OK, it’s been a couple months since I did much riding. And for the past year I’ve ridden half of what I did the previous year. And the previous year was a fairly low point itself for mileage and effort because just a couple years earlier I had ridden a couple times a week with both kids in a trailer, in addition to weekly club rides. And those trailer rides really seemed to help my leg fitness even though it wasn’t hard riding per se. All the riding I do tends to fit into the natural flow of life and I get the kind of fitness I deserve. …Of course.
And a couple years before that I was commuting 4 miles each way daily to work. That was my best recent natural bike fitness. But towing the kids wasn’t too far behind that. In those years I was also riding, erranding and racing a recumbent — mostly a lowracer or a faired lowracer. That thing would weigh 60 lbs empty — and cruise at 30mph easily. It was a beast to get started and I hurt my hamstring-hip connector tendons a couple times. But prying that thing off the stop-light line and jamming it up to good rolling speed was a fine leg workout with big, big payoff and great grin-factor speed joy. –It was basically as fast as a car around here. I could often roll past the cruising line of traffic on our local highway since they inter-balk and cell-distract themselves down to 35mph quite often.
But since those years I’ve been gradually declining in leg fitness as I simply do less riding and with less effort.
I built up a 17-lb go-fast bike to stop the gap 2 years ago in terms of hanging with the dudes. It worked pretty good. But this year I didn’t do many group rides due to our scattered time up north.
When I ride up north it’s mostly to the store or the beach. Mellow. I need to keep including hilly days and club rides up there, too. Memo to self.
Nowadays I don’t even do my olde twice-weekly rides to the store and post office. I now have the USPS stop by the house. I hate standing in lines and pointless clerk hassles. (And you know they love to hassle me — hey, whattaya expect from dropping off 1000’s of parcels over the years and maybe $100K in cash? Service? Are ya nuts? No, pure cold resentment. Seems like, anyway. They do treat the local winos pretty good though. Story of my life around here. Winos beat weirdos anyday. I joke and I’m cheerful but they see through that facade and go straight for the bureaucratic jugular with me every time. Martha, too. Anyway, since I’ve started having the shipping picked up at the house I’ve had ZERO package balks. I’d get one every other trip to the counter. It’s a different postal office, too. At home we’re served by good folks honchoed by the local rural town to the east. Heading west is where we go by bike and that PO is uppity. )
So I did a little country ride today. It was warmish and sunny out. I put in about 25 miles, I guess. Man, I was baked for the last 5 or 10. Today I was good for a 15mph average. Ended up at 14. Maybe 12mph. 17 at the mid-point was making my eyes bulge out. It probably didn’t help that I was trying out some “bump dampening” 35mm tires. Heavy. 60psi. Nice on bumps. But slow.
So here’s my question. You were wondering when I’d ask it, weren’t you?
What’s the easiest way to keep strong legs? In the off season. When you’re riding less.
Heck, even XC skiing doesn’t really seem to buff up the legs much. My lungs are fine from it, but legs? Even ice skating hardly counts.
I don’t know the answer, but here’s what I’m going to try. You tell me if I’m on the right track, or if I should focus more one way or another.
I’ve been doing ab-crunches, pushups and chinups for the past year. I don’t do many but I’ve been doing them. I’m going to add knee-bends. But I’m thinking that plyos might even be better. So I’m going to add some of those, too, when it’s dry out. Will that be enough? In case it’s not, I’m prepared to advance to one-leg knee-bends. Otherwise, I’m about stumped.
How are weight squats for this mission? Ya know, I’ve heard weights poo-poo’ed for outdoor sports fitness — how maybe they’re good for the elites, or something. I’ve long heard the best way to stay fit for biking is to go biking. Well… What if you only have, like, 3 MINUTES for the legs? Hey, I know I should have more than that. And I often do get outside for some fun a few days each week — canoeing and such. But that’s not bike leg work. I’m talking about what’s the fastest, bestest way to keep your bike leg base. Something you can do quicklike in a few minutes a few times a week. Now I’m thinking that I shouldn’t neglect the weights. So: 20 knee-bends, 3 or 4 kinds of plyos (5-10 reps each) and 10 squats with 70 pounds. (A squat-thrust/burpee counts as a superplyo.)
To give a nod to the Primal Dude and Crossfit workouts I’ve been trying to build up to adding in a few run-sprints each week. They like doing the powerstuff and also the calisthenics with no rest between to get a burn going. So I’ll try to add that in to my general stuff, too.
I figure I can get it all in (plus my other basics) in, what, 20 minutes a day.
Should that really help me keep both my core and my legs from falling OTB so badly?
Heck, if it’s actually a really good idea, it might even help keep me in the mix.
This past year I did have a bit of a health issue that had me backing off a bit in general. The upside was that I ended up doing WAY more abs work than usual, so I probably didn’t decline there, despite the waistline shock of the past 2 months. But, WHOA, I SURE NOTICE IT in the biking department! I’m toast! Shot! Runnin’ on empty. Ol’ stick legs.
So, it’s time for a New Year’s resolution!
…I’m going to add LEGS into the daily calisthenic blast routine.
