TD Training Entry #2: A Transformation

One of the most welcome improvements I’ve seen as a result of my TD training is the strength and explosiveness in my legs.  In all my years of strength training, I’ve treated my legs like bags full of Britney Spears CD’s…..I completely ignore them.  That’s a bit harsh actually, but the truth is I have been in the habit of cutting short my leg workouts or half-assing my way through them all my life.  I’d ignore proper range of motion and/or work with less weight than I knew I was capable of, and would prefer to lollygag and socialize in the gym on leg day rather than show my quads any real love.  And don’t even talk to me about calves or hamstrings.  Those muscle groups were lucky to even sniff someone else doing a rep of calf raises or ham curls. 

But in researching this race and seeing pics of past GDR and TD racers whose legs looked like they were smuggling boulders across the Divide under their skin, I knew I had to change things.  Mountain bike racers attain that powerful, enduring leg strength through years of hard riding.  I don’t have those years under my belt, so I have to build my power over the next 14 months through a combination of hard riding and harder weight training, and lots of it.  Or so I thought….I would soon find that there is great disagreement among the cycling world about the effectiveness of weight training…more on that soon.

Here's Pete Basinger's torso attached to two tree stumps. Photo courtesy Outside Magazine.

Before I researched anything on that though, I launched a blitzkrieg on my leg muscles.  I began intense sessions of heavy weight, low rep workouts, centering around the grand daddy of all leg workouts, the squat.  Ooo, how I used to loathe the very thought of doing heavy weight squats.  I detested them, and avoided them at all costs, preferring instead to half ass my way through leg presses and various other machines which allowed me to “take it easy” on my legs.  The truth is, though, that squats have always been the absolute best way to gain explosive leg strength.  Now, thanks entirely to the TD and my motivation to race it, I’ve been able to fight through my squat-prejudice and incorporate them, nay, make them the very foundation of my leg workouts.  I actually enjoy them now.  And thanks to that new positive mental attitude, I’ve made great strides in my overall workouts, gaining strength quickly and effectively in all the southerly muscle areas especially.

The best thing is that these workouts have directly translated to better performance on my bike.  Since getting back in the saddle several months ago, I had often become discouraged at my lack of stamina and my fatigue level when riding more than 20 miles.  When I finished one 28 mile ride in particular, my body just felt devastated.  My knees hurt badly, my back was on fire, my energy was completely gone….it really gave me some serious doubt about whether I could possibly be ready for the TD in 2010.  But a month and a half after my dedication to weight training the legs, a wonderful transformation has occurred.  I have been able to pedal harder into headwinds without slowing down and without fatiguing.  No aches, no pains, no inflammation of the hammies…I mean it has all just disappeared.  Now I can ride those 28 miles with no ill effects and with plenty of energy to spare. 

My point in all this is that the TD is turning out to be a wonderful self-improvement tool.  I’ve told you about my legs, as an example, but the same scenario is true with my core.  I have learned that a strong core is vital to endurance cycling.  Again, I hated working core, and had never given it fair time in my workouts.  I would “throw abs in” here and there, and just negelct my lower back and obliques.  Now, I have made core an integral part of my training, and thus have begun improving an aspect of myself where I would never have before.  There is more…much much more.  Not just the physical benefits, but also mental.  I haven’t even touched on what I’ve learned about bike repair, wildland survival, navigation, and mental fortitude. And now, even if I was to fail in my attempt to race the TD, I have gained some greats gifts in pursuit of it, and I will never give those back.  They are mine forever.  Thanks TD!

So true, so true...

I mentioned before that there is disagreement among the cycling world about how effective weight training is for endurance riders.  I didn’t find out about this disagreement until after I had spent a full month intensively weight training my legs.  I read a lot of anti-iron-pumping material, where the point was made that increase in strength through weight training had no positive effect, and was even detrimental in some cases, towards endurance riders. 

Huh?!?  Seeing how beautifully it was working for me, I could not fathom how anyone could claim that.  I was riding harder and longer with less fatigue…were they going to tell me that I really wasn’t?  That it was all a mirage?  “Bah!  Just a bunch of guys who hate training legs!” I thought ignorantly, “Weight weenies!”

Well, delving into this mystery a little more, I eventually found out the basis for the conflict.  Turns out that for guys like me, (weekend warriors at best with little or no endurance experience) weight training your legs does indeed have monumental value, and allows us to experience better performance more quickly.  But for seasoned endurance riders, who have already built a maximized muscle/performance ratio, the introduction of weight training has been found to be unnecessary and even ill-advised, according to some studies.  That makes a lot more sense to me, though there’s still a whole world of general disagreement out there.

Bottom line for me personally…its working like a charm, and I will keep doing it along with actual bike training until race time in 2010!  As for shaving my legs like all other cyclists seem to do…well, I haven’t quite mustered enough motivation to do that.

Read about cycling and weight training here:

http://www.cptips.com/weights.htm

http://www.cptips.com/exphys.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/issa21.htm

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