because I am just trying to point out the obvious contradiction.
If you are truly 100% emotionally invested into cycling than you will want to be shooting for 100% sports specific training and that means no lifting or focus on anything else. Even for most high Cat level racers cannot achieve 100% focus because of family, work or other life commitments, but they make it work with less than 100%.
There are some good folk to listen to as far as cycling specific training so I am not one to give that sort of advice, but I do know of all attributes no matter the sport focus that Consistency is King.
If you are just starting back it will come to the question of how to be consistent (training nearly everyday). So there is a very fine balance between training hard enough to stimulate progress and not so much that you cannot hold up day after day, week after week. You have raced before so you probably already know this is the path. For now you will more than likely need to ramp up gently over the months training (riding) as consistently as you can and let your body adapt. This adaptation, if you manage calories and sports specific training, will begin to reshape your physique to perform to the tasks. Sports specific training weeds out all unnecessary things so that there is nothing else to share the nutrients and rest time in order to hit those training goals coming up in the next session and all sessions for many weeks to come.
My personal goals are not exclusively cycling and more cross fit focused and I can tell that my progression rate in cycling is a very slow process and will never be at the level of a competitive cyclist. For instance I trained legs Monday morning and attempted to do 2x20's sub-maximal intervals last night and missed the target goal because my legs were too fatigued and the discomfort of sustaining those intervals for 20 minute periods was a very intense. I could have easily hit those crucial targets had my legs been fresh.
But even avoiding training legs and lifting using just upper body there is still a cost when it comes to cycling. My CdA (explanation here) kills me when it comes to a cyclists that are 5'10" and 140 lbs. This past weekend I was in a group of 8 with three of the guys that were narrowly built and each taller than me and probably weighing 20+ lbs less than me. On every hill they pulled away from us casually talking to each other as if there was no hill at all and the remaining of us weighing much more breathing hard just to keep them in sight. CdA will also mean a lot on the TT's and road race break away efforts. My wider shoulders and V-shaped back acts as a huge parachute compared to the guys that have very little upper body size. Just remember that in cycling it is in the opposite direction of the Force/Velocity curve than powerlifting or strength training.
I could go on, but if you meditate on these things you will know when it comes to desiring to shoot for 100% there also comes sacrifices that will lead toward sports specific efforts.
Best wishes
Awesome rewrite up, I appreciate the feedback! A lot of good fees back I will definitely take into consideration. I am not sure what route. A quick question for you FELT. Since you are a larger frame rider with the back like a V, do you feel crits, and timetrials are more in your favor?
Well, I am bulkier, but not quite in the Clydesdale group. I don't race based on what I wrote above being that I am a huge believer in sports specific training and I am not willing to give up a fondness for lifting and 30 year investment so other than being involved in very frisky group rides that are sometimes Crit like in nature I don't have real race experience. Most of my training is longer sustained efforts because my goal long term is to improve my endurance. I rarely intentionally hit intervals above L4 in my training.
Even though I still lift I have lost a lot of size for a few reasons. With declining hormones from aging and the abuse of lifting really heavy in my younger days I cannot support the heavy weight any longer. Since 2004 I have dropped from 190 lb off season weight to now close to the 160 lb range at 5'6" and I am continuing to drop. In other words out the two types of training, strength and endurance, endurance is winning the battle and my body is adapting in that direction and I am losing strength. I personally think I need to be down to 150 lbs or less to be competitive (watts/kg). A friend of mine at the same skeletal frame and height is 140 lbs.
My personal preference out of those two types of styles is a TT pace, but again this is at a non-competitive level.
It will be interesting to see how you evolve. There are some fairly muscular framed guys that do well. On this forum I think bgoetz is one of those guys. He doesn't lift, but is just naturally muscular and races Pro/1/2. There is a very well known Cat 1 in my area that is really stocky in build and is one of the best in this area in each type of race.
Even though I still lift I have lost a lot of size for a few reasons. With declining hormones from aging and the abuse of lifting really heavy in my younger days I cannot support the heavy weight any longer. Since 2004 I have dropped from 190 lb off season weight to now close to the 160 lb range at 5'6" and I am continuing to drop. In other words out the two types of training, strength and endurance, endurance is winning the battle and my body is adapting in that direction and I am losing strength. I personally think I need to be down to 150 lbs or less to be competitive (watts/kg). A friend of mine at the same skeletal frame and height is 140 lbs.
My personal preference out of those two types of styles is a TT pace, but again this is at a non-competitive level.
It will be interesting to see how you evolve. There are some fairly muscular framed guys that do well. On this forum I think bgoetz is one of those guys. He doesn't lift, but is just naturally muscular and races Pro/1/2. There is a very well known Cat 1 in my area that is really stocky in build and is one of the best in this area in each type of race.
I will provide updates. I been talking to alot of people that are double my age that have been power lifters and body builders and its pretty interesting how they all comment the same…"Your young! Take care of your heart and focus on endurance and staying lean! Don't abuse your joints and ligaments." It's one of the reasons I am coming back to cycling, along with I enjoy compition and I need to get my BP lower.
I can comment here as I have some experience - I used to do track sprinting events (400 m dash) and lift weights together working up to some decent poundage - 210 kg deadlift for 3 reps @ 75 kg body weight, 300 kg deadlift from above the knee for 2 reps, although my squat and bench, or overhead lifts weren't impressive. I did lift heavy until age 29 and then stopped completely. I now focus exclusively on cycling, and it has improved significantly. As Felt_Rider stated, sport specificity is crucial - but mixing strength and endurance will just mean you have a decent level of both, but not extreme ability in one or the other. Top cyclists are always very lean with no big muscles, unless you're a kilo- or shorter distance track cyclist.
Similar threads
