I would love to hear how you schedule/balance lower body weight training sessions with riding.
Hi… well to be honest I’ve never given it a huge amount of thought beyond it doing a heavy session before a particularly hard or important ride. I guess I tend to do more in the winter and it tends to be “functional”. A useful resource re a lot of this is to look up “No regrets” personal training in Melbourne and their series of videos and blogs. Great stuff for practical strength exercises for athletes and not gym bunnies. For me the real “heavy stuff” are squats and dead lifts.
Cheers, Lee.
Thank you. I’ll check out No regrets.
900 is a reach🤔
Great post.
Just to let you know–there’s a huge difference between a person that is 45 and one that is 60. I’ve discovered it takes significantly longer to recover at 60 then even just 5 years ago. People don’t fully understand this–even coaches, until they experience this for themselves.
4 Likes
The latest FasCat podcast was all about Masters recovery, and he (Frank Overton) talks a lot from the perspective of a masters athlete. Bottom line is that the older you get the more recover you (we) need. I’ve never used a FasCat plan but I do listen to the podcast. Apologies to the TR crew if it’s not cool to plug another podcast…
3 Likes
Totally fine to mention other casts. I listen to Frank’s all the time. It’s good and that episode is worth a listen.
1 Like
…and the trend referenced by bikedawg doesn’t ever reverse. I’ll turn 78 next month. Still at it and don’t plan to ever quit, but the inevitable decrease in power and increase in recovery time simply cannot be denied. Everyone has their own unique trend lines on these issues, but inevitably the trend will be degradation of power and stamina. My objective is to degrade that rate of degradation, keeping the downward trend line as flat as possible. The other thing I’ve discovered is no more long breaks off the bike. As one ages, the fall off in conditioning accelerates with extended breaks and recovery becomes harder every time. Its much easier to just stay on task. Years ago Greg Lemond said of training “It never gets easier, you just ride faster.” My version is “It never gets easier, you just get slower slower.”
13 Likes
Totally agree with you! Kudos to you that you are still riding strong!! I have also discovered that weightlifting really helps to maintain strength on the bike.
1 Like
After a lot of experimentation, I found out that weight lifting right after a TR workout works better for me than than waiting the next day or too.
3 Likes
I am a 45-yr old on his 3rd year as a cyclist, specializing in cyclocross and currently doing the medium volume plans.
So I am expecting that after a few more years of following TR plans, that I will start to know what works for me better than TR. I will have “graduated” so to speak. Of course, I will probably still be using TR as a tool to implement my own plans but I’m hoping/expecting that the experience and knowledge that I have accumulated in the next few years will allow me to create a better plan for myself and adapt it on-the-go.
Isn’t this the usual route as you get more experienced with structured training? Or are we talking about more plans for beginner cyclists of an advanced age?
Also, aren’t we (masters) already over-represented and over-supported in cycling? I’m not sure I would feel comfortable picketing for more support for myself until we have a solid path for the young generation to get into the sport. Perhaps my experience doesn’t match others here, but all of the CX races that I have been to so far have HUGE masters fields and maybe like 3 or 4 riders in the U17, sometimes only 1.
(Clarification: All 3 of the questions in this post are honest questions, and not rhetorical.)
1 Like
Thanks, I’ll definitely try that though sometimes, depending on the length/intensity of the ride, the couch is more appealing.
That can and does happen. But its not a good business plan for TR 
It´s a tricky one…as the originator of this post I wasn´t expecting to open such a “can of worms” to be honest! And it´s not like I was intending to seek overly critical reaction either, especially as I´ve found benefit by using the programme and the podcast etc. Neither was I expecting a “magic bullet” so to speak by way of an answer…I´ve been riding long enough and experienced the up and downs long enough to know that´s not realistic. However, there is maybe a point in perhaps seeking a little more discussion around the masters section of the subscribers (especially as I suspect they do actually make up a fair proportion of the TR users). Personally I´ve been using it long enough to be able to know my body and when to back off a bit and when to “push on through”…but without wishing to be either patronising or big note myself, I think if you were new to it (and by that i´d describe “new” as up to 5 years) I think the temptation to just try and follow the programme and not back off would be very real as would the following “crash and burn”…and that´s not allowing for those I´d blame for their own demise (high volume plan, go for the most difficult extreme “type A” (you all know who you are! 
).
Being an elderly 43.5 years old and working my way through my second year of TR, I learned my body can’t handle the MV Build plans as prescribed. It just beats up this old soul. Also SSB2 is generally too much in the later weeks. So far, for me I’ve adjusted the plans to always make the Wednesday recovery rides easier (Pettit -1) and Sunday rides typically at -5% intensity or a -1 version. Lastly, I make recovery weeks easier by typically using the recovery week from SSB1 for all my recovery weeks.
I’m still figuring it all out and it would be nice if TR addressed Master’s athletes specifically.
3 Likes
Old soul? I turned 55 on Friday past 
my back is forever giving me grief now. Apparently I’ve got arthritis in the facet joints of my back. I’m still trying to convince my wife that I should sell my canyon and buy a Ribble SLe ebike. I love TR and will never stop training with TR.
4 Likes
The only way solve back problems is to buy a new full suspension. Your wife will understand .
2 Likes
A new full suspension and an e road bike 
1 Like
The last couple of weeks my hips starting feeling a little sore. Turns out that stopping posterior chain and hip mobility work in April was a mistake… I’m now officially on day 2 of my off-season and back to doing weight training three times a week. Already feeling better after day 1, although my legs are a little sore from squats, deadlifts, and kettlebell swings. Along with the grey hair that started showing up for real in the last 6 months, officially need to start doing weight training and endurance work all 52 weeks of the year. My dad was still going to the gym until 82 
when the big C brought everything to a screeching halt.
“Well, here I come, and I’m so not scared.
Got my pedal to the metal, got my hands in the air.
Look out! You take your blinders off.
Everybody’s looking for a way to get real gone.”
Real Gone Sheryl Crow, Cars Soundtrack
3 Likes