The improvements you are looking for come mostly from the bike. At your age, I found the greatest improvements from doing one 60 mile, 3000' (or thereabouts) a week. I'd go moderate on the flats and as hard as I could on the climbs, trying to get so tired I could hardly walk by the ride's end. Leave it all on the road. I'd get about 45' of Z4, 5-10' of Z5, 2' Z1, some Z2 and a good bit of Z3. That would be all my intensity for the week. The rest of the week was 2 days Z2 and 2 days gym, different gym workouts on the 2 days, about an hour each, last set of each exercise done to exhaustion, not failure, just didn't think I could do another rep. That was only ~100 miles/week, usually 8-12 hours/week depending on season, some weeks even easier. The gym work was to increase endurance which it did, not so much speed on the bike. That comes from the bike.

The program allowed me to turn in good times (for my age) on mountain rides up to 400k, without doing any longer rides. Obviously I was quite fit to be able to do this, simply because I'd been doing that since my late 50s, year-round. I once took a winter offf and deeply regretted it. I took me the whole summer to get it back.

You can start by scaling that whole thing back to where you're able to complete all-out hilly rides of whatever length. Then you increase that length by 5%/week. Some books say 10% but that's a crazy rate of compound interest. Do the gym and Z2, whatever volume seems to be sustainable for long periods. I'd take an easier week every 2-3 weeks but would do my normal effort in the gym.

Interesting thread since I enjoy weight trying but got a bit lazy in this summer heat. My gym is in the garage and I’m refocusing my workouts. Starting to get the middle age gut that I hate but I have gain muscle but along came the gut. Not some basketball pooch :lol: but more than I like. Summer been lifting twice a week and nothing this 4th of July week. I have a Titan safety bar for front squats with the pads and it works great then I let my ego get the best of me going too heavy and got burned out. I also use a hex bar for deadlifts and that is a full body killer again got too frisky doing 5 sets of 10-12 and again got burned out. Swiss bar for bench pressing and back rows works great recovery is good. Then I use dumbbells for incline pressing so I can get some shoulder work since my right shoulder won’t let me overhead lift. I use specialty bars so I can workout with old fashion weights. Only my second week off in 32 weeks so I’m not losing much. But I realize I need to ease things up a bit like more frequent workouts but only one main compound lift per session then accessory lifts like lat work and curls for girls where I use a curl bar and tricep bar for hammer curls you know the vanity lifts. Refocusing starting tomorrow adding in more condition and getting my butt back on my bikes! I miss riding and have been only focusing on weights. And my atrocious diet needs to be changed so that is in the new refocused scheme. Anyways this is a great thread and reading everyone’s thoughts have given me the motivation I had been lacking as of late :thumb:

If one's focus is cycling and one is only lifting to improve one's road or MTB cycling, it doesn't take a lot of work in the gym. In summer, I do 2 sets of 5, second set as much weight as I can use and get 5 reps out. In Fall, I reboot and do the usual 3 sets of 12 until Dec. 1, then taper gradually down to my summer reps. This is something that I gradually adopted over the years and has given me the best cycling results. Body weight is strictly a matter of food intake, nothing to do with lifting. You want to get big, eat more, and the converse. I've lost weight at the same time as I was getting gains in the gym, just fiber recruitment.