TMonk

Did a couple hours this morning on a standard route I like that includes a 15' climb (Mt Soledad), 10' flat fast effort (Fiesta Island) and 3' leg burner (Linda Vista rd). Hit good power and good times on all my segments. This is supposed to be a local minimum of fitness for me as I'm in the depths and bowels of my off season.

If I can keep this is a baseline for when I start training for real in November things are looking good for next year!

Hermes

caloso

Just riding around/commuting on either the CX or FG this week. Getting over a bad cold that kept me off the bike for a few days.

burnthesheep

Did an hour of aerobic stuff. Or so it told me. Just lightly warmed up and did 40min at 260w. Then 2min rest, then some more. Total of 52min at 260w in an hour. A lot for me. Everything I read says you have to grow the engine in this manner sometimes.

I think I'm going to do some longer stuff 2x a week and shorter/harder the 3rd. It had been other way around for a while.

Hermes

Okay. Here we go. Yesterday 3x10' climbing threshold efforts on my road bike and today, S&A, 3 seated starts in 84 gear inches on TT bike and then 20' low cadence tempo intervals followed by 10' normal cadence tempo interval. I had planned to go to the gym and do leg strength training and then the TT bike work but decided to do the seated starts instead. At least for me, seated starts feel very similar to single leg seated leg press in the gym with the added benefit of being on the bike and getting the correct neurology and leg speed.

Ttoc6

Back at it. A mtb weekend last weekend in Moab but unfortunately we got rained on and had to bail on 2.5 days of riding. We got some really good hikes in Arches though while we were down there. Arches in the Rain is a really interesting experience. Seeing the natural beauty and the weather that caused it form that way is incredible. Hiking on wet rock is a bit more perilous, especially with a slightly borked knee.

Still hitting the gym a lot and even did about 5.5 hours on the trainer this week. Off sesaon is slowly coming down and its about time to start training again.

Hermes

Saturday was supposed to be a 2 hour endurance ride but ran into rain so turned around after 25 minutes and went back to the car. Sunday was 3 hour endurance ride along the coast. Great weather and temperature.

Ttoc6

Finally sore in the legs after lifting this morning. Getting my dead lift form to something reasonable where I can actually pick up weight that provides some fatigue.

Heathpack 

Hermes

burnthesheep

Not sure how, but cracked out my 20 minute target today.

I mean, I know how, I built up some TSB form from not riding Fri/Sat/Sun and having done a pretty epic hour of power on Thursday. I planned to do 3x workout, but after hitting so many minutes......figured what the heck......just go for it.

At the current weight, I've now got 4.34 watt/kg for 20 minutes now. From a couple weeks back, also have a 5.0 for 5 minutes from during a step test.

I noticed that it appears I could snag a little more in not too much time working out. Definitely hitting the current aerobic ceiling given that the pain/lactic feeling wasn't necessarily horrifyingly bad at all but the HR was about as high as I'm comfortable letting it sit at for that long.

Come early spring, time to put that to good use! As a lowly Cat 5, that's plenty.

Ygduf

I've given up on traditional deadlifting. long femurs make it a challenge.

trap-bar deadlifting though seems perfect for me. feels very similar to the cycling range of motion as well.

Ttoc6

See, I'm pretty short. 5'7 with a 30inch jean. So I'm not having to bring the bar far off the ground. Never used a trap bar, but I have used a hex bar and those feel like cheating.

Hermes

The video below shows the deadlift using the trap or hex bar. One difference with that bar and the technique shown in the video is that uses more quads whereas deadlifting with the olympic bar with straighter legs works the hams and glutes more but MAY put the lower back at more risk.

I know of racers who do the crossfit thing including the back squats, deads, leg presses, jumps and etc. It is all good until it isn't and it is easy to injure oneself in the gym lifting heavy weights with the idea of getting stronger on the bike. Hence, I like the trap bar for deads and agree with Fudgy that it feels more like the cycling movement and SEEMS less likely to injure ones back. I tend to go for more reps than more weight and use deads more as a warmup versus trying to lift heavy. YMMV.

topflightpro

I'm also a trap-bar deadlift guy. I have always struggled to keep good form on straight-bar DLs, with the exception of stiff-legged DLs. Like Fudgy, I have very long legs for my height, which might be one issue.

Also, when using the trap bar, I tend to grab the lower bar and not the higher grip.

cmh

I'm starting some weightlifting for the first time in years, and for the first time aimed at cycling performance. I'm 50 and I've seen my sprint output decline over the last 5 years. In addition, I'm no longer a factor in our weeknight races in the sprint finish. I wasn't winning those a few years ago, but I was up in the top 5 pretty often. So, it seems like a good time to start adding some strength training to my routine.

My first session in the gym was very light weight (bar only) getting used to the motions - squats, single leg press, seated pulls, push ups, and other core work. I plan to hit the gym 2-3 times per week through the winter, probably with a 5 sets of 5 reps routine once I do another couple sessions of very light weights. Seeing this, I may add some trap bar dead lifts as well, and likely some lunges. I feel like I should also do something that targets hamstrings and glutes. Any suggestions there? Or any other recommended lifts? Thanks.

burnthesheep

I dunno, I tend to have a mildly pessimistic view of the sprint from a "gifts" vs. "work" standpoint at the club rider and recreational racer level. I'm talking about if someone on the weeknight hammer ride wants to go from not even being in the mix, to snapping people's legs off in the 20 second hit for home.

It's been years since I did "bro" gym work. Even then, it wasn't a lifestyle thing. Just two days a week doing some 300-workout style stuff. So I can't attribute any snap to that. I'll do some 30sec and 1min hill sprint stuff sometimes, but I don't ever ever go out and practice "just sprinting".

I feel like the snap I've got headed for the line at the beer house at the end of the hammer ride is pretty grossly disproportionate to the time input.........given the time input in training is essentially zero.

TMonk

sprinting and fast-twitch talent in general is mostly a nature (rather than nurture) thing, although it can be trained of course

Hermes

On the bike...Seated and standing starts are a great way to build strength on the bike plus building the correct neurology to sequence and recruit the muscles to propel the bike. Trackies do these all the time and are part of any track session. To engage the glutes, lift the chest to flatten the back versus rounding the back during either the standing or seated start. Think of these as one leg deadlifts on the bike.

In the gym, glute bridges are the best to build glute muscles and better than deads.


The other exercise I like are Turkish get ups. I think these are great for core work and mobility. They are a little complicated to do and get the right form. The other day, I had one of the trainers at my gym observe my form and he made a few tweaks that helped a lot.

TheKillerPenguin

Futzed up a knee doing squats incorrectly and following it up with on the bike volume, so I'm taking the opportunity to treat this as the off season and am catching up on netflix while slowly going stir crazy.

wktmeow

I found this article pretty interesting, apparently detraining is key to increasing fast twitch fiber percentage, but how to translate that to an actual sprinting training plan is still a mystery to me:

Why Ample Rest Is Key to Building More Fast-Twitch Muscle Fiber | STACK

wktmeow

Interesting, the weights + low cadence is very similar to what has worked for me during build periods this past year. Main difference being that I do weights last, and my low cadence sessions are longer and less intense than usually prescribed. I was also doing glute work, and single leg press, though this off season I'm using the home gym, so no leg press machine.

cmh

Thanks Hermes.

Hermes

I do not think that doing max rest to optimize sprinting will ever work for a roadie. One has to be at the finish of a race to sprint and not be totally gassed. For track sprinters, the race is very short such that the sprint engages almost immediately, such that endurance is not a major factor. There is a saying among trackies that endurance is a speed killer. That may be true but of little consolation if you are down a lap to the field.

Hermes

Tuesday was low cadence work on Fiesta on the TT bike and today was 4 climbs up Soledad at threshold. As a side note from Tuesday, I was on the back stretch of Fiesta between two cars doing 22-24 mph and came to the left hand off camber turn to head east. A derelict on a beach cruiser was coming against traffic on the bay side of the road. He decides to cut in front of me (I am on the downhill slope) to go to the other side of the road. I guess this is where riding fixed gear no brakes pays off as I just go right and miss him and continue on. We say to expect the unexpected but holy crap, that is a new one. He had to be on something.