Cross Training

After three or more hours in the saddle, there are muscles that are more tired than I'd like them to be. These are the muscles that tire independent of power output; the ones that you use to hold yourself up on the bike. In my case, it's generally the part of my back between my shoulders, my lower back and the back of my neck. Because riding intensity doesn't make these muscles any stronger, there are really only two ways to condition them.

The most obvious is to simply go on frequent long rides, increasing the duration each time. This is more time consuming than I can allow for right now because due to other commitments Saturday is the only day I can devote entirely to riding.

The other way is to fatigue those muscles with some other activity, the basic principal behind cross training. You can build them up without the long hours of ache and pain if you do something that uses them as the primary muscle group.

So today, I did just that.

For the first time in my life, I tried the rowing machine at my school's gym and after 25 minutes my upper back felt like I had been on the bike for 3 or 4 hours. Ironically, the main thing that stopped me from going longer was that my butt was uncomfortable. That's a pretty tough thing to do to a cyclist.

Then, to work my lower back I did 2 sets of 12 (2x12) back extensions followed by what I have found to be the most effective way to work all your abdominal muscles; crunches on a stability ball. For some reason the stability ball really lets you hit every muscle along the front of your stomach, where as you need two types of crunches and leg raises to do the same thing on the floor.

I didn't want to overdue it and be sore for longer than tomorrow, so that was the extent of the workout. By the end of it, my back and shoulders felt fatigued in the same way that four hours on the saddle makes them feel.

This is perfect for me, I can work my way up to a one hour session on the rowing machine, follow it up with back extensions and a light core workout and really strengthen my back without all the saddle time. Not only does it save me time, but the gym is free where as wearing out parts on my bike costs money.

Still, I will continue doing progressively longer rides on Saturday and a fun ride with friends on Sunday. If I have time, I'll get in hill repeats on Thursdays and any shorter rides I can on Tuesdays and Fridays.

The idea is to build my aerobic base with the long ride and increase my power output with the hill repeats and interval training. At the same time, I take Mondays and Wednesdays almost completely off with the exception of my normal commute to school. This should allow enough recovery time during the week to prevent over training, something many cyclists do.