what's your "off season" plan

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
mine is kicking off tomorrow as i joined the gym today. hopefully muscle memory won't work too much against me and i'll keep my weight under 230-235. quite frankly, i'm not optimistic. i know myself too well and as soon as i get the dust off it's going to be a challenge for me to stay focused on keeping my workouts mtb oriented vs. powerlifing/strength oriented. i'm still going to try to ride twice a week and get in 50 trail/road miles a month (along with the stationary "warm up" miles) which should help. what's your plan??
 
When I'm not going schuss, schuss, schuss, I'll be going zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

If it's warm enough I am going to try and ride at least once a week, mtn. if there's no snow and possibly some road if I get my old hybrid worthy.
 
by 'off season', you mean the season where you ride off-road, right? or maybe the season where you 'ride your arse off'? because those are what i'll be doing...
 
bonefishjake said:
mine is kicking off tomorrow as i joined the gym today. hopefully muscle memory won't work too much against me and i'll keep my weight under 230-235. quite frankly, i'm not optimistic. i know myself too well and as soon as i get the dust off it's going to be a challenge for me to stay focused on keeping my workouts mtb oriented vs. powerlifing/strength oriented. i'm still going to try to ride twice a week and get in 50 trail/road miles a month (along with the stationary "warm up" miles) which should help. what's your plan??

Mine is too ride the road bike whenever I'm not in the woods. I know conditions will be getting bad soon so the roadie is my best friend in the winter. I've got cold weather gear so it won't slow me down. I rode a few times while it was snowing last winter year 🙂 New for me this year will be cross training by running. I'm really trying to get into running just for the aerobic benefit as well as strengthening the legs and knees. Plus I plan on doing a couple of triathalons next year and it will be good prep...now if I could only swim well...

Ryan H.
 
There is no offseason this year!!!

Between All-A-Muchy and Jan 1, I'll be doing 2-3 trainer rides during the week before or after work, 60-90 minutes of tempo riding each. Main goal is to lose weight from now until then. Weekends will be 1 off-road ride and 60-90 minutes on the trainer again or on the road, depending on weather. Basically, the aim is to not lose fitness but to drop down to maybe 180-185. Some weight lifting, upper body only, during that time. Maybe some core as well, dunno yet.

After Jan 1 I'll start the "pre-season" which is block training on the trainer. Details yet to come but it'll be a 4 week cycle of VO2max intervals followed by a block of LT intervals. That's the general idea but that may change because 8 weeks of that crap might blow me out of the water.

Then hit the ground running on March 1-ish with a more balanced plan. Goals and whatnot TBD.
 
my lifting in ONLY core. none of the other crap...
after ten years in the gym you learn what works, and what doesn't. despite my lack of miles i'll come into next season two or three times as strong as i did this year...i have a plan.

time off the bike is key for me: lights a fire under my @ss. so next march when you look back, don't be surprised to see a 235 lb. man with a freshly tatted sleeve hammering up the trail behind you. 😀
 
I live in an ice rink during the "off-season". Or is it the other way around, maybe I am out on the trails during the "off-season". 😕
 
No real off-season

When it's too wet I'll hit the road. When the road is too bad I'll hit the trainer but that's a last resort.

And when the trails are frozen, yee-haw! I have half-ridden half-crawled Round Valley countless times. I have ridden Allamuchy in a thunderstorm (big slurpee in the weatherman's face...), also in a snow storm (for some reason the drive home was scarier...), and Chimney Rock in 15" of snow.
Once, I went out the door in the low teens, rushed back home cowering after 8 miles, beard frozen. I will not utter here what part of my anatomy going numb made me turn around, kids may be reading 😀

That's the plan, should be fun.

Maurice
 
normZurawski said:
What's your plan?

pretty basic, really. like i said, after the 'dust off' period where i'll do three exersices per workout moderately (four sets of six-eight) for three weeks, i'll go into a single exersice per workout in a four day rotation of:

bench
power cleans
dead lifts
squats

my powerlifting workouts would consist of moving 10,000 lbs per workout not including warm up sets...whether it was bench, squats, deads or whatever. 10,000 was the magic number. usually it was in the range of 10 sets of three or eight sets of four (or a mix including doubles and singles). depended on what phase of my training i was in.

i'll tailor it a little more (ok, a LOT more) since volume in terms of sheer pounds moved isn't the key. it'll be, at least in terms of power cleans and squats, higher volume of reps with shorter periods of rest.

norm- if you are REALLY looking for something to bring your to the next level of your riding and physical fitness, i would reccomend doing a search on t-nation.com for a program called "fat to fire". when i thought i was in REALLY good shape, i did this program. i lasted a week before it drained me to the point of exhaustion. i took it to a pretty extreme level, upping the percentages of weight, but even at the ones recommended, i know the program would have kicked my arse.
 
If there is no snow on the ground, I plan on riding my SS this winter. The SS gives you a great workout in less time than the geared bike.

If there is that dreaded snow -- the gym & snowshoeing! Ever been in the middle of Allamuchy in snowshoes? It is so quiet in there you feel like the last person on Earth. Really cool.

Just don't trip on the rocks and get a face full of snow!

Joe
 
Jake,

Lifting really isn't my thing. I've done it on & off over the years. But it's hard for me to maintain focus. It's bad enough staying motivated to hit the trainer as it is. I end up tailing off with the weights. Lower body work is dangerous because my knees and ankles are in lousy shape from playing basketball for so many years, being plenty overweight then. If I picked up a basketball now I think my knees might explode, with gears and springs blowing out all over the place.

There's no study out there that supports lifting to help riding. Everything says that in order to ride better you need to ride. Some people don't agree, and I'm not saying I believe it 100% one way or the other. But I'm just going with what works for me, for now. That's always subject to change.

Norm
 
normZurawski said:
Jake,

Lifting really isn't my thing. I've done it on & off over the years. But it's hard for me to maintain focus. It's bad enough staying motivated to hit the trainer as it is. I end up tailing off with the weights. Lower body work is dangerous because my knees and ankles are in lousy shape from playing basketball for so many years, being plenty overweight then. If I picked up a basketball now I think my knees might explode, with gears and springs blowing out all over the place.

There's no study out there that supports lifting to help riding. Everything says that in order to ride better you need to ride. Some people don't agree, and I'm not saying I believe it 100% one way or the other. But I'm just going with what works for me, for now. That's always subject to change.

Norm

trust me when i tell you i feel your pain: five 3rd degree ankle sprains (all my right ankle), blown out right shoulder twice, blown out left shoulder once. broke my thumb playing basketball and only have about 50% mobility in it (one of just many reasons i will never play basketball again!!).

the fat to fire thing program is way more cardio oriented. just take a look at it. it's about a 45 minute, full body workout that i promise you will not give you the time to lose your focus. if you do it right.

re. lifting & cycling- i have no idea if there's a study or not about it. in a sport based purely on endurance i would guess that lifting isn't a high priority...especially at the elite levels (i mean look at those guys!). i am certainly not elite. hell, i got smoked in the beginner race at the LMC. while i don't know for sure that this will hold true since i've never tailored a workout specifically to make me a better rider, i know from experience that gearing my lifting towards cardio, core and leg strength will help in my overall fitness level. no way that hurts mountain biking.
 
Off Season will probably be spent like Norm on a trainer (which i still need to buy). I'm going to build up a ss, so any "trail" work will be on that or x-country skiis, if conditions allow.
 
bonefishjake said:
the fat to fire thing program is way more cardio oriented. just take a look at it. it's about a 45 minute, full body workout that i promise you will not give you the time to lose your focus. if you do it right.

I searched and came up with 0 results. That's quite a...how you say...eye catching site. Being at work, I closed it pretty quickly when I came up empty.

bonefishjake said:
re. lifting & cycling- i have no idea if there's a study or not about it. in a sport based purely on endurance i would guess that lifting isn't a high priority...especially at the elite levels (i mean look at those guys!). i am certainly not elite. hell, i got smoked in the beginner race at the LMC. while i don't know for sure that this will hold true since i've never tailored a workout specifically to make me a better rider, i know from experience that gearing my lifting towards cardio, core and leg strength will help in my overall fitness level. no way that hurts mountain biking.

The best racers often have the smallest legs. And their upper bodies are crazy small. But yeah, for non-elite or beginner riders it's not going to hurt. I would still say you should try and get some time on the bike. The coaches that do advocate ligting say you then need to transform that into bike-specific strength, whatever that means exactly. I can dig up something for you if you want me to. I guess it really depends how seriously you're going to take it all. Right now I'm probably too serious, heading straight towards burnout by March 1st.
 
you just have to know where to look..

The Program

First I'll outline the training program, then I'll get into the exercise descriptions and provide some tips to maximize fat loss.

Daily warm-up

Rope skipping: Perform three 3-minute rounds with 1 minute passive rest in-between for a total warm-up period of 12 minutes. See my Renegade Rope Training article for more info.

Day 1 (program details are described below)

A1) Squat — wide base
A2) Medicine Ball Wood Chopper
B1) Dumbbell Hang-Pull (from below knees)
B2) Barbell Good Mornings
C1) Pull-Ups
C2) Barbell Curl
D) Leg Raises - pike

Day 2 (Morning General Physical Preparedness, or GPP)

Perform each drill for 30 seconds in continuous fashion. If possible, do so without stopping. If rest is needed between sets, use 60 seconds maximum.

A) Jumping jacks
B) Shuffle splits
C) Vertical hopping
D) Slalom (side to side) jumping

Each set takes two minutes to perform. Repeat five times for a total of ten work minutes.

Day 3

A1) Bench Press
A2) Medicine Ball Wood Chopper
B1) Dumbbell Push Jerk
B2) Modified Cuban Press
C1) Plate Raises
C2) Dumbbell Tricep Extension
D) Reverse Crunch

Day 4: (Morning GPP) Same as Day 2

Day 5

A1) Barbell Hang Pull (at knee level)
A2) Medicine Ball Wood Chopper
B1) Barbell Hack Squats
B2) Bent Over Rows (reverse grip)
C1) Standing Calf Raises
C2) Forearm Curls
D) Leg Raises — twisting


Program Details

Those A1, A2 designations simply mean to superset those two exercises with no rest in between. Then rest 45 to 60 seconds before you move to the B1, B2 exercises. You'll go through the whole list of exercises each day a total of 6 times. If you follow this correctly, these sessions will be performed at a blistering pace of just under 45 minutes.

Rep range is a straightforward 8 to 12 per set with intensity levels corresponding from 50% to 60% of 1 rep max. For weeks one and three, perform 10 reps at 50% intensity; week two, perform 8 reps at 60%. The only exception to this "percent" rule is section "D" of each workout, which is an abdominal exercise.

Many athletes find that 50% of their max is less than 10 reps, so please modify accordingly. That intensity level may seem too low, but the cumulative effect of the training load will hit hard by mid workout.


here it the direct link: http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459312

in all honesty, i don't really buy into 100% sport specific training. yes, there are cases where it applies, and i will certainly make sure i get plenty of time on the bike this winter but i'm not going to kill myself. i know my mind and body pretty well at this point and know that if i rode 365 i'd be off a bike completely in short order.
 
On my lord, that's quite a workout. Pressing Cubans? This really does sound like Army training, sir.

bonefishjake said:
in all honesty, i don't really buy into 100% sport specific training. yes, there are cases where it applies, and i will certainly make sure i get plenty of time on the bike this winter but i'm not going to kill myself. i know my mind and body pretty well at this point and know that if i rode 365 i'd be off a bike completely in short order.

There's no doubt in my mind that 100% sports specific training is the way to go if you want to be an elite athlete in that sport. But most people are just regular working stiffs that want to be in shape and have fun. I'm giving the cycling-only a whirl this year, since last year's offseason of jogging and lifting left me at square 0 in the spring.
 
Having fun riding again now till jan. Mtb Road AND CX what ever mood i am in fow the next 2 months. In jan as long as the peskey little issue of buying a house and planing a wedding doesn't get in the way, I start training for the 24 of allamuchy again looking for the offroad ss centry this year. so It will be 2 trainer rides a week and 2 off road rides snow or no snow. Whatever i can't ride i'll just run with the bike on the shoulder.
 
normZurawski said:
On my lord, that's quite a workout. Pressing Cubans? This really does sound like Army training, sir.



There's no doubt in my mind that 100% sports specific training is the way to go if you want to be an elite athlete in that sport. But most people are just regular working stiffs that want to be in shape and have fun. I'm giving the cycling-only a whirl this year, since last year's offseason of jogging and lifting left me at square 0 in the spring.

ok, yes, you're right about that. when i was an elite athlete (in college), i did do some sport specific training. but, i'm OT on my own topic.

i went to the gym, lifted and it is really going to be a challenge NOT to try to be the strongest/biggest guy in the gym and keep my workouts fast paced and cardio/multi-muscle driven. i'm still pretty sure i'm going to be 235 by march.
 
Off season?

I don't have an off season... I'll have to kick in a little spin training, which incidentally is great for the spin. I had some great rides in the snow. Niterider turns night into day. If the lake freezes I may try going out on the scary ice.
 
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