Being the cold weather wuss that I am, I decided to do a first ever winter training schedule (instead of riding). I joined a local fitness center, reviewed my goals and interests with them and got setup on a training regimen.

Now I've never done this before and am more or less in my 2nd year of cycling so I'm not quite sure what results to expect. I just know that I don't want to spend several months next spring recovering some of my physical conditioning like I did this year.

I'm taking 3 spin classes a week: Mon/Wed/Fri. I follow that up with a medium workout of chest presses, vertical traction, leg presses, single leg dips, squats and a few other things like pushups and situps on a ball then follow that with some good stretching for my hams and quads. Thus far the result is that I can actually touch my toes for the first time that I can recall. (I'm proud of that!)

On Tues/Thurs I do a good 30 minutes on an Arc Trainer and then follow that with the above workout, twice if I get suitably motivated.

I know doing something is better than doing nothing. I'm hopeful the above routine will position me so I don't have to spend so much time getting back in shape next spring. Any suggestions to improve on the routine?

Wow you sound like you are in great shape to me. Working out like that three times a week sure seems to be more then you would get from riding a bike? Maybe you don't need to do any extra.

We setup one of the bedrooms with a treadmill, ski machine (kinda like spinning), an AB Lounge, a rolling wheel, jump ropes and some of those things you mash between your legs.

We got so tired and bored of looking at the walls while working out that we added a TV and a DVD player. Tried three fitness centers, I must be a magnet for the nut cases who all think I want to be in as good of shape as they are in. Or that everyone should be impress that they could bench press a pickup truck with a car in the back.

I think it is best to just put on a jacket and go take a walk or any time I see a nice day I will go take a ride.

Keep up the good work..

It sounds like a good regimen to me. Just make sure you progress as it gets to be too easy. Also, have you thought about riding your bike just a little? Try taking it out for a short spin just on the nicest winter days. There's something about being outdoors on a bike that does me more psychological good than anything else.

I started going to the Gym for two nights a week many years ago. I did a form of circuit training with 5 or 6 machines- 10 minutes on each one. First was a recumbent and I used this to warm up with, getting the HR up to around 75 % of max. Then the treadmill with hr up to 80-85%. Then the cycle and rowing machine getting to 90% and then the Stepping machine and cross trainer. By the end I was at 100% or above on HR. Then it was down to the weights room to work the muscles through movement as a cool down.

Then there was the best bit of Sauna and a Curry to replace the carbohydrates I had lost.(No weight problem here.)

This was also supplemented with bike rides at the weekend. Later I made the best investment that also worked out cheaper and that was a set of good lights so that I could drop the Gym and save money and ride the two night for a couple of hours instead of going to the gym.

Not knocking gym work as fitness training but 5 nights a week hard workout sounds too strenuous. Take a break between visits and recover.

Your workout suits me better too. I ride nearly 365 days a year, and do a fair amount of walking outdoors too. My gym workout is a hard 20 minutes with dumbbells, two to three times a week. Period. I just do two circuits of basic upper body exercises, about 5 or 6 exercises all together. The only reason I do this is because I need good upper body strength to do my occupation.

The program sounds good, but I'd say, "Don't forget to listen to your body." One way to check in with your body is to take your pulse as soon as you wake up. If the numbers are rising, you might want to cut back on your workouts for a day or two until the numbers go down some.

The spin classes offered at my gym are very tough (at least for me) with a lot of hard out-of-the-saddle climbs that get you to a high heart rate very quickly and leave a nice swimming pool of sweat on the floor. Put simply, these classes are between 60 and 75 minutes of pure hell. I max out at two such classes a week. More than that might grind my knees down to a pulp. I mix it up with a lot of walking, two or three days of circuit training and lighter spinning on the bike every week. Oh yeah, and I sneak in a mid-day nap whenever I can.

Suggest "Weight Training for Bicyclists" 2nd Edition. Ken Doyle - available at Amazon for about $12.00.

However, sounds like you are on the right path with your workout, which is similar to mine, except I have swimming and jump roping in there, also.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Right now my work (or lack thereof) schedule allows me plenty of time to do this. It may not last.

My routine for the last 2 months (started in early November) is to drop the kids off at school and then head to the Fitness Center for a couple of hours or so. The spin classes are 45 minutes each and the weight training is typically about 35-40 minutes if I just do a single pass on everything. The Tues/Thurs routine begins with a 30 minute cardio workout on the Arc Trainer before I start the weight routine. Sometimes I'll skip the weight stuff on Wednesdays. I find the weight training rather boring and prefer the cardio stuff.

One issue I've noted is that when I have increased the weight on some exercises (the squat in particular), I have to pause when I release the weight as I'm experiencing a drop in blood pressure. Everything starts turning black on me and I have to support myself to keep from passing out. Some days are worse than others. I do NOT experience this with biking or spinning, just when I do a strenuous weight lifting exercise.

I went to my GP about it and he had me get a stress echo. The cardiologist said everything was normal and that he could not explain my symptoms. I mentioned this to my older son (who did a lot of weight training in college) and he said this was normal for him too. So maybe it's normal in my family. I dunno. I'm scheduled to talk to a cardiologist in January to see if we need to follow up on anything.

We had a beautiful day here Christmas day and I thought about going out for a ride, but we just had too much going on that day for me to do so. I'm sort of anxious to get out and see if my workout had produced any benefit thus far.

DnvrFox, I saw your earlier thread about your spin class experience. I've learned that those women in there can kick my butt any day of the week. I just do my own thing in there as I gain experience with lots of sweat equity.

The instructor told me after my first couple of sessions that anyone can come to spin class and max out their heart rate. The trick is to learn to control it. So that's what I've been working on for the last 2 months. Most of the time I feel like I have a lot left, but rein it in so as to keep my average HR to a reasonable level (~80% of max observed). OTOH, I've never sweated so much in my life!

At first I wasn't sure I was going to like spin class, but after several sessions and learning I didn't have to kill myself (trying to keep up with the others), I've started to enjoy spinning.

My wife is encouraging me to get out and ride this winter. She got me some winter gear for Christmas.

Jet Travis... I'm not sure of the implication of the rising HR numbers vs exercise. I've noticed this year that I often seem to have a (relatively) high heart rate while resting in bed. Not sure if that implies anything or not.. especially in light of the tests I've recently had.

Three changes for me.
I got a membership (early Christmas gift) to a fitness place .
Go over and do 30-45 min every other day on the stairmaster.
Discovered (when I worked part time for another fitness club now out of business)the improvement in climbing the stairmasters afforded,not to mention the leg endurance.
I usually stay below level 6. (Prefer to do 40 min at level 3 with the ball of the foot on the platform)

No.2) Switched out the road bikes for the english roadster style letour tourist on the mag trainer.
The sprung B66 saddle and northroads bars allow me to cycle thru an entire Cycling DVD or an entire football game with no problem. I stay at abut 78-84rpms thruout.


No.3 I lugged the all but forgotten blackburn rollers up out of the basement and now have one of the road bikes on it. Rollers require maintaining a decent cadence and continuous pedaling..not to mention decent balance.

Indoor training can be a bore.(especially if doing it solo)
Three years back -using my sons truck and he as the driver- I vhs taped almost every ride the club (I belong to) does on their Sunday ride schedual (PBS probably shouldn't know this but I had a factual (yea dumpster diving!)"Caution Filming For PBS" sign on the back of sons pickup (I stood in the bed filming over the cab)and even got a trouper escort for one ride!
It helps to have something to cycle to.

I invested in a kurt kinetic trainer with vidio workouts. It's a great workout when you can't get out doors.

Kurt Kinetic and Coach Troy. Let the good times roll.

I flirt with jogging by trying to run indoors on a soft track. I've not yet been able to develop a taste for it, though.