Thoughts on Crosstraining

I can't help but laugh about the "stealth" training that alot of cyclists do in the off-season. Why many resort to such secretive training methods is beyond me. It's like when you show up in April and you're twisting crank arms and dropping everybody on the climbs that we're supposed to actually believe you did "nothing" over the winter. I guess it's analogous to the annoying kid in school who had to broadcast that he didn't study for the Chemistry exam and he somehow aced it. Come to find out, he was up all night cramming for it.

I suppose if you're a bike racer your desire to improve is there because let's face it, noone wants to be last. We all have different motivations. Some have yet to let go of misfortunes in their lives and hammering on the bike is their "outlet". The only problem with that is the internal stuff never really goes away. I know, because running used to be my personal "release". Not fishing for sympathy, buy I've had numerous not-so-great things happen in my life and my way of dealing with it was ramping my HR BEYOND the red zone. I was fueled by anger and I eventually learned that I was able to use my mind to push my body places it wasn't supposed to go. Not good. This manifested in injury upon injury to the point where I was relegated to swimming and yoga- activities that diametrically oppose running, or even cycling for that matter. Strangely, in swimming, alot of the times you try harder you actually go SLOWER. This was my lesson in patience. Yoga taught me two things- awareness and letting go. So needless to say, (but I'll say it anyway) I have a very different prospective than most riders out there. I probably "lost" 5 of my best physical years, but during that time I guess I can say I found myself.

Others are results-based riders. Hilljunkie touched on this perfectly here. Being a relative newbie to cycling, I definitely don't have any unrealistic performance expectations. Because to tell you the truth, I don't train to optimize performance. I basically ride to ride. I ride to be fit and I ride to slake my sense of adventure. I guess I'm what you call a rider who occasionally races. As Hilljunkie says, if a nice result comes my way, then even better. I'll never be on a training schedule because I don't want to sacrafice a potentially awesome riding experience (which is more than likely of dubious training value) because it's not what my coach has scheduled. Not to mention, the feeling of a nice result is as fleeting as the wind. I guess it ultimately comes down to what fills the ego.

Back to topic: Crosstraining. A lot of New England riders are faced with unpleasant winters- wind, snow, frigid temps or if you're lucky, all three. Most use x-country skiing as their weapon of choice for off-season training. There is no denying that x-country skiers are the most fit endurance athletes on the planet. Using just about every major muscle in the body, it puts a tremendous load on the cardiovascular system. I remember watching the Olympics in '94 at Lillehammer. I had such appreciation for the skiers, who, after crossing the line in a race would fold over into a pile of mucous and sweat. I mean, honestly, what other sport do you see that? Even in the 10000m in track, they're usually interviewing the victor within a minute.

I've only been out skiing once this year. This involved me going back and forth in the field behind work. Needless to say the scenery wasn't exactly titilating. It's a far cry from the winter of 2006 when my friends and I skied the backcountry in Yellowstone:

I can tell you one thing: the 7 hours of skiing we ended up doing that day produced a fatigue I've never know. If I remember correctly, I was having a helluva time staying awake at dinner. I suppose the only thing I have against skiing is that my technique is not allowing me to get a substantial workout benefit. Or maybe it's my equipment. Or maybe it's both. Maybe I'll have to get faster skis. Ah, I'll just save the funds to fuel my bike lust. I did hear of a place nearby that grooms for classical- about 13 miles worth. I'll have to check it out.

For obvious reasons, snowshoeing has been a good option for me this winter. I enjoy plodding through the woods with Emily and given it's not very efficient exercise, it can be a great workout. I also feel muscularly that walking with snowshoes in deep snow is very similar to the movement of pedaling a bicycle out of the saddle. The first couple times out my hip flexors were toast and my calves were sore a couple days after. You really can't ramp your HR walking but if that's what you're looking for, try running. It's unbelievably hard.

Speaking of hard, I personally think that erging (i.e. rowing) is the hardest exercise out there. I usually row 1-2x/wk. and just the other day I did a 6x500m set with a :45 recovery. I can tell you that my HR was well into the 190s on the last set. I've read that elite rowers are on a part with elite x-country skiers in terms of absolute maximal Oxygen consumption- to the tune of a staggering 7+ liters/min! If I could somehow consume O2 at that rate, it would equate to a VO2 max of 103 ml/kg/min! Because of the high body mass (relative to other endurance athletes) of an elite rower, this works out to VO2 maxes in the neighborhood of "only" 70-75 ml/kg/min. Skiing speed seems to be determined solely by size of the aerobic engine (i.e. VO2 max) and Lactate threshold values do not seem to be a limiting factor either. Rowing, like cycling, is based on power output and LT is in fact a determinant of success. The higher your LT with respect to max HR, the fitter you are. And on top of that, the more power you can put out at your LT, the faster you go. Obviously the musculature involved in cycling and rowing is quite different though it can be argued that the primary movers (i.e. extensors of the hip) are similar. I suppose if I skied with more intensity or raced I would undoubtedly increase my aerobic engine but rowing will have to fill the x-training void for now.