You may or may not know that in 6 weeks I am going to cycle across the USA from East to West, finishing at Alwyn Cosgrove’s Santa Clarita training facility, Results Fitness.

Give or take a few corners, this is 3500 miles which we hope to do in 8 weeks. The aim is not to just do it as fast as possible because, quite honestly, I harbour no ambitions train purely as an endurance cyclist and my fiancee and I are at slightly different fitness levels. Therefore if I aimed to nail it as fast as I could, I probably wouldn’t have a fiancee for long…

This means that at present I have quite an eclectic mix of training methodologies going on as I am also working to improve areas of training that have been neglected in recent times either because of injuries such as spine fractures and dislocated shoulders, lack of necessary equipment in my old studio in the UK or because I was still being guided by the bullshit ‘training’ methods touted by even those who supposedly work at the highest level of sport.

My training now heavily focusses on Olympic lifts, bodyweight exercises and to put it simply, pushing and pulling heavy stuff in a variety of ways! Combined with this is approximately 200 miles of cycling each week and building ready for the trip.

Before the program police pipe up, I am aware that long distance aerobic work is neither conducive to optimal Olympic lifting performance nor will build a strong powerful body but that is what is required at this period of my life. I obviously need to build the aerobic fitness and strength endurance in the legs on the bike but I also don’t want to lose any power or the lean muscle I do have so it’s a careful balancing act to avoid over training as well.

Unfortunately sports in which aerobic fitness dominates are still infected by this belief that Olympic lifting and heavy strength work is only for boxers, powerlifters, rugby players etc.

It is this that I believe is largely responsible for many athletes (amateur and pro) not reaching their full potential. Even those who appear to be the best, could be better. Power endurance is the name of the game in most sports from cycling to running to football/soccer to tennis etc.

Power endurance requires a good dose of power (unsurprisingly!) and power can only be developed with strength.

Strength does not come from simply pounding pavements or turning the legs on the bike.

I have yet to officially confirm what I am about to say but I believe it highlights the point in question about utilising all training modalities but adjusting the emphasis depending on your current goal or sport.

I was recently told that a good time for doing a lap of my home island of Guernsey would be 1.15-1.20h. Given that I only started training properly for cycling a few weeks ago and did it last week in 1.14h on a touring bike not a racing bike, it would suggest that my strength and power training has set me up very without selling my soul to the saddle.

Looking at times in the local sport reports I believe I could place 22-25 out of 40 in the Guernsey 25 mile time trial should I choose to enter it just to see what happens! And that’s against some guys who ride 5-6 times a week and do little other training, and have done so for years.

Granted, getting across the USA is not necessarily about speed over such a short distance in our case but more of a grind and mental / physical endurance, but when the Appelachians and the Rockies come knocking on our tent, I know my legs will be ready to deal with the hills.

My point today is that as always, you need to be aware of what your training is supposed to achieve with regards to your current goals.

If I just wanted to be able to cycle for hours and hours each day, then I would up the miles and drop SOME of the weight training. However, I choose to be more of an all-rounder who will never win medals but has a much more complete set of physical abilities and who is willing to work on my weak areas.

Take a good look at what you are doing in your training and what you want to achieve.

This applies to beginners, amateurs and professionals. Often you will find that you have just got into habits largely based on what everyone else does!

Few people reading this will be professional athletes (although I have training experience in this area with awesome results) but want to get a lean, strong physique which can deal with intense sport 2-3 times per week and can recovery quickly from any kind of challenge or event that comes their way in life.

To do this you MUST focus on a variety of training modalities BUT know where they fit and what they will help you do rather than randomly throwing together a week of exercise which kind of does some sprints with a bit of weight training that you saw in Men’s Health and maybe a 10km run because the weather is nice.

To give you an idea this is what a week looks like for me right now:

Bear in mind this also has to fit in with running my business!

MONDAY:

Rest, recovery, foam rolling

TUESDAY:

AM: Olympic lifting, heavy upper body strength work (e.g rope climbs, floor press)

PM: 40 mile bike

WEDNESDAY:

AM: 25 mile bike – intervals of 10 minutes riding hard, 5 minutes riding easy

THURSDAY:

AM: Olympic lifting, lower body strength work (e.g front loaded split squat, glute ham raise, prowler push)

I may add some conditioning work in here but only 15-20 minutes to save it for the bike!

FRIDAY:

AM: 40 mile bike

SATURDAY:

AM: Olympic lifting, heavy upper body strength work (e.g military press, handstand push ups, pull ups)

PM: 40 mile bike

SUNDAY:

AM: 50-60 mile bike

Bookmark It

Hide Sites