[arhab]

I’m not an “uphill athlete”, but rather a “flatland athlete” (I live in The Netherlands ;-)).

Anyhow I apply the training principles as explained in the uphill books, but try to apply them to my road cycling. As for outlining my training I use the special considerations for mountain running, category 1 (chapter 13) as a basis.

Anyhow I was wondering whether you would have any specific advice for a cyclist? And I apologize for trying to get the advice for free ;-)….

Some background and I apologize for the long post:

I’m 48 years old. My AeT is around 158 and AnT around 170. Maximum HR was 210 a couple of years ago and resting HR is around 48.

I have been following the Maffetone’s method for about 5 years now, so lots of low HR base training and occasionally a high intensity workout. I’m following a diet using a Paleo template, so quite low carb. I was ketogenic for like 2 years (after having been diagnosed with pre-diabetes 6 years ago). Most training sessions are in a fasted state. I believe I’m a good fat burner given that I can easily go without any food for hours – even when doing moderately high intensity (at AnT) in a fasted state.

End of last year I suffered from a bout of Neuralgic Amyotrophy whiched damaged nerves in my shoulder complex and I lost quite a bit of muscle mass there. I’m still revalidating to grow nerves and rebuild muscle strength. It doesn’t bother me during daily chores or when cycling.

To make things worse, I fell off my bike a month ago and broke 5 ribs. Recovery is good, and I started cycling again after 2 weeks of rest.

Any advice is welcome! Thanks in advance

Arhab

Topic

[TerryLui]

TerryLui on May 22, 2019 at 8:22 am #22344

Hey Arhab,
Just to make sure I’m understanding you correctly, are you training for road cycling?
Or are you using road cycling to train for mountain running or something else?
If it is for the latter, the advice I heard Scott provide is if you’re going to use cycling to train for mountain running/mountain activities, then you should cycle without the saddle (i.e. never sit on your bike).
Otherwise using cycling as a training method is just too efficient to elicit sufficient training response and does not mimic the physical demands of being directly on your feet enough (to put it in a nutshell).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on May 22, 2019 at 3:12 pm #22379

Arhab:

Can you state what it is specifically you are wanting advice on? This will help those reading this to give some advice.

Thanks for writing in.
Scott

[arhab]

arhab on May 22, 2019 at 10:20 pm #22399

Thanks for the responses.

Terry, I’m trying for road cycling pretty much exclusively with an occasional running race (10k) any now an then. No mountain running or skiing.

I want to construct a more structured training program to prepare for a 400k cycling race in April of 2020. As the book(s) are aimed at various types of “uphill” sports, I was wondering if there’s any specific types of workout that I may take into account for cycling. Or in terms of volume distribution between Z1/Z2 and other zones? As cycling is without impact, perhaps other volume distributions could be used. Or replace, e.g., interval such as 30/30 workouts with longer or other work/rest times and/or ratios for similar effects… Or use heavy gears for strength etc. Just some tips and tricks if possible…

E.g., the cycling without a saddle Terry mentioned is something I would never have thought about, but it makes sense. I also do most of the general strength exercises, but perhaps there’s some good additional exercises for cyclists.

Thanks,

Arhab