Originally Posted by
Gyrine
Some strange stuff in these posts. My only hope is that you do not cross train, do not swim, no running whatsoever, no hill climbing, no intervals, and absolutely no spin class, nothing that could impact your cardio fitness, and then you be the guy next to me at race start. And remember, to go fast and be the envy of your club, the most impactful thing you can do is change out that heavy bottle cage for one made of carbon matrix to save 3 grams of weight - killer.
Now you are conflating. You are mixing in all types of cross training. How about weight lifting...another area of cross training that has been debated in terms of value added. I grew up swimming competitively. I still swim about a mile a day most days of the week along with about 120 miles a week on the bike. Does swimming make me a better bike rider? Honestly more dedicated bike riding i.e. intervals and riding with faster guys and pushing myself harder would without question make me stronger than any time long or short in the pool. Swimming does keep my upper body toned however which I like but I have ridden with swimming and without and it makes very little difference to my bike riding. Btw, you can throw in running as well. Many are great runners and can't ride a bike a lick. Conversely I am a decent bike rider and can't run. In fact inability to run keeps me from doing tri-s.