I'm wondering what kind of non-biking training you folks do. Like strength training, running, swimming, anything physical you do besides biking for the purpose of improving strength, balance, etc.
How often and how hard do you do these non-bike acitivies?
If you strength train do you do it at home or in a jym?
I strength train at home. I strength train mainly with dumbells, and some bodywheight movments. I find this is a great combination of modalities because is is cheap super effective and easy to store. Dumbells are probably the best thing to train with for real useful strength (as opposed to just looking good at the beach) barbells link your arms together so the dominant side can assist the non-dominant so it can create or maintain a muscle imbalance. Training with dumbells forces both sides to preform the same, and lifting dumbells recruits way more stabilizing muscles. This means the dumbells train your body to function as a unit which is what you should want as opposed to isolation exercise and machines that only traget very narrowly defined muscle groups. I like to go pretty hard and after a workout session I'm usually dripping with sweat, the next day my muscles are usually somewhat sore but I feel great. Right now I'm aiming to do some kind of intense training every day except one rest day a week. I'm mixing up what body systems and areas I target each day so I don't over work anything.
The only downside is that the next morning I'm a wee bit sore so I do some yoga in the mornings to loosen up for my morning commute and the rest of my day.
Once I build up more of a muscular strength base I want to start rock climbing at an indoor jym.
I am an outdoor nut and I lead kids so I want to be as strong as I possibly can to pick up any slack from the group and still have plenty of reserve energy left over for emergencies.