@KWcycling Yeah. I felt that. Those last couple of turns my power was just sapped. Once I get a handle on how to best race cross I’ll try to train for those short bursts of power.
I think I’m going to stick with either cross racing or maybe try some mountain bike racing. When you fall over in a cross race you just get back up and keep going. I’ve known too many people that have broken collar bones or worse in Crits (worst race type ever). And with a wife and two kids, I don’t enjoy spending time road riding with traffic. I know too many people that have had serious accidents due to drivers not knowing how to handle a car around cyclists. I’ll stick with TR for my training rides and parks and trails for my outdoor rides.
No you don’t need to. If you are racing CX this winter then I would be very careful with introducing that while trying to race. It would be a decent amount of fatigue to be dealing with (not to mention the potential wicked soreness). But once you get to a more ‘base’ season it definitely wouldn’t hurt.
But at an FTP of 190 you just need more aerobic fitness. Fitness can be pretty sport specific. So if you’re a good runner it might take a couple months to get the muscles firing in the right way.
Also, 5’9" and 135 is pretty small. It probably wouldn’t hurt to eat a bit more. That could be the perfect weight for you, but to me that sounds pretty small and might point to you not eating enough.
@mwglow15 Ha! Yeah, I eat plenty. I’m just a skinny dude. Built like a stick. It’s also part of my runner’s build. I’ve been running 35+ miles a week for years and it’s hard to put on fat (or muscle for that matter). My wife noticed that since switching to cycling I’ve got some belly fat for the first time since we met. Not sure how I feel about that one.
Yeah, I’m sure cycling burns less calories per hour than running. But the lower impact allows you to do more of it. So gotta watch that calorie creep! A bit of weight training and some more muscle will help put those calories to something useful. It would also help protect you in the case of a crash. As well as assist in the bone density aspect that you’ll be missing from the lesser impact.
Last week I heard an interesting Scientific Triathlon podcast, its this one with a link that takes you to the interesting section:
My paraphrasing - cycling puts more demand on the quads, and requires more metabolic fitness in your legs than running. So while your cardio is strong, you need to cycle to increase the metabolic fitness in your legs.
@WindWarrior Thanks for the article. It’s a terrible feeling to know your fit in one area (running) and then try something else (cycling) and realize that there really is only so much transfer. It’s ok. I enjoy training and to be honest, the power numbers associated with cycling training are a ton of fun to crunch. Running doesn’t really have a training equivalent. Other than running repeats on the track.
I was watching a GCN short the other day where a cyclist went up against a weight lifter. The weight lifter could hit a max wattage of 2000 watts. The cyclist barely broke 1000. But when they went outside and actually rode a bike up a hill it wasn’t even a contest. I guess lifting doesn’t actually make you a better cyclist. It makes you a better lifter.
Long story short. Want to get faster on the bike… ride the bike more.
