For fitness sake

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
So kind of a follow-up question for those who are following plans and stuff like that - are you doing that for specific goals, or just because you want to be a fit cyclist and figure that's the best way to go about it? Like @Pearl mentioned training for BWR specifically, so I suppose specific event prep is at least part of his motivation. But for anyone who uses plans or coaches, are you generally doing it because you have a goal event on the horizon and want to specifically prepare for that or is it because you want to just be better and stronger and aren't targeting something specific? I guess put another way: is training something you see as a progression to always get better or is it a tool you use to sharpen yourself temporarily? (And I realize these two are not mutually exclusive in outcome, but I'm asking more about how you view them if that makes any sense.)
 

one piece crank

Well-Known Member
I like to follow you organized-fitness-types to see what I can do to improve. I was on a good track with this fantastic Winter, out before dawn every single day Dec-Feb, then a fractured fibula in March brought everything to a screeching halt. So, my Summer recovery plan includes:
  • As much as possible, anchor the boat in the Bay and float on my back,
  • Work on flatland tricks every day at lunch,
  • Try and wear-out my 4.8 JJ's by Fall
Carry on....
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
So kind of a follow-up question for those who are following plans and stuff like that - are you doing that for specific goals, or just because you want to be a fit cyclist and figure that's the best way to go about it? Like @Pearl mentioned training for BWR specifically, so I suppose specific event prep is at least part of his motivation.
I have a hard time being motivated, so I need to circle something way out on the calendar to be a main priority for me, then I work backwards. Then the events that may pop up before it, I can use as a dress rehearsal. If I didn't race or have a event/goal in mind, I don't think I would ride as much as I do before then. Doesn't have to be a race obvii

for anyone who uses plans or coaches, are you generally doing it because you have a goal event on the horizon and want to specifically prepare for that or is it because you want to just be better and stronger and aren't targeting something specific? I guess put another way: is training something you see as a progression to always get better or is it a tool you use to sharpen yourself temporarily? (And I realize these two are not mutually exclusive in outcome, but I'm asking more about how you view them if that makes any sense.)
You know as much as anyone, you can choose to be 75% of your potential all year, or choose certain times where you are at 100% and certain times to unplug and 100% rest. Using a coach or someone that works directly with you can help navigate a tricky cyclocross season or a full road calendar. Having one goal event and the others as "whatever" events makes planning a little easier, I think.

Also, either buying a canned plan or working with a coach adds someone besides yourself to your accountability circle. Granted, you need to be able to do this shit by yourself, but seeing that big red X on the training peaks calendar or explaining why you missed a workout to someone you gave money to adds a little umpf to your step when your alarm goes off
 

Ryan.P

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm replacing post ride double stuff oreo buffets with healthier options and started using some rynopower supplements but really just to be fit enough to have fun and enjoy the opportunity to ride .
 

iman29

Well-Known Member
I had written a much longer blog response to this, and decided my "training" really comes down to a few things:

1. I ride to stay fit and healthy. and mentally sane. I used to be Fat and unhealthy- like really fat (will show you pic in person if you ask) and I never want to be that way again. Cycling helped me achieve becoming healthy so I never want to stop.

2. I ride as much/often as I can. I learned this from someone I met 10+ years ago who is a cyclist I wanted to be like at the time and he gave me this advice. Ride your bike when you can, don't worry about group rides and shit. Once you start riding more, find people that you can ride with the same way and then its more fun. After that ride with people faster and get dropped and you will get faster/better/more fit.

3. I need a target to train for. With the lack of events and group rides its been tough. I use Zwift indoors during the bad weather days and focus on mixing up intervals and sprints and recovery rides. When I am outdoors I will do the same and find some hill repeats, long flat sections and also just have days to Just Ride Around and enjoy it. Completing the Cranbury 200K back in April and hitting nearly the exact moving time and avg speed we wanted felt amazing. I trained for this for about 6-7 weeks and it paid off.

4. I read up on a lot of training stuff. This includes on the bike and off bike fitness (which I dont do enough of), nutrition, sleep etc... This helps give me ideas on something new I might try if I find I am getting bored or taking it too easy too much of the time. I eat mostly whatever I feel like it in moderation and drink a shit ton of water. No soda except that much needed can of coke on a ride when I am bonking. limited beer but in the summer I may have a few extra days here and there.

5. I listen to my body when it's tired. I have a level of insomnia so my sleep pattern is generally F*cked most of the time. However, having gone through and recovered from Over Training Syndrome (OTS) in my early days of riding, I know that even skipping 1-2 nice weather days of riding can really help me avoid going over the edge. In fact I just did that this week and took 2 days off, after realizing I went 6 days in a row riding with no real recovery.

This is just what came to my head, but the last 2 years I figured out I enjoy the endurance type events and style of riding the most. Yes it was a blast the one season I could finally ride with the A group on the weekly shop rides, but I guess as I am getting a little older Im not concerned with who I can beat anymore, I just focus on beating my own times and competing with myself on my own favorite Strava segments.

With this overall approach I have been within the same weight range for almost the past 5 years give or take 5-10 lbs depending on the season. Training for the Cranbury 200K i dropped about 5 lbs of extra weight I gained and I really feel it gave me a good fitness boost heading into this nice weather season.

Now I need to map out the next challenge and also get my leg over my MTB more so I can ride with you peeps in person.
 

teabagger11

Well-Known Member
My overall fitness is nowhere near what it was when I was racing, partly because my back has become a problem I need to deal with every day and partly because, after 20+ years of doing endurance races pretty much all over the country, I've kind of been there/done that for most of the things I wanted to do race-wise and to continue doing it would be repetitive at this point. And unfortunately, unless I can address my back issues, the stuff I haven't done yet is probably off the table (I was definitely planning on a Tour Divide attempt for a while, but I'm just not sure that'll be an option given that each morning I have to test whether or not my legs can even support me before I get out of bed now.) And I'm okay with that, but I so still want to be able to enjoy the rides I can do, so I try to eat right, do body weight and balance exercises, and lately I've been trying to double my daily water intake. I've never really been about structured workouts -- kind of like @jimvreeland I always just figured the best thing for the kind of riding I want to do is to just get out and ride a lot. That is a little harder now because some days I just can't get my back to cooperate, but luckily that isn't all that frequent. If there is one thing I would say has had the greatest impact on fitness for me, it'd be the fact that I can't really do yoga anymore. Between the pandemic shutting down the studio, and the progression of my back issue (which is not muscular so I can't really fix it with yoga), I really haven't been able to take any classes and I definitely notice that, especially in my legs. I've been trying to replace some of it with foam rolling, but it's not really the same. Yoga was always really hard for me (apparently, I come from a gene pool with the general flexibility of concrete blocks), but the payoff was undeniable. Not having that has forced me to reckon with all the niggling aches and pains you might expect from a life spent riding a SS in the rocky northeast without really having a consistent method of keeping them at bay.

And, yeah, at some point I'm going to actually wake up to the fact that my choice to only ride SS for more than decade of 150+ mile weeks off-road is largely responsible for all of this, but that's kind of moot right now because (1) it's still fun to do and (2) even if I wanted to get a FS geared bike, it's going to be a while before I could get it anyway. But even if I do that, I'm not sure if I'll be all that concerned with regaining race fitness anytime soon. I think net of net, I'm willing to give up that sharp end fitness for good if it means I can become more well-rounded in other things - I've never been a "natural athlete", so if I wanted to be good at something, it had to have all my focus. So I'd give up other activities to work on being a better rider, and if there is one thing the last year forced me to do, it's reconsider that approach. It's not a dramatic epiphany or anything like that - it's just a realization that it's time to make room for other things as well. I'll still enjoy throwing down with my friends who like to ride hard, but I don't think I'm going to be as focused on being the one throwing punches in those rides any time soon.
Just got back on the SS after a few years off it its funny how riding a rigid SS makes me feel better than any bike I have ever ridden yeah it hurts my elbows have arthritis my hands ah well but I enjoy the simplicity so much it overshadows the pain
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
One guarantee in life is the loss of strength, so to slow that down i deadlift about 4-5 times a week along with whatever riding i do (not to be confused with bodybuilding). As for riding my bike, imma 90-10 split. 90% of the time in Z2 of my heart rate and the 10% is measured by the fun meter.
 

carvegybe

Well-Known Member
I'm 48. First time I got on a MTB with any regularity was around 2015-16. First time I did structured training was 2018 (haven't stopped). First time I raced was last Nov (XC, Cat 2, 6th out of 7 race-deprived riders). First time I deadlifted was 3 months ago. First time I did a track stand for longer than 10 seconds: didn't happen yet. My current routine:

1) 3 days a week of structured indoor training
2) 1-2 days general weights in the gym with focus on deadlifts - hoping to add laps in the pool afterwards if I have the time
3) At least one weekend MTB ride with some objective (e.g. elevation gain, elevation gain + distance, improved segment time, sessioning a tech section, etc)

I'm not breaking any records, but happy with things generally. I'm considering if I want to ramp up for more XC racing, as I felt potential for easy(ish) gains relative to my first XC performance, but this would require some lifestyle changes.

How many of you managed a lifestyle change to ramp things up and stuck with it?
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
I'm 48. First time I got on a MTB with any regularity was around 2015-16. First time I did structured training was 2018 (haven't stopped). First time I raced was last Nov (XC, Cat 2, 6th out of 7 race-deprived riders). First time I deadlifted was 3 months ago. First time I did a track stand for longer than 10 seconds: didn't happen yet. My current routine:

1) 3 days a week of structured indoor training
2) 1-2 days general weights in the gym with focus on deadlifts - hoping to add laps in the pool afterwards if I have the time
3) At least one weekend MTB ride with some objective (e.g. elevation gain, elevation gain + distance, improved segment time, sessioning a tech section, etc)

I'm not breaking any records, but happy with things generally. I'm considering if I want to ramp up for more XC racing, as I felt potential for easy(ish) gains relative to my first XC performance, but this would require some lifestyle changes.

How many of you managed a lifestyle change to ramp things up and stuck with it?
I have, got a road bike when I turned 30 and that is when the hours and consistency really went up. Riding went from 3-4 days a week to 6-7. 43 now and haven't stopped. Also went vegetarian in 1994 and havent wavered since. Sticking with thing works for me.
 

carvegybe

Well-Known Member
I have, got a road bike when I turned 30 and that is when the hours and consistency really went up. Riding went from 3-4 days a week to 6-7. 43 now and haven't stopped. Also went vegetarian in 1994 and havent wavered since. Sticking with thing works for me.
Your consistency is indeed remarkable. I'm not sold on the idea of road riding...I just don't like sharing the road with cars, people texting and driving. But a gravel bike might be nice for the D&R canal, Mercer Meadows, etc....will need to give that some thought.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Your consistency is indeed remarkable. I'm not sold on the idea of road riding...I just don't like sharing the road with cars, people texting and driving. But a gravel bike might be nice for the D&R canal, Mercer Meadows, etc....will need to give that some thought.
Mercer meadows and LHT are great facilities. You can stay mostly off road all the way to hopewell, especially if you take Aunt Molly (cherry valley down to 518, about half dirt), which connects to st Michael preserve. This gets you to the edge of the sourlands, which are some of the quietest roads in the area.
 

Tim

aka sptimmy43
Your consistency is indeed remarkable. I'm not sold on the idea of road riding...I just don't like sharing the road with cars, people texting and driving. But a gravel bike might be nice for the D&R canal, Mercer Meadows, etc....will need to give that some thought.
I agree with you. I bought a road bike a couple years ago and ended up the fittest I have ever been. My time on the MTB was so much more enjoyable as I wasn't gassed the whole time. Slowly, I have almost stopped road riding, though. I am not a timid person at all but traffic scares the shit out of me. There have been a few close calls and it has really turned me off to riding road. Even riding with my head on a swivel, lights, rear radar, etc. I feel like it's just a matter of time before something bad happens.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
I agree with you. I bought a road bike a couple years ago and ended up the fittest I have ever been. My time on the MTB was so much more enjoyable as I wasn't gassed the whole time. Slowly, I have almost stopped road riding, though. I am not a timid person at all but traffic scares the shit out of me. There have been a few close calls and it has really turned me off to riding road. Even riding with my head on a swivel, lights, rear radar, etc. I feel like it's just a matter of time before something bad happens.
Ride in the morning. When you get in someone’s way on the way to work, they don’t care because you are taking the companies time. When you get in the way on the way home, you are getting in the way of their time. Or they are annoyed from a day of work and rushing to take a kid some where. Check any accident data and the majority of accidents are during the evening rush.
 
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Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Ride in the morning. When you get in someone’s way on the way to work, they don’t care because you are taking the companies time. When you get in the way on the way home, you are getting in the way of their time. Or they are annoyed from a day of work and rushing to take a kid some where. Check an accident data and the majority of accident are evening rush.

This is true. I've stopped commuting because the ride home was always super sketchy. My route is along Rt78 and Summit is direct train to the city so the number of angry bankers trying to murder everyone is high. Now I'll wake up early and ride before work and actually enjoy it.
 

Victor I

aka Ridgehog
Everyone has their own take on fitness and levels vary(this we all know). I’ve been active my entire life as I don’t like to sit idle. Have always had bikes in the mix as riding bikes is fun. I don’t race so am not training for any particular event. Twice a week I do a half hour combo of stretching and calisthenics. I’m a big believer of physical balance and core strength. I find stretching and calisthenics boring but do it as it allows me to stay flexible, fit and ride bikes(my motivation). I don’t overtrain as I want to be able to mountain bike into my 70s. Don’t allow more than a 7 pound body weight variation. If I reach 192, time to cut back on the amount of junk food. Was big into weight training starting in college then quit in my late 20s as I got bored with it. Was thinking about throwing some weights back into the mix but still no interest... As to riding, that varies depending on the time of the year. I don’t own a road bike so I ride mountain bikes wherever. This time of year I average Mountain biking twice a week and one easy cross country/around town ride. I work LOTS of hours but still make time to ride. I am always hungry so try to fill up first on healthy food before junk food.I’m a big believer of you are what you eat. For most people eating too much junk is going to show(being weight and or health). It may not show now but it most likely will at some point. Everyone has some vice so I get it. I don’t believe in fad diets. Most people know what they need to do but want to believe there is an easy way out. As to training and diet, my belief is consistency is key. Ask 10 different people and get 10 different answers. We all have different motivation for riding. Some ride to train for racing, some for technical challenges and or endurance, some for Strava bling, and some ride for pure enjoyment. Whatever motivates people to ride and keep riding... I remember the years I spent in the gym everyone acted like an expert. I’d then measure up who was giving me the advice and think, was it genetics, training, diet or a combination of all 3. For me the benefits of eating right(well most of the time) and exercising is being healthy and having the ability to ride the trails.
 

Tim

aka sptimmy43
Ride in the morning. When you get in someone’s way on the way to work, they don’t care because you are taking the companies time. When you get in the way on the way home, you are getting in the way of their time. Or they are annoyed from a day of work and rushing to take a kid some where. Check any accident data and the majority of accidents are during the evening rush.
This is a valid point. I already get up at 4:00am for work so it’s not really an option for me. Or maybe it would be more accurate to state I am not willing to get up any earlier than I already do. This is mainly due to the time of day I would need to go to bed in order to be able to function in a meaningful way.
 

Cassinonorth

Well-Known Member
I agree with you. I bought a road bike a couple years ago and ended up the fittest I have ever been. My time on the MTB was so much more enjoyable as I wasn't gassed the whole time. Slowly, I have almost stopped road riding, though. I am not a timid person at all but traffic scares the shit out of me. There have been a few close calls and it has really turned me off to riding road. Even riding with my head on a swivel, lights, rear radar, etc. I feel like it's just a matter of time before something bad happens.

Yep. I used to commute over 100 days annually to work, 15 miles round trip. Only got hit (well....I hit the side) by a car once who ran a stop sign. Got super lucky....now I can barely stomach a 10 mile ride. Never during rush hours.
 
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