A friend who's very active in his 60s mentioned during a recent long walk that his long walks around our relatively flat terrain, and his bike rides, didn't help much on his mountain hiking vacations this autumn since he retried. He's very fit, goes to the gym, etc., but like many folks involved in multiple activities realized one activity doesn't necessarily translate to the fitness needed for other activities.

I've added more full body workouts since starting HIIT in June. I'd plateaued with bike rides alone and wasn't getting faster overall, stronger on climbs or improving in endurance for longer rides. HIIT and moderate full body workouts got me past that plateau.

Sprinting in HIIT, including on climbs, helped some. But adding simple squats without weights helped too. Ditto calf raises, etc. Can't say it's improved my speed but my recovery time is improved and I can recover from being winded on climbs and sprints just by easing up a bit while riding. Last year I often needed to pull over and stop for a minute to recover.

I'd neglected my upper body. It got to the point that my attempts at riding a standard 100 mile century were thwarted by back and neck pain, not by my legs, cardio or overall exhaustion. I could handle 50-65 miles, no serious problem, but the neck spasms were stopping me. So I added more core exercises, including pushups and triceps strengthening -- after standard floor pushups I'll add wall-pushoffs, mimicking the standard bike riding position.