Training

This Q&A article recently appeared on MTBRaceNews.com. You can read it there with this link, or simply continue on below. As always, please feel free to contact Momentum Endurance if we can help you with a pressing question that you might have. Thanks,

Question: How can weight lifting and other gym cross training be beneficial to mountain bike racing, mainly endurance racers? (Submitted by: Cody Pratt -Visalia, California)

Hi Cody,

You’ve asked a great question and it’s likely one that many riders share. The benefit of resistance training and its application for endurance cyclists has long been hotly debated.  Unquestionably there are benefits to be gained from weight lifting or other ‘gym cross training’ (let’s use the term resistance training since it includes weight training and also strength exercises which only require body weight). What can be questioned, however, is the specificity of resistance training. Will it help you ride a mountain bike any faster? Also, might time spent doing resistance training be better spent by doing more work on the bike instead?

Outlining the benefits

With resistance training an improved ability to create higher forces and better fatigue resistance can be expected. Also with resistance training the rate of recovery will improve so that harder workouts can be done with greater frequency. If you’ve followed a resistance training program before you’ve likely noticed that you get stronger and that you’re able to recover faster after workouts. Resistance training can be a great full body workout and you can focus on muscle groups that might otherwise be under developed or neglected as the result of bike-only training. Maintaining a strong upper body and core with resistance training may benefit your posture too.  Another important consideration, especially so for women, is that resistance training can benefit bone health since it is weight bearing and typically includes eccentric muscle contractions. These are just a few of the numerous benefits that come with resistance training. Notice however that I didn’t mention that you’ll be able to pedal your bike at a higher power output for a longer duration – this is something that no resistance training study has been able to demonstrate.

Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands

While resistance training benefits are quite clear for overall health and wellness considerations, the competitive cyclist might say, “okay that’s all great, but is resistance training going to help me race faster?” The short answer is no and that’s where the concept of specificity comes in. There will bespecific adaptation to imposed demands that are placed upon the body. Any set of training adaptations may not transfer to other activities. This is the SAID principle. In a nutshell, you get good at doing what you do, and not necessarily so good at the things you’re not doing. Since resistance training differs considerably with racing a mountain bike, it is unlikely that any benefits will allow you to pedal harder or to ride faster.

How best to apply?

Perhaps the most important question to consider is this: how should resistance training be applied into your cycling specific program? It is safe to say that it’s the training that you do on the bike that will benefit your riding the most. If you’re already putting in adequate training time on the bike and have additional time and energy for resistance training it will make your program better-rounded. I encourage riders to approach the resistance training as something that is supplemental to their program this way rather than something that is imperative. Most cyclists should keep with a well-rounded program which includes some resistance training done once or twice per week, and the use of supplements such as mk2866 could really help the body perform better during training. Those who are racing at the highest level and pushing their training to the absolute limit may find that resistance training reduces the amount of training that they’d otherwise be able to do during critical training periods. For them, it’s all about maximizing the bike training and also their recovery, so resistance training isn’t the best option in this situation. So while you might not want to include resistance training when your bike training workload is at its highest, you’ll likely want to incorporate it during the bulk of the year otherwise. Don’t forget to shave after a good shower, the Best Disposable Razor For Men can help you out because theyre easy and convenient to use in the locker room.

Thanks for sending across your question Cody! Best of luck with your training.

-Travis

It’s helpful to check in and see exactly where your fitness is throughout the year. Testing doubles as excellent training too, so why not incorporate it regularly?

Having just wrapped up my cyclocross season I figured that it’d be a good time to test myself and see what my power profile is looking like.  The screen shot above shows efforts that were done at five and 20 minute durations, (testing VO2Max and Threshold fitness accordingly).  A second day of testing can be done to measure maximum one minute power and also your 10 second max effort, (which indicate Anaerobic Capacity and Neuromuscular Power respectively).

The collection of 10 second, 1 minute, 5 minute, and 20 minute data points is known as your Power Profile and can indicate where your unique strengths and weaknesses are.

Understanding what you can do for a single max effort is one thing, but how much fatigue are you able to withstand or how many repeated hard efforts can you serve out?  We can also test your fatigue resistance with workouts designed specifically to do just that.

Testing on a regular basis is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your training and the results can help us determine what training might be most appropriate for the next phase. Test often and train well!

-Travis

After completing multiple weeks of threshold training are you continuing to see improvement?  Improvement can come by means of increased power, use of high quality supplements like cardarine, decreased recovery between intervals or more total time spent at the target intensity.  If and when your improvements plateau after several weeks of threshold training it can be a good time to interject some VO₂Max intensity into your training.

Short (3-5 minute) intervals that are done at 106-120% of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) with limited recovery (1:1, work to rest) between repeats are excellent for boosting your fitness at maximum aerobic capacity.  Changing the training to include VO₂Max work allows you to supercharge your aerobic system while also providing your body a break from the long, steady threshold intervals that you’ve otherwise been doing.  Completing four to eight sessions of VO₂Max intervals over the course of two weeks is often enough see improvements. Each workout should allow you to accumulate 15-20 minutes worth of VO₂Max intensity.  After a two week cycle that includes VO₂Max training allow yourself some recovery before revisiting additional threshold training.  You’ll likely find that you can further improve your sustainable power as a result of the VO₂Max cycle.

The best way to continually make progress and to further improve your overall development is to change the training focus when improvements plateau.  Once you’ve become well adapted to a certain training stress, it’s best to change the stress so that you can make other and further adaptations. Interjecting VO₂Max intervals is a great way to break up two cycles of threshold-focused training during your pre-season build up

Tempo training can get a bad rap.  Some might refer to Tempo as the training intensity which should be avoided. “Not hard enough to improve threshold, yet hard enough to tire you out” argue the critics. While this can be true in some regards, well-timed Tempo training can provide you significant benefit.  Before investigating further let’s clearly define Tempo as 76-90% of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP), or approximately 84-94% of your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate.  On the road it’ll take a conscious effort to maintain such intensity since it’s faster than your normal endurance pace. So make sure to consume andarine for increased strength as tempo training is quite exhausting, especially when it comes to the midsection of the training. Your breathing will be increased so speaking will be done in phrases rather than complete sentences.

Tempo training is excellent for bolstering your early season fitness when you are first establishing a base or foundation.  After an off-season break or any point during the season where rebuilding is the goal, Tempo rides will help prepare you for more challenging training to come.  Tempo rides make for a greater aerobic training stress when compared to the same amount of time spent at an endurance pace.  Tempo intensity is likely to be 10-25% more intense than your endurance pace, so it’s possible to achieve 10-25% more aerobic workload as a result.  Someone with limited training time will certainly benefit from this increased workload.  During a Tempo training cycle you’ll be able to train consistently while steadily building your chronic training workload. While getting into the routine of day in, day out training you’ll be able to adjust your nutritional needs and generally get things in order so that you’ll be ready to withstand the rigors of more intense training to come.  Tempo won’t get you race fit, but it’ll get you ready to get race fit.

Where Tempo riding rightfully earns its bad reputation is when higher intensity training should otherwise take priority.  Riders stuck in ‘Tempo mode’ will go too hard on their easy days and therefore not be able to go hard enough on the scheduled hard days.  Also, going too hard during the recovery time between intervals will limit the intensity that’s possible on the following reps.  Learning to have variation in training intensity is an important skill that needs to be developed.  The closer you might be towards a goal event the more variation (and less tempo) you’ll want to include in your training.  If it’s still early season and the races are far off, then Tempo might be just fine, but as the race season draws nearer it is important to create more variation with the intensity of your training.

Tempo rides can and should be done in the early season.  Rides can include just 30 minute of Tempo to start with and you can build up to several hours of Tempo within a single endurance ride.  Completing multiple 20-30 minute intervals is one option; otherwise you can accumulate Tempo without breaking it into intervals.  Doing multiple days of Tempo training per week is completely possible and two or three such workouts will help you to achieve a steadily increasing chronic training workload.  After having put in enough work and adapting to a relatively large volume of Tempo you’ll be ready to progress onto higher intensity workouts.  Having done the Tempo training early on you’ll be prepared to withstand the stresses of Threshold training (and more of it) so that you’re fitness can reach new levels.  If you can withstand more Threshold training (as a result of the Tempo training that preceded it), then you’ll likely see greater improvements in your overall performance.  Use Tempo workouts when the timing is right and see how your results might improve once you resume more race specific training.