Originally Posted by
carleton
Generally, sprinters lift 3x a week during the off season and 2x a week during the season. Basically trading a lifting day for a race day. Most people race 1x a week.
Enduros that lift, generally lift 1-2x a week in the off season and 0-1x/week when the season starts for the same reason.
I find this a valuable topic, so I'm reviving the thread in hopes of more insights. Even without lifting, finding the precise balance of training load is a never-ending quest. Of course made easier with quantitative data (TSS, CTL), but there's still an art to the science.
Now add in lifting (which, as mentioned in other threads, is much harder to quantify), and it becomes quite a delicate balancing act. I am doing squats for the first time this off-season -- as much for non-cycling reasons as anything (just incredible all-around exercise) but I'm big on self-experimentation and given how enlightening my first couple years of track racing were with regards to power/strength profile, I'm extremely curious to play the weights card, even as a 160lb enduro. And I've never been hung up on labels at all, anyway.
Virtually all of the literature/discussion around lifting for cyclists is sprinter specific, so I appreciate Carleton's anecdote above. As an enduro, my general plan has been to squat 3x/week as I work through the novice arc (various tendons and ligaments had further to go than the muscles). And then cut back to 2x/week as I ramp up intensity coming out of off season. And 0-1x during a few key tapers.