Why an article on strength training and cycling? Let me begin by
zooming out on the encumbrances of hyper-analyzing high-performance
sports in our modern era. Aside from bicycle racing, only Formula One
and America’s Cup Sailing come to mind, rivaling in their access to
performance analytics data. My view is biased, having been both a
competitive cyclist and worked with teams like Emirates Team New
Zealand and Lotus Racing in my professional career. Although my work
focused on branding, content creation, and consulting, I gained
unique insights into their infrastructure needs.
America’s Cup and
Formula One Racing each require massive computing power—so
much so that these teams must have strategies to monitor the
athletes, the automobiles, and the racing equipment. The data and
computing requirements are mind-bending as they cover physiological
data, telemetry analysis, aerodynamics, fuel consumption, wind speed,
sail and trim positions, hydrodynamics, weather, load sensors,
communications, and so much more.
Professional bicycle
racing is undoubtedly high-tech, though not to the extent of the
programs above. Modern cyclists, from local club riders to regional
racers, benefit from trickle-down technology. With a “one-click
payment” option on Amazon, remarkably similar power meters and
various gadgets utilized in the Grand Tour can arrive on your
doorstep. Each item seamlessly connects with our head units
(bicycling computers), where we can sense and monitor our pedaling
dynamics, power data, pulse oximeter data, HRV, temperature, speed,
averages, and much more.
So, we put our heads
into the data. We sign up for apps like Strava, Zwift, and
TrainingPeaks to help us analyze and measure our data from each ride.
We have access to countless coaches, forums, articles, and YouTube
videos that teach us how to optimize our programming based on our
unique physiological data over time to improve our performance and
enjoy our experience on the bicycle.
Why
Chase the Margins First?
Why is Formula 1,
Sailing, and World Tour Cycling relevant? Because it’s entertainment
doing what it’s supposed to do: they entertain and inspire us because
those arenas are entertainment businesses first, then sports. In
pursuing performance, we easily become distracted by the science,
cost, and time that these multi-million dollar enterprises throw off
while seeking millisecond gains. With that in mind, it leaves me
wondering why so many of us spend so much time and effort making a
simple thing so much more complex. Why not take a step back and
look at the fundamentals? Then, we can add what’s in the
margins if we are so inclined.
Now, what are the
fundamentals of our sport? Let’s ask ourselves how much power over
a given time is required to establish a breakaway, win a field
sprint, time trial to a solo victory, or beat our best buddies to the
city limit sign. What is it you wish to do, or that you enjoy most
from your time on the bicycle? Even club riders like to win city
limit sign sprints or chase Strava KOMs.
Cycling is often
regarded as an “endurance” sport, when actually the winning
part is almost always based on one, usually several, explosive
efforts. Strength training, as an integral part of our entire cycling
program, easily equates to an advantage totaling dozens of marginal
gains. With a personal passion for the sport of bicycling, we who
represent the sport are not usually strength athletes, and can
therefore benefit massively by improving our absolute strength before
we waste time chasing other nuanced marginal gains.
Many of us, myself
included, care too much about piles of miles and numbers that don’t
matter enough. When Mark trained me roughly 30 years ago, he
rearranged the furniture in my head to show how this works. We were
pretty cutting-edge in how he applied strength training to cycling.
Having tried numerous times in fits and starts to come back to the
sport, I’m not sure of any other path that has surpassed what I
learned in his gym so many years ago. Back then, we did not have a
supercomputer in our pocket connected to YouTube, Reddit, and all the
micro-blogs “freely” giving us distracting advice on
maximizing our performance. How much better are we today, really?
Don’t
sacrifice the X-factor at the altar of marginal gains
While we’re looking for
our marginal gains and spending thousands of dollars on carbon
wheels, power meters, and electronic shifters, there is a gain I do
not believe to be so… marginal. By simply increasing our absolute
strength, we outperform most of what we chase in pursuit of marginal
gain. Increasing one’s ability to push more weight under the bar is
the X-factor for those who want to be more explosive in their
sprints, attain higher top speeds, increase average speed, and be
less prone to injury – or, at the very least, make your club rides
more fun in the space between the breweries, which I absolutely
believe to be a critically important aspect of cycling.
Look, I get it. I love
the data, too. And I’m not likely to give that up. But I believe we
can enjoy cycling more and have a healthier outlook for ourselves,
those around us, and the sport by adding strength training to our
cycling agenda. Chasing those marginal gains alone is a long road,
often leading to analysis paralysis and burnout.
OK, here’s a nugget for
those still wanting to put their heads into the numbers. What’s your
current training strategy for increasing your FTP (Functional
Threshold Power)? I’d start with what a wise man once told me: “Cut
your mileage back, way back. Get under the bar and increase the
horsepower of your motor.” It’s not science fiction to believe
improving absolute strength may still today be the X-factor for one
who wishes to dramatically change their performance on the bicycle.
Here’s a little more
context on where I’m coming from with this.
Fast
But Not Strong Enough: Flashback to a Criterium in Dallas, circa 1990
It became so clear in
that moment, choking down the August air in Dallas, Texas, during the
hottest point of the day, that he was just… stronger than me. Not
only a better racer. But stronger.
A 90-minute criterium –
the Pepsi games – at Flagpole Hill – circa 1990: I’d bitten off
more than I could chew. Sometimes, you can get away with being a
lesser-skilled bicycle racer if you have the muscle to fall back on.
But I was young and cocky – I might have said something about his
receding hairline (you say things to piss off your opponent, or you
confuse them, or whatever it takes). But if you piss off the athlete
who is stronger than you, he might beat you. Chris Hipp was stronger
than me. If he is also tactically superior, you might as well drink a
bottle of radiator fluid because you just failed the class you
enrolled in.
The criterium went
counterclockwise. The start and finish zone were at the top of
Flagpole Hill. Flying down Lanshire Drive at 40 miles per hour, left
at Goforth Road, followed by a left hairpin onto Doran Circle to
scrub off any good speed we carried into the hill. In a 53×14 gear,
44 pedal revolutions are used to move your body and the bicycle to
the finish line.
We were away in a
group, the advantage was mine. A teammate even blocked him from the
outside line, forcing him to interrupt his line. All my training went
into my legs – digging to the depth of my available power when
halfway up the hill, he just blistered past me. To this day, I can
see it in 4k detail. Chris simply applied more pressure to his pedals
than I was able to. But it was controlled and fluid. He used his
bicycle and his bars as a lever. You could always see this “attitude”
in his Form. His movements were in sync, from his legs, core,
shoulders, arms, elbows out, and nose, pointing just above the top of
his front tire. Eyeballs up and out towards the finish line,
launching the bicycle forward in one continuous explosive action.
The secret was right
there on full display if we could just see it, yet we bicyclists try
to overcome it by adding piles of miles to the agenda. Chris Hipp’s
absolute strength was greater than mine relative to his body weight,
and sometimes it’s as simple as that.
Less
Strength = Less wins. A Pattern Emerges.
Losing was something I
took very hard. But at that time, a new kind of terror shredded
through me. If you can’t beat the local star ten years your senior,
how can you rationalize forward progression in your performance with
the same programming you’re doing today? On that day, I did not
think I could ever beat him – not even if my life depended on it.
Soon after this painful
defeat, we raced again. A pro race in Tyler, Texas, where I’d gotten
away in the road race and took second. And second, again, the next
day in the criterium. I’d only beaten Chris because I had made the
breaks, and he had not. Had he made them, he’d have won both of those
also. Second place was becoming too familiar a pattern.
After those races in
Tyler, Chris approached me, congratulated me on my losing both of
those races, and asked me to join his team, which I did. He taught me
every nuance of bicycle racing: the strategy, the techniques, and the
importance of never quitting. Of the many things I learned, there are
two quotes from him that sum up the reason for this essay in the
first place:
1. “Now, Ronan,
listen carefully because this is the straightforward order of things
in bicycle racing. It’s Form, then power, then speed,
then stamina, then strategy. In that order!”
2. “If you love it,
never ever, ever, ever ever quit.”
There are many stories to
tell, but since this is Mark Rippetoe’s website, let’s fast-forward a
couple of years…
MSU
Cycling Team and Meeting Rippetoe
Dr. Robert Clark and
his band were determined to create what would become the most winning
collegiate bicycle racing team on Earth. I met with Dr. Bob and the
MSU cycling board on a Saturday, and I was given an unforgettable
opportunity to become part of the collegiate cycling program. During
my early days at MSU I was still grappling with how to program my
training to improve my foundational strength. I told Dr. Clark about
a recent stay at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.
From all my work at the Springs, one person stood out to me. We’d had
a chance to attend a strength training clinic with Coach Harvey
Newton.
The pain inflicted on my body by Coach Newton revealed the weak
links. In listening to my body through the lens of first principles,
it was undeniable that a change in my muscle tissue was occurring.
You can feel the pain in the neglected places, enough to identify
crucial areas of weakness in the kinetic chain. This I believed to be
the edge I was looking for, but I’d only been exposed briefly to
strength training and, back in Texas, found myself looking for a
place to begin.
I remember this
conversation with Dr Clark vividly. I was part of this new team and
talked with him privately in his office. I had the availability of
every resource I needed from the town known for creating and
sustaining the largest mass start cycling event of its time – the
Hotter’n Hell Hundred, in Wichita Falls. While listening to my
“discovery” at the training center, Dr. Clark eased back in his
chair and said, “Sounds like you need to meet Rippetoe.”
To be continued. . .
