Most of us have pondered the possibility of going back to our teenage years with the knowledge that we have now. A couple days ago I was discussing with a fellow cyclist how turning back the clock just ten or fifteen years would allow me to make better use of what I’ve learned about riding my bike and how to take care of my body. Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed how my legs and upper body have changed, partly because of the loss of some muscle mass as I get older, but mostly due to the type of cycling and offseason training I practice each year.
I grew up playing baseball and football and ran track, constantly being in the weight room to develop muscles and maintain my sprinter’s legs. Later into my adulthood I played ice hockey and kept a similar workout routine, although much less intense without all the coaches around! I took up cycling seriously in college, mainly because it was better for my worn out knees, but also because it used the same leg muscle groups as skating.
My rides back then used to be fairly short, maybe only 10-15 miles, and as flat as I could find. I used to make a habit of finishing every ride with a flat-out sprint near home – oh, the need for speed! Any hills I encountered along my regular routes involved a slow-drag pedaling, thigh-burning survival exercise from which I would recover slowly as my ride continued. When we moved to the very hilly Schuylkill Valley, I complained for years about how I missed the gently graded farmland areas of Pennsylvania in which I had lived previously.
To illustrate my point about the nature of the Valley’s topography, there are FOUR different Ridge Pike/Roads within 14 miles of Royersford. Each one involves some nasty, steep climb of misery somewhere along its route! Unfortunately some of my favorite places to ride are either over or actually along the top of said “ridges”, and avoiding them all would leave my selection of routes around here very small and ultimately very boring.
I've always had a cycling body more like that of a sprinter, and I learned years ago that all that muscle was just added weight to drag up these hills. I no longer play league hockey, so needing the strength to fight off defenders isn’t an issue. As a result, weightlifting has become merely an alternative exercise when trapped indoors during the winter. However, I now use lower weight with higher repetitions, so as to not build muscle mass. That said, it still takes a tremendous amount of time to shed muscle naturally, and changing my riding style has had more of an effect in that regard.
My regular routes are now two or three times longer than they used to be, and I concentrate on spinning a consistent pedal stroke. I wouldn’t say I actively seek out hills, but they certainly can’t be avoided around here. I now attack slopes, getting out of the saddle more often and focusing on maintaining a comfortable tempo. I’ve never been big on the heart rate monitors and such, but I’ve learned to focus on my breathing and have a good idea of the pace I can maintain without “popping”. I find that even though I’m riding longer, I have an average speed as fast as or faster than before, mainly because I’m riding the hills at a quicker pace.
I know I’ll never have the sub-150 pound body of mountain goats like Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck, and at my height, I think I’d look rather sickly. Besides, it’s not like I have to tackle peaks like those in the Alps or Rockies around here in Royersford. I see myself more in the mold of what the Euros call a puncheur, one whose body type allows him to excel in rolling terrain with short steep climbs of about a mile or so. This would be ideal in the Schuylkill Valley and when facing the inclines around the nearby Perkiomen and Skippack Creeks.
Now if I could just hook up with a genie to get me back to 1990 (I’m not greedy) – with my cycling brain intact!
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