This spring I did an event, cycling 1300km and 21.000 altitude meters in just 8 days…
Event went pretty well, and I will participate again in June 2025…
Looking back at the event this year, I had some difficulties with my lower back, neck and shoulders on day 3 to 5 during the event.
The first 5 days was a lot of climbing big cols like the Mont Ventoux and many others, so 10-20km of climbing at 8-10% avg…
I never climbed big hills before the event, so I was not prepared properly…
For next year I will have to focus more on climbing and have my TrainerRoad schedule all setup to achieve this goal…
The difficulties I had this year was mostly related to bad core stability and strength to maintain a good position on the bike…
Last month I went to a sport medical center for a checkup on my overall fitness, checking lactate thresholds and determining power/heartrate zones…
According to the physical checkup the doctor also checked my flexibility and core stability… conclusion is that my flexibility is on the high side, but core stability is pretty low…
I have 7 full months before the event, I think it should be enough to get my core much better then it is today…
My current schedule is as follows:
Mo: Hard Intervals 1h45 (Vo2Max)
Tu: Rest (but want to add 1-2h endurance starting from December)
We: Hard Intervals 1h45 (SST)
Th: Rest
Fr: Hard Intervals 1h45 (Threshold)
Sa: Endurance: 2h30 (slowly increasing to 4-5h from January onto April)
Su: Rest
I don’t have any gym materials at home like dumbbells or other weights, thinking on going to the gym where there is all the equipment I could need…
Personally I want to keep the strength workout around 1h max per workout… And possible add it on the Tuesday morning (before work), and on the Saturday after the endurance ride.
I do kettlebells at home, just 20 mins of the attached picture. Twice a week. I started with 16kg and recently moved up to 20kg nothing crazy but definitely noticed a solid improvement in my strength.
What app is that??
I don’t have any equipment, buying some kettlebells (in different weights) is pretty expensive. 4-5 different weight is a 150-200 euro investment…
I prefer taking a monthly subscription to the gym instead, all equipment is there already…
But I like the way that app looks like, now just find a correct routine of exercises that suits my needs.
I would suggest also doing something with weights. Body weight movements only get you so far. Deadlifts and their variations , good mornings and farmer carries are good loaded(weight) movements for strengthening your lower back.
I find it difficult to fit this into my cycling schedule:
Mo: Hard Intervals 1h30 (Vo2Max)
Tu: Rest (but want to add 1-2h endurance starting from December)
We: Hard Intervals 1h45 (SST)
Th: Rest
Fr: Hard Intervals 1h45 (Threshold)
Sa: Endurance: 2h30 (slowly increasing to 4-5h from January onto April)
Su: Rest
I was thinking to do the gym session at Tuesday morning before work. The Vo2max training on monday is pretty intensive but in my experience I recover pretty quickly from that workout.
The other one I will do on Saterday before or after I go on an endurance ride…
So you can’t lift heavy at home without quite a significant investment in equipment. But there’s a lot you can do with body weight exercises, yoga, pilates, etc. Simple search of things like “pilates for cyclists” on YouTube will give you a whole bunch of exercises you can do at home with little or no equipment.
Depending on how far your gym is and what it costs I’d be inclined to start at home. Maximum time efficiency as no overhead of getting to the gym, so means you’re more likely to do it regularly which is really the key for strength training for cyclists.
The gym is 5-10 minutes from my home, I can train there for 10 euro’s per month…
This is because my wife is already member, and a second person is only €10 extra (unlimited access).
Do you think I can reach the same strength by doing (for example) kettle bells exercises that weigh around 10-20kg? Instead of doing a deadlift with a 80kg barbell?
Ah, if that’s easy and cheap then use the gym! Yes if you get creative and do single leg exercises with the kettle bells you can get pretty strong. But if you have access to a bar (particularly a hex bar) and weights to just progress the deadlifts then I would do that.
