Originally Posted by
LT Intolerant
I had a chance to read through your post on weight training. Nice post. Congratulations on the results, especially improving your climbing.
In reading your post what struck me was that your gains came mostly from high intesity training or HIT (makes sense as you're pulling up your FTP through vo2 max or Coggan L5 efforts); and from cutting back on strength training and adding more aerobic efforts (ie, time on the bike).
Given that how can you attribute your improved performance to weight training and not to adding more time on the bike or to the HIT sessions?
Maybe I read it wrong. Thanks.
It's hard to know. The worst subject from which to draw inferences is the single self-coached athlete. There are so many variables. I'm guessing that there were performance gains from weight training because the type of weight training I use means cutting back on the bike time or on intervals on the bike. If I simply add HI weight training, I overtrain quite quickly. There's a limit to how much HIT my body will absorb, and both that type of weight training and on-bike intervals are HIT. Spinning uphill at LT and 80 cadence doesn't develop the leg strength like weight training, though it is far, far better for developing aerobic ability.
I'm guessing that I do better with both types of training. What I'm trying this winter is sort of the same thing. High intensity weight training, using a SS bike instead of gym equipment, might just create more cycling specific leg strength. A disadvantage of the SS bike is that it's difficult to exercise to failure. Hills end, and walking the rest of the way is no fun. It also seems possible to break cranks and tear up bottom brackets. I'll know more in March.