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I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen?
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So I'm pretty bad at cycling (and yes I'm female). Like bottom 10% in 70.3/IMs. I've been in this sport for several years now, so I should be better at it than I am. And yes, I do bike a lot (~3500 miles this year). Intensity is also something I know I need to work on(I need to ride with faster guy friends to push me out of my comfort level). But I also don't seem to be all that physically strong on the bike (I come from a swim background, so I'm pretty strong in general and I'm a decent runner but no cycling strength). I live by the ocean, so I don't ride many hills and get killed in hilly courses. So which muscles should I be looking to strengthen this winter in the gym? Thanks for your help.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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 I'm not the speediest cyclist, so I may not be the best person to advise you, but I've at least seen some improvement, so I'll give you what has helped me. First of all, the only way to truly get better at hills is to ride up them as much as you can. I was lucky enough to have a park near my house with a "nice" steep hill that was mostly closed to traffic, and I would do repeats on it at least once a week. If there is anything remotely resembling a hill near you, I'd try to ride up it as often as I can.

The other thing that really helped me was weight training (I know, ST sacrilege!) but I found it really helpful. I took the weight training exercises out of the Triathlete's training bible - you can probably find a copy in your local library if you don't want to buy it. I used the squat machines at the gym, but there are also versions with the dumbell if you prefer the freeweights... You want to strengthen the quads, glutes, hip adductors/abdutors - basically anything that hurts after a long ride. ;-) And finally you can't underestimate core strength, it will really help your cycling. (Core strength, is there anything it can't do?)

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress!

M

------------------------------------------------------------
The beatings will continue until morale improves
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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As a swimmer I shall assume you have decent core strength. A good core keeps you stable when riding and keeps your upper body from moving about.
The main power for cycling comes from your thighs and glutes. Any kind of gym work that will strengthen these is good. Leg presses, rowing, etc. are all good. There's no real substitute for actually riding the bike however.
Do you have a turbo or rollers? Interval sessions are great for improving power and speed and Spinervals and Trainright dvds for time trial training are available to give you a guided session.
If you don't have or don't like the turbo, some sessions along the road will also help. 5 mins hard, followed by 5 mins recovery for example.

For climbing hills, you really need to go out and climb hills. If the races you do feature short steep climbs you can get up them on power training, but for longer steady climbs practice makes perfect. Long hills also make for good, but subtle, strength training.



"Here's how you run a marathon. Step 1: You start running. Step 2: There is no step 2." - Barney (How I Met Your Mother)
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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Here we go...

Gym work will not improve your cycling. First, it's not specific ("Specificity,Specificity,Specificity"- Andrew Coggan) secondly strength is not a limiter in cycling. Lastly, time in the gym typically either compromises the quality of your cycling or takes away from time you could be riding. In any case, feel free to be in the gym because you need core work or can't get outside. And do squats of some sort but cycling is what is going to make you better at cycling. There are specific ways (on the bike) to address your desire to improve.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [mayhew] [ In reply to ]
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>> time in the gym typically either compromises the quality of your cycling<<

Perhaps you could explain what you mean by this.

OP-I'd disagree with mayhew about weights, especially for women and masters athletes. I have a routine that I can do in about 30 minutes and twice a week doesn't interfere with the time I have for the bike.

Neil gave you come good ideas. And yes, to get better on hills, ride hills. And to get better on the bike, ride the bike. A lot.

clm

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [trackie clm] [ In reply to ]
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There is increased recovery time involved when lifting weights, esp when you first start. Typically it's hard to do anything more than an easy ride the same day (or perhaps the day after) lifting.

The take away lesson is that I think the OP would get faster doing 2x20's at FTP rather than any lifting program.

Edit, to be perfectly clear, I agree with Neil, that the OP probably has all the core strength they need simply from swimming.
Last edited by: mayhew: Nov 11, 08 7:04
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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I DEFINATELY improved my cycling by weight training. I will second the strength training from the Triathlete's Training Bible.
Go to the gym in the winter. Do trainer intervals (I had a computrainer so that I could simulate hills - but you can do big ring intervals to simulate hills). Then in the Spring - HILL REPEATS.

Those that say the gym does not help probably have a more muscular body type. I am lean, very lean and have a hard time putting on muslce. So I find the gym really helps me (hate it though, but it works).

Also, it does not make sense to say that cycling is not about strength. Strength is a very key component to a decent bike split. Most importantly strength to weight ratio. I came from a running background with a pretty high VO2 max. But I could not utilize this on the bike until I got STRONG enough to.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [sidelined] [ In reply to ]
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Strength is not a limiter in pushing say 300 watts for an hour. The forces involved are pretty minuscule, it's doing it over and over and over again that's hard.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for posting this. I'm the same way--only I suck at swimming too!! LOL. Thank God I can run! I'm going to review all of the responses b/c my goal this year is to get solid on the bike. It's my husband's year to train for IM so by the time I get to do it again the year after that, I'm gonna be able to ride! ;)
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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Spend a greater % of your time with efforts at threshold and above. Ride more miles (that is ~ a 65mpw average for the year I believe) and more consistency should go a long way to making you a faster cyclist.
fwiw I spent 5 years on the coast, the elevation ranged from 28ft to 55ft above sea level. With the proper types of riding, you can hang even over most hilly routes.

Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Last edited by: desert dude: Nov 11, 08 19:59
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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It sounds like you have the aerobic capacity from swimming and that your cycling limiter is either your power or muscle endurance in your leg muscles. So, I recommend training in lots of rolling hills. Basically this means you will be repeatedly stressing (up hill) then relaxing (downhill) your muscles forcing them to adapt. With your long ride each week, keep extending it by a bit each week adding in more hills. If you have a bike computer that shows total ascent try and build that up over the course of a few months. Avoid drafting of your buddies as well.

The other training I think will help is to do some steady state work on your wind trainer which is at a mid to high aerobic heart rate but quite relentless for an hour or so. I also like the Chris Carmichael DVDs, especially the time trial one.

Finally and importantly, as you are doing the above to increase your muscle power and endurance make sure you eat good recovery food very soon after your cycling workouts with a 4:1 carb protein ratio and get enough protein and fresh fruit and vegetables during the rest of the day. This will help your body repair and build up your muscles.

Body weight is quite a factor in cycling in hills and, in my opinion, in cycling in general.

Good luck.

P.S. Personally I don't think the gym helps at all with cycling - what has pushing a weight a few times got to do with cycling up a big long hill where you lift your whole bodyweight hundreds of times? I am not anti weights (I do weights twice a week mainly for injury prevention).
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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Haven't had time to read all - but here's what happened with me:

2007 my cycling was my strength. I was doing intervals on a trainer 1-2x a week with a group, and I was cycling better than I ran, breaking an hour at 40k.

2008 I sucked at cycling. 10 min slower over 112, getting passed left and right, and hating it. And I was getting in zero trainer time.

No strength/weights ever, either year. Some spring hill climbing both years, though.

But when I run track intervals I'm fast, and when I don't, I"m not. So I guess it's not all that different..

Good luck to you!
Last edited by: runlikeamother: Nov 11, 08 21:57
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [runlikeamother] [ In reply to ]
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Hey Rachel--what was your total bike volume (time and/or mileage) for the two years?

clm

clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [runlikeamother] [ In reply to ]
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Rachel is right, doing intervals will get you faster. Just like in running and swimming. I spent years just meandering on the bike, putting in over 100 miles a week, but until i started chasing fast guys around the island and doing meaningful and hard intervals on the trainer I was pretty slow. I did a lot of intervals training last winter and early spring and then not so much this summer and fall. I was a stronger biker in AZ than Kona.

There might be weights that will help, but your best bet is hard intervals on a trainer over the winter, then find hills in the spring.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [PirateGirl] [ In reply to ]
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In Reply To:
but until i started chasing fast guys around the island ...

Insert witty comment here :-)



"Here's how you run a marathon. Step 1: You start running. Step 2: There is no step 2." - Barney (How I Met Your Mother)
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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I too sucked at cycling as that was the one sport I had not done before I got started with triathlons. I also came to tri's later in life having started about 9 years ago in my mid 40's. I also came from a swimming background and had done a lot of running. What really helped for me was when I hired a coach with a strong cycling background. He watched me pedal both on a trainer and on the road and I was doing a lot of things wrong but had no idea. I was mashing pedals, pedaling on my toes, using wrong gears - I was a cycling disaster! He also taught me how to ride up hills and other tips. You wouldn't have to hire a coach but I would recommend having a really good cyclist watch and give you feedback on your technique. Since then I really focus on my pedaling and also do lots of intervals. While my times have not put me solidly in the MOP they have improved to the point I am no longer bringing up the rear.
I also do a lot of squats and lunges at the gym. I don't know if this helps the cycling, figure it can't hurt. More important I do the strength training because at age 51 I know it is good for me.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [trackie clm] [ In reply to ]
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I'll look that up when I get a chance in a bit for you.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [trackie clm] [ In reply to ]
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I'm at 3956 mi for this year so far, but I didn't log Jan/Feb, which were pretty bike specific.
Last year's total was 4942 miles.

So I'm officially 1k short - but I would say more like 400-500 short if you account for Jan/Feb and potentially Dec, if I ever feel better. I also only biked 112 in October this year, and have been allergic to my bike since that day.

So who knows, maybe it's a volume issue, but the trainer sure feels like it gives me results, and fast.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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Make sure you get on your trainer over the winter, unless you are somewhere there isn't winter (not sure what kind of water you are on) I actually get on my trainer once every 10 days or so even in good weather, because being able to do controlled, hard intervals without cars, potholes or stoplights is really helpful. Get out of the saddle on the trainer and climb in a big gear as well. The intervals will really help - many AGers just go "ride" too often. Make your easy rides easy, and hard rides/intervals HARD.

In terms of weight room, I am a believer that you need to be doing tons of miles to get to the point where adding weights will be more helpful than riding more, but I agree that particularly for us ladies it can be helpful to build up strength. I am a former rower so getting on the erg machine is good, squats, leg press, hamstring curls, leg extension, lunges - all the usual suspects.



"What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass for six hours a day. What are YOU on?" - Lance Armstrong
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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If someone has mentioned this yet I missed it:

How fast are you spinning on the hills? I'm not trying to say you should pump it over 100, but as cadence falls then force per pedal stroke increases and force becomes 'more' of a limiter. So if you're cranking it at 40rpm then yes you 'may' be to weak to climb hard.

Regardless, will weight training help you? Not as much as getting out on the bike. Ride HARD with an adequately high cadence and try to keep up with someone faster than you. I would bet that there's simply not enough intensity in your schedule.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [oceanswimmer] [ In reply to ]
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You answered your own question. You know what you need to do (jack up the intensity). Now you just need to do it.

You can either a) do a lot of Hill repeats (beyond your comfort level. NO lollygagging up the hill) or b) do intervals on your trainer. Having a power meter will greatly improve the quality of your trainer workouts. But if you dont' have one, no worries. You can still get a great workout on a traditional trainer.

If you don't know how to set up a plan, then hire a coach or find a friend who can set up a plan for you. Or perhaps there are training groups in your area that offer computrainer classes. These are really helpful for teaching you how to do intervals.

Basically, it comes down to this. You need to suffer on the bike to get better. These intervals will hurt. Your muscles will feel like they're going to explode. But you WILL get better.
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [OWEN_MEANY] [ In reply to ]
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If you don't want to get in the weight room, then you can get some strength work by pushing a hard gear going up hills. This works well for creating the burning sensation, too:-)
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Re: I suck at cycling. What muscles should I work to strengthen? [kathy.rakel] [ In reply to ]
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I'm in the same boat. I was gonna try something like mountain biking in the off season.
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