Caesium32's Log - Cycling With a Side of Lifting

Training Training Logs
1883

Wow I didn’t realise how long it had been since I last updated my log. I have still been training as usual but just haven’t found myself coming on the site for whatever reason. Anyway, I’ll post a brief summary of what I’ve done and what’s to come.

23/08/21 - Gym
RDL, bench and I think upper back rows mainly. Top sets of RDL were 5x100, 110 and 100 and bench were 5x60, 70 and 60 again.

24/08/21 - Cycling Intervals
I had a time trial the day after this so had planned to do 2x8 min intervals as a sort of mini taper - volume is lower than it normally would be for this intensity but intensity is still there. In the end I did one eight minute interval and one four minute. I felt super fatigued and my HR was about 10-15bpm lower than it should have been for the effort. That previous week had really taken its toll on me.

25/08/21 - Cycling 10 Mile Time Trial
My second one now and I was about 0.9mph faster than the first two weeks ago. That’s a pretty big improvement for two weeks so I was very happy, especially when you consider the fatigue I was carrying.

26/08/21 - Cycling Endurance and Sprints
This was supposed to just be an easy endurance ride and I had planned another interval session the next day. Long story short I didn’t want to do another session and halfway through this one it was going a bit harder than I expected so I threw some sprints in for the second half and decided that was good enough to cover it.

27/08/21 - Gym
Squats, OHP and lat pull-down this time. Top squat sets were 5x70, 5x80 and 5x70 and for OHP were 5x35, 5x40 and 5x35.

28/08/21 - 30/08/21
Finally a few days off and I definitely needed them. To be honest they weren’t very relaxing anyway in the end but better than more workouts.

31/08/21 - Cycling Intervals
4x4 mins at around VO2 max which is basically about max effort for this duration. This was a pretty hard session but will be the last hard one before my 100 mile event.

01/09/21 - Gym
I’m having somewhat of a deload this week so planned to just work up to a hard set of five on the big lifts. Worked up to 5x120 RDL but only 1x75 on bench. I had no spotter, didn’t feel great and decided it wasn’t worth pushing with my focus on feeling my best for Sunday - it will be hard to cycle for six hours with a sore chest or shoulder.

02/09/21 - Cycle Intervals
2x8 mins, the first around my lactate threshold and the second just above it. Fairly high intensity but fairly low volume considering I’ve done sessions with at least 45 mins at this intensity.

Coming Up
Tomorrow I’ll work up to a heavy five rep set in the squat and OHP. Saturday I’ll do an easy ride with some short <10s sprints to loosen my legs before the big ride on Sunday. Sunday is a 100 miles and I plan to ride it as much as possible but I’m riding as an ambassador for my club which means if people are struggling I may have to ride slower and help them, we will see.

I hope everyone is doing alright, I’ve not been reading much of people’s logs either. Finally, well done and thanks if you read all this.

4 Likes
1884

Nice to have you back. I was just contemplating a search party . . . :wave:

1 Like
1885

Haha, thank you, hope you’re well.

1 Like
1886

I haven’t been on here often and I haven’t kept up with the logs, good to see you are still training. I guess you started cycling at uni? I was doing triathlons before I started going to the gym. I’ll keep up with your log

1887

Good to see you back around here, how are things going for you?

I became interested in cycling around the end of last summer when I started working part-time in a bike shop. I got a new bike in September but didn’t ride it that much until around March this year when I started going out a couple of times a week. In April I joined my local cycling club and it’s just gone from there.

Triathlons look pretty cool but I’m not a big fan of running, what made you stop doing them and do you still cycle now?

1 Like
1888

I’m good thanks I kept up training but did not have much time to come here for the last year and a half.

Cycling is fun, that’s how I started. Then at uni I couldn’t get a bike so I started running and swimming to keep the fitness. I guess I could have kept going but I wanted a change after having trained and competed for 3 years. I still cycle and run on the week ends but it’s obviously much harder in the hills with the extra bodyweight.

1 Like
1889

Forgot to update here again…

My big bike ride went well and I was really happy with the effort I put out for that length of time. The downside was my knee ended up hurting a lot and took a few days to settle down. Last week I did only one gym session and a couple of rides with another big one at the weekend. This ride hurt my knee again but it’s mostly back to normal by now - just needs lots of rest.

This week I have started a new job so have a bit less spare time. I have been to the gym twice this week but both were sort of easy ease in sessions. Apart from a ride coming up on Sunday I’ve not cycled to rest my knee.

From next week I’ll be giving the gym more attention and hopefully log the sessions on here again.

4 Likes
1890

I’d say check your shoe clips and pedals if you cycle with them, also saddle position and height

1 Like
1891

Thank you. It’s definitely an issue with one of those it’s just which and how to adjust them to sort it. I’m always adjusting bits to see if it improves but it’s hard to tell since the pain only actually shows when I ride 80+ miles which I do very rarely anyway. One day I’ll probably pay for a professional bike fit but I should be ok over winter with shorter rides for now.

1 Like
1892

21/09/21
Week 1 - Day 1

Superset
Squat: 3x8x20, 2x5x40, 20x50
Chins: 2x1, 3x3, 1x4

Superset
Bench press: 2x10x20, 5x40, 5x50, 10x55, 12x40
Band pull-apart: 6x15ish

Tricep cable push down: 2 sets to failure

Cable lateral raise: 1 set to failure

First day of the new plan - three days a week full body. Will add a bit more detail about the plan later.

2 Likes
1893

22/09/21
Week 1 - Day 2

Superset
Squat: 2x5x20, 5x40, 2x10x50
Chins: 1x1, 3x4
Press ups: 1x5, 3x10

Superset
Seated dumbbell OHP: 10x8s, 10x16s, 6x16s
Dumbbell row: 10x8, 2x12x16

Concentration curl: 8x10, 6x10

Thought I uploaded this on the day I did it but apparently not. Schedule has been a bit crazy this week so gym sessions this week have been Tue, Wed, Sat instead of Mon, Wed, Thu.

1 Like
1894

25/09/21
Week 1 - Day 3

Superset
Squat: 2x5x20, 5x40, 5x50, 5x60, 5x65
Chins: 6 sets of 2 to 4 reps

Superset
OHP: 8x20, 5x25, 5x30, 9x35, 10x25
Chins: 5x3

Lying leg curl: 12x1, 20x2, 12x4

That’s week 1 of the gym work done. I can’t remember if I mentioned but I’m doing these workouts before work so I’m keeping them short for now. For each one I’ve got a block of stuff I definitely want to do, which is what I’ve done this week, then there’s a couple more assistance exercises each day I’m not so fussed about. Once I get my routine a bit more dialled in I should be able to add these in.

So far this week I haven’t been on my bike (this time because it needed some work doing) but will be tomorrow. Two weeks of low volume will have done me good though and I’m raring to go again next week.

2 Likes
1895

26/09/21
Week 1 - Day 4

I have bought a fancy indoor trainer for my bike so got that set up and had a go. It is one of those that you attach your bike to instead of the back wheel and it simulates gradients etc.

The first thing I needed to do was a test to set a reference power to use in workouts. This involved the machine applying progressively more resistance every minute until you reached exhaustion.

Next I did 10 minutes of a workout, riding just under my threshold, but decided that wasn’t going to be fun after the previous test. Instead I did 30 minutes at a lower intensity with a couple of sprints thrown in.

2 Likes
1896

27/09/21
Week 2 - Day 1

Superset
Squat: 2x6x20, 5x40, 20x55
Chins: 1x2, 3x3

Superset
Bench press: 2x10x20, 5x45, 5x50, 8x60, 10x45
Band pull-apart: 4x15ish

Lateral raise: 1 dropset to failure

Got ready a bit slow this morning so had a little less time. Squats were good but my pressing strength seems to have fallen off a cliff. I’m not too worried - it’ll come back, but I need to take it steady. One thing that might factor into it is that I’m doing these workouts at 7am whereas I’m used to working out in the afternoon.

1 Like
1897

28/09/21
Week 2 - Day 2

15 mins cycling at pretty much max effort. It was supposed to be a half an hour workout at a reasonable intensity but the test I did to set my numbers at the weekend must have set them too high because this was basically impossible. Anyway, still a good workout but different to what I wanted.

1 Like
1898

29/09/21
Week 2 - Day 3

Superset
Squat: 2x5x20, 2x5x40, 2x10x55
Chins: 4x2
Press ups: 1x5, 3x10

Superset
Seated dumbbell OHP: 10x8s, 11x16s, 8x16s
Dumbbell upper-back row: 10x8, 2x12x16

Concentration curl: 10x8, 7x8

Felt a bit stiff and generally rubbish today but seemed to feel better as I got into it.

One thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet is that I’m trying to lose some weight. My initial plan was to gain weight (and hopefully muscle) once I started this new plan but I have a little bit more body fat than I’d like considering I’m going to be gaining weight for a while. Instead I’m spending the first three weeks in a deficit then gain after that. It won’t do much obviously but hopefully three weeks of dieting will give me an extra six weeks or so of gaining to get back to where I started.

1 Like
1899

29/09/21
Week 2 - Day 3 PM

Hopped back on my bike for an unplanned and tough 30 minute workout - near enough max effort again.

I’ve been having some issues with what power to use to base my workouts on, basically the cycling equivalent of a training max in 5/3/1. This was to test that after changing it a bit. Another issue I realised is that the power I can put out first thing in the morning before work is much less than in the afternoon or evening so I need to account for that.

30/09/21
Week 2 - Day 4

45 minutes cycling

01/10/21
Week 2 - Day 5 AM

Superset
Squat: 2x5x20, 5x40, 5x50, 5x60, 5x70
OHP: 2x5x20, 2x5x30, 10x35, 7x30
Chin: 6 sets of 2 to 4 reps

Left the house late so had to really rush but got this done including putting away weights in just under 17 minutes.

Week 2 - Day 5 PM

Another max effort cycling test to determine my power. Like the last one it involves minute long efforts at increasing powers until failure. This one will be more representative of my morning power though because I did it with tired legs.

02/10/21
Week 2 - Day 6

Cycling again - 40 minutes at a mix of intensities.

1 Like
1900

Probably about time I did another update… Well things are going really well both lifting wise and more generally.

I’m lifting 3x a week doing push, pull, legs doing around 5-10 sets to failure or close for push and pull and mainly just two very hard squat sets for legs. Workouts are only taking about 20 minutes which is great since I do them before work. I’m eating lots and I have gotten into a routine of doing so at a high quality. Strength is blowing up probably faster than ever and I tied a four year old bench PR last week while half asleep and without benching in the two weeks prior. Muscle size seems to be coming too although a bit early to make any conclusions. Probably putting on some fat too but I’ll get rid of that later - muscle is more important right now.

On the conditioning/cardio side of things: I’ve started playing 6-aside football (soccer) on a Monday night with some friends which is a load of fun but also about 40 minutes of just redlining my heart rate so great for conditioning. Plus, it’s making me sore in places I didn’t know I could be and showing me how unathletic I had gotten so I can’t wait to improve there. Cycling has taken a bit of a back seat to allow for it but I’m still getting two 30-45 minute rides in a week.

I’m not on here much anymore but usually come on at the weekend for about an hour. I’ve been trying to keep up with as many as possible.

Anyway, that’s it for now, I will probably post another update in a month or so again. I hope anyone that still reads this log is doing well.

3 Likes
1901

Great to see you still getting after it and succeeding! I found very similar to this just doing 2x per week (531 combining squat and bench as a day and deads and ohp as another).

1902

Thanks mate, I think it’s all down to my diet improving to be honest. Hope you’re doing alright, your log is on my list to catch up on.

1 Like