Originally Posted by
burnthesheep
I've not done this song and dance long enough to have gotten to a point yet to worry about it........but have you done any kind of strategy like "build power then lose weight and hold power"? As a cycle?
I comfortably bounce around in the 150's, comfortably meaning I can pretty much eat/snack/drink as I please.
It feels like I should get to my power limitations first, then tweek the weight. I'm still a little time off from reaching an hours per week versus power plateau.
It's coming, but likely still a year plus out there. It's simply not mountainous enough here for me to bother yet.
If I plateau on power in another year, I may target a "segment time" fondo and drop some weight to go for the age grouper podium.
Just curious your strategy over time as you seem to have been in the game longer.
Weight loss does not affect my threshold power at all so I don't worry about losing power. My top end has suffered for other reasons so the plan is to hit the weights after the season (September); the races I have scheduled are all FTP based (long climbs) and lifting always give me an insatiable hunger which makes it hard to lose weight. I'll go with high weight low rep compound exercises in the gym; in theory that strengthens the muscle with the least amount of fatigue and growth.
It took me a long time to come to this (because it makes training less fun) but if you're over 10% bodyfat you should lose weight and then hit the gym. The only ones that may be exempt for that are crit sprinters, but even then that's person specific. Outside of your sprint, you shouldn't lose power (unless your diet is too strict).
A lot of people ride and race so they can eat whatever they want, and that definitely works as well.