From the podcast I remember the recommendation is to do strength training the same day as cycling workouts so that rest days can be real rest. I’m also aware that the two sessions should be separated by as many hours as possible to avoid confusing the training signals the body receives.
I do my cycling sessions in the afternoon, usually finished at 5.30pm. Does anyone have any ideas whether a strength session before bed, starting about 9.30pm, would compromise the adaptions from the cycling session. Moving the cycing sessions to the morning is not possible.
I do cycle training three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so Sunday can be a weights session while still retaining a full rest day before Tuesday’s bike session but I am struggling to fit in a second weights session. I never feel like it on Tuesday or Thursday night, but if I knew it wasn’t going to have a negative impact on the cycling adaptations I would be more inclined to push on and do it.
I’m trying to follow their recommendations as well.
Tuesday is “Total Body Rest Day.”
I’m 47 and I really feel pretty well rested on Wednesday mornings after my rest day and totally spent by Monday night. So I would think one total rest day and one just lifting day should be good. I’m just trying to maintain where my strength is, as I have lifted regularly (but not supper heavy for a few years) for the last 20 years.
I train on the bike M, W, Th, F, Sa, Su. Lift early Wednesday and ride afternoon and ride early Sunday morning and lift afternoon. But my weight sessions are 4 sets of 5 reps for the legs and 3 sets of 10-12 upper body with only about 30 seconds between sets. I let my pulse fall below 100 before the next set. I’m done in about 30 minutes. Then early M and F I swim for 20 minutes or so. Seems to be working well.
If you’re on the bike three days a week, I think you can add two days of strength work on non-bike days. You’ll still have two rest days, and I’ve never heard anyone advocate for more than that. I usually do four days on bike, two strength, and one totally off. It works fairly well.
What pk said, you just don’t want to do weights the day before an interval workout. The day before an easier endurance ride would be better.
That said, I started with strength training this year. Unfortunately I got a late start and while I’d really like to ramp up the strength now it impacts cycling too much. (I like to ride 5 or 6 days a week.)
I wish I would have started strength in September/October so I was adapted and able to hit it hard in Dec/Jan/Feb and then be in maintenance mode Feb/March on. That way, my riding would have been a lot of easy base miles and I could have sacrificed some of that riding for the strength training. I’m going to stay in maintenance mode now and do the above next year.