Originally Posted by
mcours2006
I still do squats, not heavy, mind you, just about my own body weight on the bar, front and back squats. I find that when I don't do them regularly the DOMS are pretty bad, but when I do them once or twice week the quads don't get so sore. Strangely for me the DOMS don't affect my riding much once I get going. It's the running that is very uncomfortable.
So weird how that works. I can kill myself on a 12+ hour dayhike and can't walk normally for 3 days, but I get on the bike and will feel almost nothing. Still fatigued, but it's not painful like walking.
Regarding the weights, I started weightlifting long before I got into cycling, and I was doing leg stuff pretty regularly. For some reason, my body just doesn't do well after leg work. I would do heavy bench and upper body stuff and be sore for a day, but legs always took forever to get over. In any case, I've been doing the plyo stuff for about 6 months, and I'm still progressing, but the DOMS lasts much less time now, usually worse around the time I increase the workload. I do feel like it has benefited my riding, maybe not so much FTP, but I don't get that burning pain so easily when I "dial it up to 400 watts" for short periods.