Just a quick update that I thought my fellow riders might find useful. I will try to keep it short, which will inevitably still be a butchering of the English language when compared to Fishrcutb8!
I'm not skinny fat anymore! How's that for getting to the point?
Throughout my life I have struggled in my pursuit of strength and fitness. I have always done reasonably well at the skill aspect of the sports I choose; soccer, indoor volleyball, ice hockey, basketball and mountain biking. My problem has always been strength and power and that ratio compared to my body weight.
The standard split routine never worked for me. Long hours, complex routines, lots of logging, slow progress and other excuses. The end result was no progress.
Well with kids, work and life, time was more and more precious. I was able to find a reasonable level of cycling fitness via riding, and usually only 30 to 60 miles per week. Still unable to fit a 45 to 90 minute strength routine into my life I discovered Crossfit. I mentioned it before and now I am back to tell you what it did for me.
First, lets skip the cult like atmosphere. I don't concern myself with it, and if you get hung up on it, you might miss some really valuable lessons that crossfit can offer you. One of the KEYs for me is workout duration. From warm up to workout completion you are usually barely sniffing 30 minutes. Some do go longer, but most dont. So I can actually say "honey, i'm going to go work out, i'll be done in 20 minutes". I was able to do a LOT more workouts with this philosophy as an option. Second is easy logging. The workouts are usually time based, so your can write down the movements, reps and rounds, log the time and your done. And that time, is a motivation the next time you attempt the same workout. Super Bonus! A few more things that I find made a profound impact on my cycling performance. I don't really know which one to put first, which means they are both critical. Power Cleans, full squat cleans, hang power cleans, any kind of cleans. Cleans develope power. Power is good on the bike (good in most any sport really), whether attacking a climb or bridging a gap. Strength is good, but it's well documented that by getting the athlete to move heavy weights quickly, that the clean is the glue that cements strength training to athletic performance. Crossfit introduces you to cleans. I do a LOT of them. Of equal importance is running. I'm not talking about long distance running, i'm talking about short distances at high intensity. Most of the runs are integrated into the workout. IE: 10 hang power cleans xxlbs, run 400 meters, 15 pushups; 3 rounds for time. They do also call for 5k's or my nemisis 4x800 with 2 minutes rest between efforts, these kill me.
At the end of the day I have made significant gains in strength, muscular endurance, ability to recover, pain threshold, core strength, lean muscle and fat loss.
I did not increase my riding and had significant bike layoffs last year for multiple reasons. Yet, I entered two TMBRA races hoping for top 5 finishes. I placed 3rd in both races. Maybe not a huge accomplishment to some, but 3rd place in the Texas State series on my single speed was a huge accomplishment for me. I also placed 4th in a 6hr mtb event, where I completed 8 laps in 6:30 minutes, for a total of 64miles. When I started crossfit I was cleaning 85lbs and looking mighty sloppy. Today was a heavy day for me (I do a hybrid now, crossfit and some more strength oriented stuff) and I cleaned 145x5x3. Climbs are easier, recovery on the bike is whole wordly different than before, the ability to continue through pain is a breeze compared to pre-crossfit methodoligies. I'm at the front of my Tuesday night group (yes, I still ride the dirt every tuesday night, going on 5 years) for the first time ever with NO increased bike time....maybe less.
I guess my point is this. You can make some gains, if you want to explore some of the attributes that crossfit brings to the table. Again, I can't emphasize enough how important the short workout durations, and easy logging continue to motivate you.
I probably have another 9 to 12 months to finally be where I want to be. I'm not in a huge hurry. Others may say there is a faster way, but this way has worked for me.
Peace,
Ryan
It's been a long time...
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