I’m going to be cycling 110-130km/day over 3 days (no real time limit, predicting 5-8 hours a day) in May. I’m athletic and in good shape, but not especially fit. I’m a cycling/fitness noob.
1st Q: Does anyone think it would be possible to leverage cycling training for this kind of distance to gain leg mass ? (bit of a longshot)
2nd Q: Or if not, could anyone suggest a decent cycling routine that isn’t too disruptive for leg day?
I’m currently on this split
1: Chest and Biceps
2: Legs and Lower Back
3: Off
4: Back and Abs
5: Shoulders and Triceps
I’ve been cycling since December and my quads have definitely increased in size. I haven’t followed any stuctured programming. It’s been a combination of commuting, 30-40 mile cycles (going hard at it), hill repeats and the odd LSD.
My squat numbers have also went down a little as well!
ChongLordUno ! How ya doing buddy ? So we meet again ; )
To the OP ! I am a lifelong competitive cyclist as Chong can attest. So my inclination would be to do short sprints on the bike of 1 minute duration with a 3 minute recovery. If you do 15 ‘reps’ that will take you an hour. Do this twice per week along with a day of moderate distance and you will be fine.
I now do my cycling in the am again fasted on tue/ thr/ sat and sun. I work westside conjugate legs heavy squats on sun eve and speed work on thr eve and have not found a loss of overall speed, although my endurance has suffered a bit.
When doing longer rides two things are imperative. #1 is to pace yourself and keep a pace that you can maintain for the duration and #2 is to make sure you are hydrated and fed. By hydrating I mean 1 28oz water bottle per 1.5 to 2 hours depending on the heat.
depends on your goals as a cyclist…you wanna be a cat 5, and stay a cat 5, do heavy leg training and cycle. you wanna be a cat 1-2, cycle only… i know a ton of pro cyclists, and not 1 lifts for their legs,… well, maybe a few in the off season for a month, but thats just them doing a bit of cross training… for a month… then its strength work on the bike… squats on the bike type work… but biking only…you wanna finish mid pak in a 45 minute crit in your neighborhood at the cat 4-5 level, squat and cycle. you wanna do well in a 120 mile road race or a 150k kermesse race, cycle only… JUST MY OPINION… good luck at which ever way you train…
You guys mind if I cut in with a different but related question? I’ve just been thinking about the same.
We know long endurance exercise takes a toll on muscle mass. While I’m not a big musclehead (you guys would roll on the floor if I told you my bench press) I have some muscle that I would like to keep during biking season. Not a racer, but I take recreational rides of 50 to 100 miles during the summer. How do avoid ending up looking like a stick figure on top? Is it as simple as consuming extra protein during or after a ride?