V-CLUB TRAINING CORNER
We’ve teamed up with Marilyn Trout, certified USA Cycling Elite Coach to answer V-Club members’ training questions. You can view her coach profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mountainpedalscoaching80903
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The article below is a reprint of our 10th question submitted by V-Club member Kyle Nylander. His training question that follows was answered by Peg Labiuk (nee Peggy Maass), a collegue of Marilyn Trout, and a certified NCCP level 3 coach with a career in international road and track racing. She is a World Championship medalist, World Record holder, U.S. Olympic Team member, former British national team coach and Kreb's Cycle co-founder (British Columbia, Canada).
Leg Endurance vs. Leg Strength
I was told that leg endurance rather than leg strength is more important to cycling. It was recommended to me to do the maximum amount of weight that I can handle for 25 reps to build leg endurance. Is this true? When I had a membership at the gym I did a lot of hamstring curls to develop leg endurance. I no longer have a membership so I've been doing endurance dumbbell lunges for 25 reps and calf raises. I bench 300 pounds and regularly leg press 1,000. Besides working these exercises on developing my calves, quads, and gluteus, I don't know what other exercises I can do at home to develop leg endurance.
I lead club rides and continually tell my riders, it's not leg strength that makes you faster, it's leg endurance. I give them an example that out of all the club members, although I'm probably one of the strongest, there are plenty of women in the club that can ride faster than me and are able to maintain a higher cadence for a longer period of time.
Kyle,
You question the importance of leg endurance vs. leg strength in the rides you do. It raises a few topics, but mostly in clarifying the definitions we use when talking about our sport. Therefore, I will need to describe the terms that I use in this answer.
The 30-60 mile rides you lead are primarily aerobic endurance rides. That's because of the long time required and the easier pace. Generally, aerobic is work time over two minutes long that is fuelled by oxygen exchange. Usually when we talk about cardio or aerobic workouts, we mean raising the heart rate by moving our bodies repetitiously, as in pedaling 90-100 revolutions per minute for any length of time. Anaerobic work is more intense efforts under two minutes long that are fuelled without oxygen but using muscle glycogen stores and are limited by the lactic acid produced. Strict definitions put any strength training in the anaerobic energy system category.
With that energy system clarification in mind, I would reframe your question as the importance of aerobic endurance vs. muscle strength. In cycling, the importance of endurance vs. strength is dependant on the event. For example, an explosive, short track event like the Match Sprint would use strength more than endurance. If your rides are aerobic endurance based, then that cardio energy system is more important to train than strength.
Just as it's important to assess the physiological requirements of your event, the next step is to evaluate the athletes' strengths and weaknesses in those areas. Obviously you are strong, since you replied that you had reached an impressive 1000 lbs in leg presses. In addition to your swimming, running, and martial arts workouts, you are one pretty fit guy, especially at age 58! You have now switched to some "endurance" strength reps in sets of 25. I'm not sure of how many sets you do, but the standard is 3 sets. Even "endurance" repetitions of 25 reps are anerobic efforts for those muscles. Usually, cyclists start strength training with "endurance" phase to prep the muscles for more weight. Then they'd move into the "strength" and "power" phases, reducing the reps while increasing the weight lifted and adding some speed to the power lifts. The gains made last a long time, and de-train more slowly than cardio training. However, in this case, cardio training is more important and is a weaker asset for you.
To improve, you could do more cardio endurance rides. Also, you can work on leg speed (cadence) to get faster. Basically, there are two ways to get faster:
- Spin faster. Spinning the same gear faster yields a faster speed, more distance covered in the same amount of time. (53x15 @ 90 rpm = 25.5 mph vs. @ 100 rpm = 28.4 mph
- Spin a larger gear ratio. Spinning a larger gear rollout, you'll cover more distance and go faster. (53x15 vs. 53x13 for example, both at 100 rpm is 28.4 mph vs. 32.7 mph.)
- Ideally, you do both - spin a harder gear faster. 53x15 @ 90 rpm = 25.5 mph vs. 53x13 @ 100 rpm = 32.7 mph. So I agree when you write that there are some faster women because they "are able to maintain a high cadence for a long period of time". They are likely pedaling a faster cadence than you.
Work on faster cadence first. Start by pedaling faster on downhills. Stay in the same gear on slight downhills and try to "keep up" the chain contact without coasting. Even short acceleration efforts of 20 seconds, what I call "spinouts", will improve your leg speed. Increase the number of spinouts you do on a ride (from 3 gradually to 10), then increase the distance. Start doing interval-like efforts with faster cadence. Soon you'll notice your average cadence on a ride will be faster. Then you can work on moving a harder gear at the faster cadence and keep up to those girls!
Peg
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