Originally Posted by
8ounce
So I am setting up my winter program and I am worried it might be too much.
First off I want to say improving my cycling is my priority, however I would really like to keep (as much as possible) my over all strength and power at the same time.
I will be picking up a Kurt kinetic road machine in a couple of weeks and I have a bunch of spinervals dvds, CTS dvd's and am planning on getting the sufferfest collection.
What I am thinking of is 3 days a week weight training. say Mon, Wed and Fri. Mon and Wed will be circuit upper body + core. Friday will be leg day. will consist something along the lines of squats, lunges, hamstring curls and straight leg deadlift.
For cycling I will like to do 4 days, 3 days real all out, and the 4th light recovery probably after leg day( is this a good idea???)
My questions are
- should i not do a leg day and rather concentrate on the bike?
-what would be the best days to place my cycling?
-Can I weight train and cycle 7 days a week or do I need 1 or 2 rest days?
anything else I might be missing?
Thank you for any help.
It all depends on your background, age and fitness level, but if you're a relativively young (<45yrs) healthy male, that workout schedule is eminently doable with some adaptation time.
Consider that you'll be cycling probably only 4-5 hors per week - most cyclists and triathletes around here (NorCal) do that in a single Saturday training ride every week in addition to their weekly workouts.
The only caveat is that if you do them properly, Spinervals workouts are HARD. I haven't had a problem physically with doing them every day, but it is mentally challenging to truly go 95-100% for 45-60 minutes of intervals 3x/week. I love spinervals and have been hitting them 2-3x /wk myself in addition to runing/cycling the other days of the week, and I admit that I get a sense of dread before I pop in some of those DVDs - particularly the one that starts out with 5 x 1 minute reps of 100% effort, and then you have to survive for 45 more minutes after that. Insanely hard if you actually go 100% - I was hitting 32mph on the trainer, and then nearly dying for the rest of the workout!
Also - I agree with the over-training assessment given above. Probably 95% of noncompetitive roadies don't ride enough to overtrain - not even close. I did it when I was running - I ran 70-100 miles per week for over 6 months, which is more than most folks on this forum bike per week. I've never even come close to that type of fatigue and loss of performance on the bike, even after doing several weeks of 14 hours per week on the bike.