Check in y'all. 171 lbs this am. Getting stronger. Feels good. I realized how important INTENSITY in your workout is. Time is bullshit. I used to put time into the gym thinking if i wasn't there for 2 hrs it wasn't worth going. Now I try to exhaust myself in an hour or less and my overall level of fitness has improved. in short, GET SOME !!! even if you only have 30 mins to do it.
Man Mike. 1000000% on the same page with you. I put my program (back) together about 2.5 years ago to prepare to get back on the race grid and not make a fool of myself from my previous history racing when I took a hiatus for the AFM Presidency needs 3 years back. I'm not overweight, etc, but certainly could use some core and for sure; endurance and more strength. The workout(s) I developed are not 4 hours on a bicycle (cause I think that doesn't teach the INTENSITY needed for a sprint race). Instead, I developed a non-stop, super intense weight workout followed by a high heart rate (165-185) 30 minute bike workout (2X a week). The idea was to train for mental intensity and muscle inclusion, very similar to what we're doing on the bike. As much as I don't like gyms, the program required one.
The result was better than I'd expected; way better. Even without the bike, my workouts have my heart rate in the 120-170 range for the weight program for about an hour. That alone was a enough, but adding the bike in at the end makes everything on track downright easy, now. I added about 20 minutes of stretching too and I feel in 3X better condition than when I was in my 30's. I also wear Bose Heartrate ear buds to see what my heart rate is doing during the weight program from time to time...when it starts to fall, I change it up. In the course of this program, I've gained about 8-10 lbs of lean muscle and leaned out some....not quite what most road racers are doing, but the hell with it...it's working for me so far. The measure of my program wasn't weight loss or gain, but wins on track and that's where it became obvious that it was a keeper. We won the shit out of things last year and this last weekend, continued on...doing things I never thought I was capable on a bike. It's been so eye opening, I wish my friends tried it.
On the note of the word you use that I love INTENSITY: it's the exact thing missing from amateur, club level road racers. They don't know how to put everything into a 14 minute race and that's their downfall, IMO. A program like you're talking about is what most need, not a 3 or 4 hour bike ride every weekend...
Good post Mike. I dig your plan!
Edit: all these idiots sitting on machines in between sets (or whatever they're doing), surfing their phone and wasting time...THAT is where the real gains are made. That's time that can be used for other exercises, in between...and I think that's what you're program looks like too. No rest, no need. No being weak.
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