My Endurance Training Goals and History
Over the course of this most recent lock down in the state of Minnesota I started taking my bike riding more seriously. It is a goal of mine to participate in the BC Bike Race, a 7 day mountain bike race across the British Columbia of Canada, within the next 5 years. I have been strength training consistently for six years, but I have not done cardiovascular training consistently since training for a marathon in 2017. So, what has getting back into cardiovascular training been like?
The last year and a half I was riding my mountain bike casually about twice a week, and over our first lockdown I started riding 3 or 4 days a week. I never went out and pushed myself, I was just out to have fun! However, over the course of the last few months, I purchased a stationary bike trainer. This has allowed me to have my fun rides on my mountain bike when I have time to pack up and go while fitting in workouts on the trainer over the course of the week.
My Experience Endurance Training
Boy oh boy are do my lungs have a hard time keeping up with hard workouts on the bike. I like to think that my legs are quite strong. Unfortunately for my workouts on the bike, my legs aren’t as good for sustained efforts. I have found that I am able to sit and ride casually for an hour or more, or I can push myself hard for about twenty minutes. My body is so good at working as hard as it can for a minute at a time lifting weights. I can get every muscle fiber in my legs fully fatigued in one minute, but struggle to make them stay strong for twenty minutes.
Are some people built to be better at strength training while others are good at cardiovascular training? Of course! As young as grade school we can start to see that. Some children are fast sprinters and others can just keep running forever. Some people, such as myself, are built to lift heavy weights. Other people are built to be marathon runners. That doesn’t mean that one can’t accomplish the other. I ran 20 miles during my marathon training program! We are not pigeonholed into one category of exercise by anyone but ourselves.
If you have an indoor trainer and want to ride together on Zwift, join our Titanium Performance Strava group, or start strength training please feel free to reach out!
Written by Timothy Jerabek