mcafiero

Curious what other trackies do during the off season.

I have always been a big skier, former ski patroller so it's only natural here in Colorado. I will have no bike training schedule from August to November. I am thinking of doing more fitness riding, and there are still races to be had on the track through Sept, some maintenance stuff in the gym, maybe some yoga, and even doing some boxing or jiu jitsu (just the workouts, no actual fighting). I think that sounds fun and a great way to lean up a bit (with a smart diet, of course)

I am looking forward to mixing it up a little after Nats!

bitingduck

Off season? There is no off season in socal.

mcafiero

In that case - what do you do outside of cycling? I guess. Or is cycling your whole life as far as athletics go?

MarkWmTyson

Anything that keeps you fit, strong, keeps/makes you lean and doesn't emphasize much long sub max work...for sprinters of course.

xengravity

For the Track offseason I race MTB, Road, and CX.

Kayce

It all depends on your racing style, your next season goals, and your time availible.

mcafiero

haha hmmm I'm starting to think that most track racers don't see outside the bike. That's cool though, definitely no disrespect. I was just wondering if y'alls have any other athletic hobbies off the bike when you're not in training mode.

Pantani98

About the only thing I'm doing in the off-season that's athletic related is working out in the gym and racing my KX450 motocross bike in hare scrambles.

mcafiero

Just so y'all know, Giddeon Massie LOVES tennis. So I think it's OK to enjoy other things!

joshpants

I USED to spend all my free time at the Indoor velodrome.
Now I have no idea what I'll do. Cx for sure, but that's still "season."
I'm assuming a mix of running, rollers, and road riding on weekends.

bitingduck

Since I haven't raced in about a year and a half or so, I'm not in training mode. Even when I'm racing I'm never really in "training mode"-- I do different rides, but I ride because it's fun.

So I still ride a lot- a lot more riding in the mountains (because I live on the edge of them) than when I'm racing track. A little bit of hiking. I race(d) because I like to ride, not the other way around, so if I'm not racing, I'm still riding a lot. I did the furnace creek 508 as part of a 2x fixed gear team last year. It's billed as a race, but something that long is really better treated as JRA. Death Valley is pretty cool to ride through in the middle of the night. I also did a double century last year (with ~20K feet of climbing for my fat track ass). I still like to do intervals during the week, and I like to do madison practice on sundays. Madison is a ton of fun and it's sort of social, in a way. I do a 6-day long semi-supported ride the week after xmas most years, lots of miles, lots of fun, mostly the same people every year, and pretty cheap.

As far as other sports, my girlfriend did get me to do tumbling classes/adult open tumbling at a gymnastics gym a few years ago. It was pretty cool, and I think improved my crashing ability significantly. Things move a lot slower in a crash and I have a lot of time to plan how I'm going to hit the ground. It's especially entertaining in LA, because the gym is in Van Nuys, and when the gymnastic kids finish their sessions and adult tumbling starts, it's mostly stunt people (active and aspiring) and retired gymnasts there for fun. A little bit of inline skating, but that takes a ton of practice for it to not totally suck.

mcafiero

Tumbling. That's so random, but I love it! Very cool

bitingduck

One morning I woke up with terrible stomach pains. My first thought was "I felt ok last night, where did I get food poisoning". Then I realized I had been practicing back tucks for a couple hours, doing the first parts (jump up and tuck) and landing on my back on some mats stacked above my head. It's a way to practice that without the landing. Do about 50 or so of them like you mean it and your abs will be sore in the morning...

They also had a couple cool things that slow down the motion-- a "tumbletrak" that's a ~40 foot long trampoline so you can do what's effectively a slow motion tumbling run, and "ski floor" that's made from a lot of skis screwed down over a trench so that they act like springs (but not as springy as the tumbletrak) with some thin gym mats over them. The ski floor had a runout into a ~10 foot deep pit of foam chunks for a very soft landing. Lots of fun, and you get used to being in the air in strange orientations.

mcafiero

So it's been "off-season" for me (for the last 3 weeks). Had a really disappointing performance at Nationals and concluded two things: 1. I need to learn how to stay in the sprinters lane when sprinting and 2. I need to lose weight.

I'm a little bitter about #2 right now. All season long I was told, "now's not the time to worry about your caloric intake". Well I think the people telling me that were underestimating the kind of appetite that I have. My legs got super strong, yes. But I got fat! So, since Nationals I have been doing the following, despite all the negative comments I get from other sprinters:

Sunday: 2 hour trail run (up a trail that gains over 2,000 vertical feet)
Monday: Gym Day: sets of 12: Squats, Weighted Step-ups, Dead lifts, Power Cleans, Some calf stuff
Tuesday: 1 hour trail run, 800 vertical gain.
Wednesday: Same as Tuesday
Thursday: 2 hour bike ride up Lookout Mountain from my house in the AM and 1 hour of boxing in the PM. A 2200 calorie burn day. Love it.
Friday: Same as Monday
Saturday: Rest
Every day: commute to work. 30 minutes each way. I burn an extra 300-400 calories commuting.

Results: in 3 weeks I have lost 8 lbs. 12 more to go.

In November I will go back to training specifically for track racing again with the coach and all of that. And this year I am going to control my eating in a way that's best for me.

For #1, I am going to start adding 15-20 minutes of high rpm work on the rollers. That's about all I can do for now.

Looking forward to 2013. I'm sort of pissed off right now, but that's how I get motivated for improvement.

Anyone else in my boat, trying to lose weight or enjoying the off season? I know I'm not a typical sprinter - I enjoy cross-training and (gasp!) trail running. And skiing once ski season comes around!

chas58

I guess you are not going to LA for the second half of nationals then...

mcafiero

Haha, no.

Dalai

Like bitingduck, there is really no off season here either...

We do have a summer track season, but with an 250m indoor velodrome we have racing year round. Tuesday and Thursday nights, plus a mix of Friday, Saturday and Sunday racing too!

Winters are very mild so our road season is through the Winter months with crits during summer...

Personally to break up the year I focus on the track through Summer and road ITT's and road races through Winter. Even with this it can be hard to actually make time to have a break from the bike; as the seasons all overlap the Track season will still be going the road season already starts!

I also go out on the MTB once in a while, plus have just bought a CX bike as CX racing has only just made our shores and looks like fun!

Away from the bike -

A friend is trying to get me into Adventure racing given I raced Triathlons including IM in the past. Therefore since January I have been out quite a few times training on a Ocean ski. When I can manage it without getting injured again (reason I gave up tri's) I still enjoy getting out for a run which also helps keep the weight off.

Before all of this I used to climb professionally, so still would go for a climb every now and then. But with reoccuring injuries the reason I had to retire in the first place I haven't been out climbing for nearly a year!

mcafiero

very cool. Interesting to see what people are doing outside of cycling.

Dalai

Came into cycling really only to find a sport after I destroyed my elbows through climbing. Triathlons was the next sport initially (did dabble in surfing and white water kayaking but both involved alot of driving) till I damaged my hips and knees running so just focus on the bike.

I tend to focus 110% in the sport I am doing at the time time and can push too hard, therefore I have to move onto the next sport... Hoping cycling has a little more longevity to it, as I'm not sure what I'd move on to if I had to...

bulldogs2k

I train and compete in Judo throughout the fall and winter. Sport Judo is perfect for someone that loves to sprint since it is explosive in nature.

kato7997

Thoughts on resistance training for endurance racers?

bulldogs2k

Will improve overall performance, that's why top athletes do resistance training. That and they get paid to workout unlike us

carleton

This guy did it...and he used to climb mountains for a living:

Dalai

Not sure using a professional athlete is a great example carleton.

I would suggest for most of us enduro's with other "distractions" (work, family etc) and not having all day to train then it isn't the best use of limited time.

If you are time crunched, then I would expect that this time would be better spent on the bike.

carleton

Do we not do other things that professional athletes do as well?

Further, a gym session takes significantly less time than a typical enduro road ride. Plus, there is far less prep time to go to the gym for plyo or weight training than there is for a road ride. There is also no need to take weather or time of day into consideration. Sounds like this is great for the time-crunched cyclist.

As bulldog2k mentions, and generally speaking, becoming stronger will improve track enduros. Yes, there are diminishing returns as strength increases, but stronger is stronger.

I firmly believe that if an endurance racer increases his/her base level of gym strength their on-the-bike strength will increase, too.

Many roadies avoid the gym like the plague for for fear of adding weight.

1) These are road racers climbing mountains.
2) If you saw the legs on the crit riders* that I watched during Speed Week, you'd know that they were in the gym.
3) Adding muscle mass is functional weight. Complaining about being heavier from larger muscles is like complaining that your car will be slower because you upgraded from a 2.0L turbo to a V8 engine.

*One racer stayed with me for a week. He made the podium in a few P/1/2 races. He lifts 1-2 times a week during the race season.