Notes from Will Peveler Seminar at NKU

Notes from Will Pevelers November 30th Seminar:
There is no ‘off-season’, it’s just a change in training. It’s important to keep your aerobic base and add in the strength training.
The concurrent training is not detrimental and in fact the strength training should be looked at as a valuable supplement to your training.
A properly designed strength training program can increase your time to exhaustion by 11-20%. This is the result of improvement in economy due to neuromuscular adaptation. Your type I muscles, motor unit recruitment and eccentric muscle cycle will all increase with strength training. If this doesn’t get you in the gym I’m not sure what will!
For all of those worried about adding weight, your body composition will over a 6-12 week program will actually stay the same or change very little. You will not become an incredible Hulk or Schwarzenegger spending 60 to 90 minutes per week in the gym.
Another benefit of a strength program is decrease in the likelihood of injury. This would be the result of correcting muscle imbalances (think about strengthening tight hamstrings that could lead to back injuries that are so common with cyclists), increasing joint stability (cyclists work in one plane, the saggital—time to work the frontal and transverse also), improved biomechanics (think of stability around your knees that allow better power to the pedals without knee problems or a strong core that allows you to really hammer out of the saddle), and increased bone density (cycling doesn’t provide much in the way of impact to our bones, and hitting the pavement doesn’t count).
Options on time in the gym:
Weight training: lunges, squats, pushups, etc; proper form is critical; the variety of exercises need not be extensive but there are hundreds of options; I prefer big weights and low reps but there is some debate on this vs high reps and low weights; I also prefer free weights to machines in that you have to work on stability and core constantly with free weights
Plyometrics: only do after a solid period of strength training and know how to do these leaping and bounding exercise properly; they are great for explosive power
Body management: really honing in on the type of body you need for your event and the exercises that will improve your performance; maintaining this form year-round is critical
This training can be done two to three days per week during the winter but be sure to work it in with your cycling so that you still have off days. In other words, don’t do intervals on Tuesday and Thursday and then strength training on Wednesday and Friday followed by the group rides on Saturday and Sunday. Consider doing your strength work later in the day after your intervals or plan an off day between hard days on the bike and in the gym. Also learn to ride really easy some days. So many cyclists just can’t handle the 100 watt ride. A recovery ride should be just that.
During the season you must keep up with the core work. Keep doing core exercise two days per week even if just for 15-20 minutes each day. I’d also recommend keeping the upper body work on the schedule and some limited leg work depending on your training and racing schedule.