bicycling and this program ???

[southwest-rider]

I know I know I know, endurance training and weight lifting are not recommended. Or at least that is how the saying goes. But I work with some pretty amazing athletes, one of them does ironman training and I must say the results are very impressive, she also does weight lifting because as she says "its important to include in your overall training"

So again I come to my biggest concern. I don't want to look like a bodybuilder, and I don't want to look like the last guy that won the NY city marathon, I am 5'9" at 170lbs with 20%bf. and really all I want is to enjoy what I do, ride a century (100mile ride) by the end of the year, and drop to 155lbs at around 10-12%bf. And everytime I mention something like this I get bashed with, you cant do both, or you will lose muscle and not fat and so on and so forth...

Frustrating, especially when I thought that if you feed your body the right way, then this should not really be a problem, after all, aerobic base training adapts your body to more efficiently burn fat, and weight training increases your overall strenth, and by proxy your muscle size.

I won't get as big as a body builder, but why would I lose muscle and look like, what do some people call it, skinny fat ???
Make no real sense, personally I think that if you look like that, you should really look at what you eat...

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, its just a bit frustrating is all. I will be lifting weights soon, I am wainting on the o.k. from my doc (slight injury that put me out for the last 8 months) and I already started riding 3xwk. slow and short for now, prob. 30-45min sessions at around 65-75%MHR, working my way to 5xwk at 1-1.5hr with a long ride of 2-3hr once a week, with intervals 2xwk. And like I said, I want to start NROL soon.

I would appreciate any and all comments, especially any tips you might have that will help me with this.

Sorry for the long post, and thanx for reading all this

[meverett172000]

Interesting rant. You and I are about the same size and I was alos interested in dropping weight. I got the NROL and lost 8 pounds in the 4-5 weeks. I also worked hard at improving my diet.

NROL has a great bunch of great programs and the fat loss workouts are excellent. If you follow the workout programs, I think you'll hit your weight goals faster and better than biking alone.

I also ride occasionally, so other benefits that I see to follow NROL are increased hip mobility and better core strength. Biking can be a little rough on the posture and weight lifting in the proper way can help.

[Pman]

As a fellow cyclist who also does NROL I will tell you my experiences. For one thing, you do not to ride 5 times a week to work up to a century, but that is another discussion.

If you want to focus that much time on riding, and who doesn't, then you weight training will have to work around your cycling. Doing squats one day and going for a hard ride the next day does not bode well for the legs. You need to make sure you can get some rest in for your legs at some point. You may have to only lift twice a week if that is what it takes to keep your riding up.

I was lifting 3 days a week and riding three days a week (mixed mileage on the rides) and that was a bit too much. I had to drop back to 2 days of lifting and three days of riding. Now mind you I am 50 years old so you may have different needs that I do.

Those are my thoughts.

[PowerManDL]

Originally Posted by southwest-rider

I know I know I know, endurance training and weight lifting are not recommended.

To be more correct, excessively high volumes of pure aerobic-endurance training performed concurrently with strength/power training leads to negative effects.

This by no means implies you can't or shouldn't combine the two. Most athletes in non-strength sports can, do, and should combine the two.

But I work with some pretty amazing athletes, one of them does ironman training and I must say the results are very impressive, she also does weight lifting because as she says "its important to include in your overall training"

She's quite correct.

So again I come to my biggest concern. I don't want to look like a bodybuilder, and I don't want to look like the last guy that won the NY city marathon, I am 5'9" at 170lbs with 20%bf. and really all I want is to enjoy what I do, ride a century (100mile ride) by the end of the year, and drop to 155lbs at around 10-12%bf. And everytime I mention something like this I get bashed with, you cant do both, or you will lose muscle and not fat and so on and so forth...

Professional cyclists would disagree, so I'd say you're ok.

Frustrating, especially when I thought that if you feed your body the right way, then this should not really be a problem, after all, aerobic base training adapts your body to more efficiently burn fat, and weight training increases your overall strenth, and by proxy your muscle size.

You're semi-right. The trick is to avoid training them concurrently, but rather to find some effective way of sequentially emphasizing one over the other over time.

Another issue to consider is eating enough to fuel performance vs. eating to lose fat. In my mind this would be the much larger issue. But even that can be worked around with proper planning.

Make no real sense, personally I think that if you look like that, you should really look at what you eat...

Again, mostly correct, yes.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant, its just a bit frustrating is all. I will be lifting weights soon, I am wainting on the o.k. from my doc (slight injury that put me out for the last 8 months) and I already started riding 3xwk. slow and short for now, prob. 30-45min sessions at around 65-75%MHR, working my way to 5xwk at 1-1.5hr with a long ride of 2-3hr once a week, with intervals 2xwk. And like I said, I want to start NROL soon.

I would appreciate any and all comments, especially any tips you might have that will help me with this.

Sorry for the long post, and thanx for reading all this

The only suggestion I can give is, as I said before, alternate your training blocks so that some emphasis is given to riding, and then some emphasis is given to lifting.

With that in mind you might find that a more specific weight training regimen would be a better fit.

[EricLikesLifting]

I thought this article fit in ok in this thread:

Five Resistance Training Myths in the Running World by Eric Cressey

[gibson57guy]

Originally Posted by EricLikesLifting

I thought this article fit in ok in this thread:

Five Resistance Training Myths in the Running World by Eric Cressey

That was a great article !! Thanks..

[southwest-rider]

Thanx for all the replies guys, its much appreciated
After much thinking and consideration, I came to the conclusion that right now its more important for me to get "into shape" That means dropping the weight and gaining some muscle mass. So like it was said in here, I think I will concentrate more on the weights, because well, added muscle can only help, plus its a great way to give your metabolism a boost. Of course, my diet will be changed, I am thinking of doing TNT again, I had some good results with it the first time I tried it.
As for cycling, I am now doing two spinning classes a week, which I am finding out are more demanding than anything I have ever done, with a nice long, mostly recreational ride on Sundays...
Overall, I am happy with it, and a few months down the road, I'll see where I am and do some more tweaks.
Hey Pman, if you happen to read this again, I am curious to hear what you meant about not needing to ride 5/wk to work up to a century ???
Thanx again guys for reading this, and if you have any more tips or comments please let me know,
Thank you all. Cheers

[Pman]

Basically your training for a century will depend on when you wish to target the ride. If you are targeting August for example you have more time to work with. I found training three or four rides a week to suffice. The key is to keep upping your mileage each week by about 10-15%. Your weekend ride will be the long ride where you try to put as much mileage is as you can. The other days are for shorter rides where you work on things like intervals, climbing, and just more base miles. You want to be able to ride about 60+ miles on your long ride day prior to attempting a century. This will also give you a bit more time to work in weight training.