It all depends on your goals for cycling...

Are you racing? A weekend warrior trying to keep it from hurting all the time? Are you a beginner wanting to get faster? Are you riding for fun? For health reasons? Both?

First ask yourself what goals am I working toward and that will help you determine how you should plan your "training" or whatever.

FWIW... I dont care what anyone says.... The best way to get good at riding bikes is to ride your bike. Alot.

weight lifting, Crossfit, running, etc. are all great for total fitness and will help with cycling but if you want to be fast and fit on a bike you have to ride alot.


I would argue more importantly...

Diet is HUGE!!! If you're not eating well and healthy dont bother with the other stuff cause it wont matter. You cant do back to back to back sub-hour laps at Sherman eating McDonalds and drinking Coke all day. 

Eat clean, ride everyday, have fun...

I just want to have fun when I bike or hike. I've been on my doctors low carb diet for a couple of months now. When I told him about riding in the mountains and having to stop a lot to catch my breath. He told me the best way to conquer that would be to ride those hills more frequently. Since it's a bit far for an after work ride, I just wondered what others do. I was going to the gym and walking on the treadmill, but I was told by others. It was best to add weights

Good news is there are lots of ways to stay in shape!  I recommend finding an activity that you enjoy doing because consistency is key.  I don't know too many people that can go long periods of time doing stuff they hate.  I spend lots of time lifting weights as unproductive as it may be but I enjoy it and it does help some with biking.  I agree whole heartedly that diet is most important......80/20.  Secondly, there really is no substitute for turning the pedals.  If you want to go longer or get faster the quickest way is get on a bike.  One thing I have found that seems to help the most for cycling when not able to actually cycle is the stepper.

exercise and weight loss: 

Hookers and blow

Impaler 58 wrote on 05/30/17 at 8:36pm:



Ride RRT....ALOT. and fast

Depending on how "low carb" your docs diet is you may simply need more carbs during your rides. But if you're out of breath as opposed to failing muscles, it does seem to indicate you may need more endurance. However don't underestimate the altitude, its freaking hard to breathe up in Pisgah man! 

As far as exercising or crosstraining, I really enjoy CrossFit. It is expensive, and it can be offputting to some, but done correctly and at a reasonable level gives you fantastic overall fitness and strength foundation. 

On the other hand, if you keep busy with hobbies and general movement type stuff, it will also help to burn calories and keep the weight off. My grandfather worked hard in the garden and on the farm all his life, and had a good amount of muscle up until he passed.

The best thing I have ever done to increase my fitness and endurance on a bike is riding a trainer.

30-45 minutes of hard intervals twice a week did miracles for me. I not only had waaaay more power for the short punchy climbs but I could do more of those efforts more easily back to back to back without getting tired. The difference of doing this for only a month was night and day.

All it takes in 45min including a 5min warm and a cool down... Easy to do at home in the morning before work or when you get home.

I used a &^&^ty old magnetic trainer just cranked the Van Halen to 11...

I recently started F3.  Look up F3nation.com to find one near you.  Everything is completely free.  One thing I like about it is it is different every time because members take turns leading the 45 minute workout.  There are different types, boot camp, running, etc.  And the guys  aren't yelling at you to make you go harder, they encourage each other.  Also, modify as necessary.  I can't do everything some of the others do (yet), and I'm not the only one having to modify some of what we do.

I wish I didn't like beer so much. When I lived in Southeast Michigan, there were a variety of trails there. Hilly, technical, and even some flats
So when I didn't want to climb, I would go to this one place called Island Lake. Where they had a mostly flat 15 mile trail with only a couple climbs thrown in for good measure. I used to love to go there on occasion , and just put the hammer down. Unfortunately, there are no Trails like that here. Even easy Trails have a bunch of climbing. Never been to the RRT. I would think I would have to walk a lot of that. But if anyone has any casual rides they do at places like that, and don't mind waiting, clue me in

Impaler 58 wrote on 06/02/17 at 1:14pm:


Yeah thats a tough one...

Giving up food enjoyment for fitness enjoyment is a tricky balance. The good thing is you can always drink beer and eat crap after you get really fit. Once you're there its all about maintaining the fitness which is easier than increasing it. I drink barrels of craft beer and eat Bojangles at least once a week but I also ride 50+ miles a week on a mtn bike so its a good balance for me.

I hear it alot... "man I wish I was faster" or "Im so out of shape!" or whatever. 

At the end of the day you have to decide if you want to be fit and fast, or if your ok with being slow and out of shape. For many people the desire to eat cheeseburgers, drink beers with the boys, and sit around watching TV is more important than being good at bikes. 

Nothing wrong with that... You just gotta figure out your priorities.

Banjopickin wrote on 06/02/17 at 2:51pm:

even when I was considered fit, I was never fast. Something about being 6'3" and always being 200lbs+ I used to love to climb, now I dread it. There was a short period when I know I was drinking too much. But then I quit for a couple of months ,and now I only drink occasionally. I seem to crave that IPA taste, but one or two beers satisfies it . I like the new wave of juicy IPA's I can'r wait to try Highland's Hawaiian IPA. It's 8% abv. Thank god that session &^&^ is finally on the downturn

drinking beer is part of CX, not sure why no one else gives it a try!

And yet some of the best riders I know get drunk/high as hell all the time,  eat cheap ass Mexican food the night before races and stay up way too late. Not sure how they do it but they do. 

And here I don't do drugs and am not considered much of a partier. I've drank craft beer since it's first big inception in the early 90's. And even then it was after a bike ride that I led from a brewery. And I drank beer whenever I went to a concert. Another one of the things I like to do. I maybe do junk food maybe twice a month. I still like cycling, but not the long marathon sessions I once did. 5 - 10 miles is more my speed now. But when it comes to diet and working out, it always comes down to the beer. Different metabolism. And they tell me that the older I'm getting, my metabolism slows down, and beer is the casualty of my metabolism. So cutting down isn't helping much. What will I do after a ride in the mountains. Maybe go to the soda shop

I wish I would hit that Plateau where it seems I'm losing weight. It just doesn't seem to go down. Very frustrating😕

Impaler 58 wrote on 06/17/17 at 3:17pm:


How long is a 'marathon session'?

5-10 miles won't burn much off, regardless of age. 

Diet isn't nearly as important when you're just fueling your body, as in being a high level- professional athlete. You need to eat lots of everything. 

For the discussion at hand, diet is important as is riding a lot.

Impaler 58 wrote on 06/18/17 at 11:46am:


Get off the carbs.
No sugary drinks or sweet fruit juices. Water, tea and black coffee are the drinks for you. No bread, refined grains, etc.. No chips, french fries and other starches. Sorry, but pizza and Subway doesn't make the cut by a long shot (only eat the toppings). Neither does oatmeal, cereal or pasta. Or pancakes, waffles, donuts or biscuits. Or nutrition bars (fake news). Whole grain is better than refined grain, but it still doesn't make the cut. Don't eat it. 
Eat vegetables, meat, nuts, eggs, etc... Cheese and butter are cool. Limit fruit and especially candy. 
If it comes in a box, don't eat it. 

If it says low carb, don't eat it. If it comes from wheat flour, don't eat it. If it doesn't grow and come in its natural state or come from an animal source, don't eat it. If the government or TV says to eat it, don't eat it. Beer? Nope sorry. Nothing more than fermented carbs. If you must, limit yourself to one.
Don't eat breakfast (handful of nuts or a piece of fruit if you can't stand it). The first meal of the day should be a sensible lunch, the last should be dinner. 
Watch the weight magically fall off your body.

You want eat out all the time, cool. Same rules. Don't eat the bread and don't eat the fries or refined carbs. Everything else is fair game. There's a reason why cheap restaurants and the food industry wants to feed you this stuff.. It's cheap junk nutritionally speaking, lasts forever on a warehouse shelf and they get to stuff more money in their pockets from peddling it. I admit, eating it is better than starving to death. But that aint you. Most of it is subsidized by the government. It's a win win for them. Unfortunately, you and your body lose.

You can also consider 24 hour fasts. To do this, once or twice a week, eat dinner, then don't eat again until the next night at dinner (liquids are fine, buillon, coffee, tea, etc..). But this shouldn't be necessary unless you've got serious health problems related to diet. A few teaspoons of trail mix or peanut or almond butter should address any momentary weakness you might have. If you like pickles or cucumbers with dijon mustard eat them with zero guilt.

mountainbiker90 makes a decent point. Some extreme athletes need lots of calories for building muscle. Especially body builders, football players. You're not one of these guys. And they're not getting these calories from sugar or refined carbs. They get them from real food. What is real food? It grows and is in its natural state or comes from an animal. And isn't made in a factory, or a laboratory with an ingredient list that looks like something from chemistry class.

Calories are generally not the problem. The problem is hormonal. Insulin especially. It's known as the fat storing hormone. You're body doesn't know the difference between a piece of pizza, a banana, a glass of orange juice, a 6" sub, french fries or a snickers bar. Nope sorry, pizza is not a vegetable. Your body treats all refined carbs and sugar the same. And it stores these calories as fat. You wont burn them unless you're an Ethiopian running a marathon everyday or lifting weights like Arnold (and trust me, he didn't eat it either). 

It's actually worse than that. Carb rich processed foods especially have little nutritional value. Therefore, if they are the primary source of your diet, your body will still be hungry, causing you to eat even more of it storing it as fat and getting very little nutrition from it. It's your bodies way of saying, hey guy, I'm dying here and you're not feeding me anything but junk. And you keep doing it.

It's very simple. You want to lose weight and especially fat, limit the carbs and eat real food. 

Buy a scale and weigh yourself daily. Once you get to the weight you like and you get your body off the carbs and sugar, you can have a cheat day occasionally.

You can thank me later.   

Have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them for you.

If you can imagine anything worse for you than sugar, it would be the ingredients in diet soda!

It brings up the question about some liquor . Some are said to have zero carbs

Impaler 58 wrote on 06/19/17 at 6:54pm:


tequila/vodka are your best bet

Jon Snow wrote on 06/20/17 at 4:07am:


When I was 25 I didn't have to think about it either, Jon.

This isn't radical or cutting edge nutrition science. It's just works. 
And for reasons that are sometimes difficult to figure out beyond the cheap food/profit motives of large food agri-business, government quackery and big pharmacopoeia, why it's not be promoted or in many cases or even acknowledged by the powers that be. Except in regards to ignoring the problem and putting more people on medications to control blood sugar.

Doesn't take a lot of observation in this society, or many plane trips overseas to locations where the western diet isn't prominent to realize there is something seriously wrong with our diets. And nothing worse than riding with or watching somebody struggling with their weight and risking their health. Somebody that hasn't gotten the word on what works, and what doesn't...

Somebody else asked the question, I gave them the answer. Via personal experience and a great deal of research. It's not required for you to even pay attention or even respond if you don't think it's applicable to your own personal situation. One day you'll learn as well. Or you wont. Your choice.
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I remember when I did Atkins, I was 70 lbs lighter then I am now
Stayed that way for a long time. I started gaining after some surgeries and long periods of inactivity. I had always thought jumping on the bike again would get me back in shape. But it didn't work like it once did