Rowing and Cycling in College, opinions please.

[BrettB]

Hello everyone, I am a freshman in college who is currently trying to get into the sport of cycling. Since I am much to short to go anywhere with rowing outside of college ( aprox 5'10), I have started picking up cycling. I don't plan on quitting the rowing team, especially since I was recruited, but I would like to somehow incorporate cycling into my rowing, so when I leave college, I could perform at a professional level (which would be nice). I have around 14-18 hours of rowing per week, not counting races. The days where I only have one mandatory practice are Monday, wed, and Friday, while on Tuesday and Thursday I have, at least, four hours. I am starting to bike after practices, and spin, but I don't exactly know where my overtraining limit is. Any help? Thank you.
Build: 5'10, 165, 8-9 bf%( 3-4 bf% for lightweight in 2 months), most trained musculature is in upper body. I recently turned 19.

 

[kdelong]

Nobody here is going to know where your overtraining limit is either. Your best bet is to visit your LBS and ask them for a referral to a cycling coach. Set up a consultation with him and see what he can help you come up with. He may charge you for this but it will be worth it if you are serious about bicycling professionally. If I were in your posisition, I would also talk to the rowing coach. It may be that riding and rowing are not compatible (which I doubt but I don't know), and trying to keep the riding a secret could get you into trouble.

 

[BrettB]

Well by no means am I keeping it secret, I have already told my coach and he is fine with it. And as far as I know if the are capable together, I have heard that rowing and cycling are excellent cross trainings for each other. I was just wondering if anyone had an opinion of the type of training schedule I should do. Thank you for the advice, and what is a LBS?

 

[kdelong]

LBS is Local Bike Shop. Sorry, I don't know rowing but I can see where it probably is good cross training with cycling. I don't know how much rowing takes out of you energy wise, so I can't give you any real training schedule. I do know that rowers tend to have a high VO2 max so you are already there in terms of aerobic fitness.

What I recommend for you to try is to ride a continuous 60 - 90 minutes at least three days a week. On two of the three days you need insert intervals into your ride. I recommend that you do at least two sets of of power intervals. Each power interval consists of three minutes of riding 80 - 100% of your maximum output followed by three minutes of rest at 40 - 60 % of your maximum output. Each set consists of three intervals. Rest 8 minutes between sets. Maintain a cadence of 90+ rpm throughout your ride and vary your output by changing gears. The intervals build up speed and the rest of the ride builds up your leg muscle endurance. As you get stronger on your bike, you can increase the time of high output of the interval and decrease the rest time.

Any other time that you can ride, do so but ensure that you are riding with good form and try to keep your cadence at or above 90 rpm. If you feel like you cannot maintain 90 rpm in the gear that you are in, then shift to a lower gear.

Make sure that you eat and drink during your rides. Any kind of fruit or energy bars are good, and most sports drinks are OK for hydration.

Also, it would not hurt you to register with USAC and enter competitions as time permits. You may end up riding in last place to start out, but you will learn valuable lessons that you can bring to future races and you will freinds who can help you pursue your goal of professional cycling.

Also, you might look through the Training section of this forum for more information on a training program that is right for you.