Calling all fitness Guru's and Freaks alike - please help!!

[CTJ]

Hi Hubbers!!

 

I need some advice from all the fitness freaks and Guru’s alike please!!

 

Racing season starts from end of September to mid March. Racing every weekend anything from 45 – 90 km’s @ avg speed of 33 - 39 km/h depending on terrain. My normal training routine is as follows during off season:

 

Monday: Gym (Full body including dead lifts, squats etc)

Tuesday: Cycling (Intervals etc)

Wednesday: Gym (Full body including dead lifts, squats etc)

Thursday: Cycling – (Intervals or Tempo)

Friday : Rest

Saturday: 80 – 100km

Sunday : 80 – 100km

 

How do I adapt my program for when racing season starts to race hard every weekend??

1)      Gym: 1 or 2 times per week??

2)      Interval training - 1 or 2 times per week?? Keeping in mind I would like to improve my fitness  as the season progresses, but I also don’t want to risk burnout. Types of interval training?

3)      Gym / cycling plan on which days in order to allow for recovery before the weekend’s racing?

[Pooyan]

In the pre-season- you should focus on gym work- and to build maximum strength.

This should have been in June/ July / maybe Aug.

 

From September you want to maintain your strength.

You can do low cadence interval training –

When you go to the gym focus more on explosive power exercise

One gym session per week during you racing season should be sufficient.

 

Interval training:

On interval day’s- make sure you are well rested (under normal conditions- unless you do some sort of block training...) so that you can push really hard. This is where you can gain lots of fitness. Mix up the type of Intervals that you do- otherwise you fitness gains becomes stagnant.

When you are racing on the weekend- one IT session in the week is enough.

Ps- I am not sure you should do gym session before your IT day. (You want to be fully rested and you muscles in peak shape so that you can push hard on the IT session)

 

Regarding burnout- I think you refer to overtraining?

So remember to take rest and recovery weeks every 3rd or 4th week. (And keep intensity lower and rides shorter in this weeks)

Burnout- is what the Pro’s get from all the racing- so they lose all enthusiasm about cycling.

[CTJ]

Thanks! Pretty much what i had in mind. And I was referring to over-training and not burnout. Thanks for the correction.

[Capricorn]

if you are not hurting yourself via that training, its likely the fatigue will stem from under recovery as opposed to overtraining. I know the latter sounds more impressive, but its because of that status, its often over-diagnosed.

 

I recently read an article of Joe Friel's, where he says its better to focus on the volume work in the pre-season, and toward the last month or so, focus on strength and speed work then. He explains that its easier to pick up the strength and speed, but its not easy to sustain it over a long period of time.

So if you've established your base, then during the run up to the races, increase the strength and speed work. Rest properly in terms of endurance training in the days before the event, but maintain your strength and thus  power by sustaining gym work.

[Cippo]

I'm no guru at anything but when I was training for DC I found that a big factor wrt training was recovery. I am lucky not to work office hours so whenever I could I would grab a 2hr nap in the afternoon's. I made sure as well to wear compression socks post training which helped alot with tired, sore legs the day after a heavy session. Making sure to refuel post exercise as soon as possible helped a great deal. I would make sure I always had whey protein mixed with a chocolate Steri-Stumpie which meant I could delay a cooked meal till after a hot shower and relaxing.