Adding Gym To Cycling

[love2fly]

I'm turning 60 in December and have been riding recreationally on road and for the last 5 years also MTB,since 1999.

I ride 3 days a week, typically Wednesday and then on weekends in the Cradle. As life and more recently a bout of prostate cancer have gotten in my way I have wanted to improve my cycling fitness and lose weight just to become a better cyclist - especially MTB.

I recently started gym, doing some basic weight and resistance training for legs, arms, core etc.

My question is, how many gym sessions should I do as I feel my recovery is slower, given my age? Last week I had a great gym session on Tuesday and Thursday with a good ride on the Wednesday, plus I'd had 2 decent road rides on the weekend, but this past weekend on Saturday I just had NO legs, which meant for my 60km ride I was in survival mode, leading me to feel that I hadn't recovered.

Would doing just one gym session per week still be sufficiently beneficial?

👍

 

[Pandatron]

Pm'd you

[KidCharlemagne]

If you're riding regularly one gym session is just fine. Experiment with one weight training session and one plyometric-type session with just bodyweight exercises and see how you cope.

[bleedToWin]

If your weekend riding is the one you want to focus on and where you get most joy then do one gym session early in the week only. 

[love2fly]

Yip that's where I'm leaning. In my younger days I was fit enough for a 3:45 Argus (about 5 years ago) but after the treatment and a nothing year last year where I felt out of sorts before the cancer was diagnosed, I'm kind of having to start from 0. I'm up to a 60km easy road ride Sat and 40 Sunday, with a 30km MTB ride mid week so the plan is to just go with that one gym session.

[ChrisF]

My 2c worth ....

 

Have a session with a dietitian.  With your health history the "normal advise" may no longer be applicable, and you may need to change your pre-ride intake, long ride nutrition and possibly even your recovery food.  (a specialist sports dietitian at Panorama helped me a LOT)

 

Once this is sorted, a biokeneticists may well add value to your overall approach to fitness both on and off the bike.  It is just possible some muscle group(s) are weaker due to your health history.  Targeted exercises may just be the answer.

 

 

Best wishes for your road, or was that trail, to recovery 

[MudLark]

You're never going to get the right answer here. No two bodies are identical. You have to listen to your body and figure out what works for it. 

 

 

[love2fly]

18 hours ago, ChrisF said:

My 2c worth ....

 

Have a session with a dietitian.  With your health history the "normal advise" may no longer be applicable, and you may need to change your pre-ride intake, long ride nutrition and possibly even your recovery food.  (a specialist sports dietitian at Panorama helped me a LOT)

 

Once this is sorted, a biokeneticists may well add value to your overall approach to fitness both on and off the bike.  It is just possible some muscle group(s) are weaker due to your health history.  Targeted exercises may just be the answer.

 

 

Best wishes for your road, or was that trail, to recovery 

Thanks. No budget for dietician, especially the direction they're going to take my cooking 😧 nor for coaching or biokinetics......the health issue thing is mostly genetic and once the prostate cancer has been addressed, which it has, it's no hindrance, although I can't help but feel the after affects of the radiation and the one tab I take for now, have an affect.

To distill it down, Im just curious as to if one gym session added to 3 days of cycling would be sufficient as if I add a second one I only have 2, non-conservative recovery or rest days.....

😎

[devvydoesdonuts]

23 minutes ago, love2fly said:

Thanks. No budget for dietician, especially the direction they're going to take my cooking 😧 nor for coaching or biokinetics......the health issue thing is mostly genetic and once the prostate cancer has been addressed, which it has, it's no hindrance, although I can't help but feel the after affects of the radiation and the one tab I take for now, have an affect.

To distill it down, Im just curious as to if one gym session added to 3 days of cycling would be sufficient as if I add a second one I only have 2, non-conservative recovery or rest days.....

😎

I think as a starter, adding one day of gym work should be good. As your body develops and becomes stronger and starts recovering better from the gym session you could look at adding a second gym session. I find that going in slower to the gym sessions and ramping up the intensity of those sessions makes it easier for the body to adapt, 

Still being on the mediction could also be impacting your current form so just listen to your body and take it step by step. 

Good luck for the recovery!

[ChrisF]

2 hours ago, love2fly said:

Thanks. No budget for dietician, especially the direction they're going to take my cooking 😧 nor for coaching or biokinetics......the health issue thing is mostly genetic and once the prostate cancer has been addressed, which it has, it's no hindrance, although I can't help but feel the after affects of the radiation and the one tab I take for now, have an affect.

To distill it down, Im just curious as to if one gym session added to 3 days of cycling would be sufficient as if I add a second one I only have 2, non-conservative recovery or rest days.....

😎

 

Yes, unfortunately the "first session" at the dietitian can be costly one.  Same for a biokineticist.

 

 

Few months back I was listening to a talkshow about food and sports.  They briefly detoured to talk about food options when undergoing chemo .... certainly NOT a one size fits all topic !!

 

 

When I went to the sports dietitian I was expecting to get a prescription for something like USN .... my wallet was crying beforehand .....  Imagine my surprise when the session turned to stuff I can buy at the local SPAR 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, back to your question -

- When I practiced for Trans Augrabies I was deliberately doing more and more saddle days in a row.  Surprising how quick our bodies adapt !!  BUT - I had my feeding sorted by then.

- I follow a friend that does Ironman (podiumed her age group), Comrades etc.  One day she does the Cape Marathon in sub-4, the next morning she swims 2km preparing for a 7km sea swim the following weekend.  The 7km sea swim done, the next morning a nice long bike ride..... This for somebody in their 50's.  It all comes back to health, conditioning, and feeding.

 

 

If you can get your feeding sorted, for YOUR health and your body, then your recovery will improve drastically.  Then consecutive days are much less of an issue, and as your fitness adapts it just keeps getting better.

 

 

But this comes from a weekend enthusiast at best.  Even though I had to work through some medical challenges to get to this point.

 

 

Wishing all of the best on your road to recovery

[JJDT]

Adding a gym session to your training program is excellent and for me I would follow the same approach, but I just do 2 gym sessions a week. My approach is some what flexible, if I feel I would rather ride instead of a gym session I go for a ride and also vice versa when I do not feel like riding I will go to the gym.

Received an-mail from a person who I do follow on MTB fitness he summed this up nicely on what you experience. He basically explained the theory around training and a toilet roll. If you take a toilet roll and remove 4 sheets and look at the roll and will not notice any change. The same on the next week remove another 4 sheets and still it will show no movement. But after a few months we will start to notice the difference. It is the same as we start a training program, initially we will see no results but after a few months we will notice the difference. Here I'm also guilty as we recover from injury or sickness we want to see progress within a few days and then get frustrated if we have one high and the next a low, instead we just need to focus and patience do reward well.

[love2fly]

9 hours ago, ChrisF said:

 

Yes, unfortunately the "first session" at the dietitian can be costly one.  Same for a biokineticist.

 

 

Few months back I was listening to a talkshow about food and sports.  They briefly detoured to talk about food options when undergoing chemo .... certainly NOT a one size fits all topic !!

 

 

When I went to the sports dietitian I was expecting to get a prescription for something like USN .... my wallet was crying beforehand .....  Imagine my surprise when the session turned to stuff I can buy at the local SPAR 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, back to your question -

- When I practiced for Trans Augrabies I was deliberately doing more and more saddle days in a row.  Surprising how quick our bodies adapt !!  BUT - I had my feeding sorted by then.

- I follow a friend that does Ironman (podiumed her age group), Comrades etc.  One day she does the Cape Marathon in sub-4, the next morning she swims 2km preparing for a 7km sea swim the following weekend.  The 7km sea swim done, the next morning a nice long bike ride..... This for somebody in their 50's.  It all comes back to health, conditioning, and feeding.

 

 

If you can get your feeding sorted, for YOUR health and your body, then your recovery will improve drastically.  Then consecutive days are much less of an issue, and as your fitness adapts it just keeps getting better.

 

 

But this comes from a weekend enthusiast at best.  Even though I had to work through some medical challenges to get to this point.

 

 

Wishing all of the best on your road to recovery

Thanks for the insight. I acknowledge I don't eat well enough, and need to eat more veg and protein and proportionately less carbs.

Thanks CF

[love2fly]

7 hours ago, JJDT said:

Adding a gym session to your training program is excellent and for me I would follow the same approach, but I just do 2 gym sessions a week. My approach is some what flexible, if I feel I would rather ride instead of a gym session I go for a ride and also vice versa when I do not feel like riding I will go to the gym.

Received an-mail from a person who I do follow on MTB fitness he summed this up nicely on what you experience. He basically explained the theory around training and a toilet roll. If you take a toilet roll and remove 4 sheets and look at the roll and will not notice any change. The same on the next week remove another 4 sheets and still it will show no movement. But after a few months we will start to notice the difference. It is the same as we start a training program, initially we will see no results but after a few months we will notice the difference. Here I'm also guilty as we recover from injury or sickness we want to see progress within a few days and then get frustrated if we have one high and the next a low, instead we just need to focus and patience do reward well.

What a great way to explain the time it takes! It's crazy how gaining weight when feasting on holiday happens so quickly, yet starting a programme yields glacier like results..