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Solar Energy:
I have been self-studying this matter for little less than 10 years now. Even though my performance level isn't my #1 priority, I still care about it though. And to tell you the truth, any attempt to book some weight resistance session within critical training weeks failed. And it frustrates me big time.
I think that failed is a bad term. The real issue comes down to goals. If your goals are to be healthy, fit, and look good, then I don’t think that you can argue against the benefits of strength training. In fact, gymnasts, wrestlers, and other very “healthy” people do very little endurance aerobic-type training. It would be hard to say that these athletes aren’t healthy, fit, and look good. In fact, it is really unclear as to whether there are any “health” benefits to cycling beyond an hour or so a week at a level that raises the heart rate to moderate levels. In other words, the health gains going from a recreational to competitive cyclists are very nebulous. I don’t argue that there are significant performance differences on the bike between these types of riders,; and that you can improve performance through a sound periodization routine, which does not need to include strength training, and that may even be retarded by strength training. If the goal is to ride faster, and that is your single goal, then I am not sure how lifting plays a positive role. If you have other goals, then it is a different problem altogether.
But unfortunately, I can't really contribute to any common knowledge pool on the topic. Because as a rider, I am not very gifted. If it doesn't work for me, that doesn't mean it won't for someone that has the talent to correctly recover from FTP/Squat development within the same training weeks. For now, I blame my failures on the fact that being 40yo with limited talent, there's no way I can recover quickly and "cleanly" enough to keep control of my curves.
Well, then you are struggling with the rest of us. I don’t see them as “failures,” but you are pursuing goals that are more consistent with good health and overall fitness, which is why your specific performance results are inconsistent. In my opinion, Squats and FTP development are not complementary or synergistic for success in these activities as sports. But they both have undeniable health benefits up to certain levels. If you have specific performance goals, then I am not sure that your plan optimizes achieving those goals.
In your opinion, would there be a way to translate a weight resistance training into power based numbers? This at least would solve the *non-traceable* nature of WR. Only then can a scientific flavor be brought to the debate.
Not really. Again, I don’t think that the health benefits of cycling beyond a recreational level have been proven aside from its improvements over someone who is sedentary. In other words, what are the health benefits of a 275FTP over a 200? Probably none. Power based numbers mean that you are a faster cyclist, which is how we keep score in the world of cycling. Until cycling adds a lifting component after an event, IMO weight resistance training, for the most part, doesn’t help and may hurt cycling. The converse is true if you are going to pursue the sport of weightlifting. If your goal is to be a healthy fit person, then both things are important (along with flexibility, diet, and other factors), but I can’t see how strength numbers can be re-adjusted or translated into watts, or a CTL or TSS score-- aside from additional weight training, depending upon your body habitus and levels of training, may affect the wt part of the kg./wt formula, either upward or downward. In my opinion, Armstrong, Charmichael, et al, advocate weight training (and other cross training) because it makes the rider more healthy and able to survive a multi-day race like the tour, I think that their claims that it directly benefits cycling are unproven. In other words, I don’t think that an elite tour level cyclist is any healthier than I am, as I define healthy. But he is a heck of a lot faster on the bike, because that is what he is training for. It is my understanding that elite cyclists are very prone to infections and you can't say that they are the healthiest creatures.
When I referred to ATL in my previous post, I meant the fatigue level in a general sense. The reason why WR impairs your CTL level of course is that it doesn't get logged. That is potentially several TSS that don't get logged. ATL of course doesn't get logged neither, but as we both know, it goes up that is for sure.
Possible. But the body has a limited potential for work of any kind. At some point, as one type of work increases, the other will decrease, but the body’s ability to do the combined work should increase over time from doing both types of exercises, provided there is sufficient recovery, which is the real tricky question. For example, in a periodization routine, do you perform heavy lifting during your recovery phase of cycling? Or do you periodize by heavy cycling and heavy lifting periods, followed by recovery from both? Either way, it changes the whole concept of periodization. We are basically guinea pigs. Cycling periodization plans are designed to make you faster on the bike. Lifting periodization plans are designed to make you stronger in specific resistance exercises. To my knowledge, there is no plan that allows you to perform both of these periodization plans concurrently or simultaneously.
Couldn't find your duathlon thread, would appreciate a link if you have one. If it's a Weight/FTP kind of challenge though, I have virtually no chance of being able to book it.
It’s right below under Winter Duatholon. The goal was 300FTP and 300 Deadlift. None of the initial guys made it without injury. I don't know how to link it but it is still on this page
-KO
