The Church of Strength Training

We all know how contentious relations are in the Middle East and in places around the world due to religious differences. People fight over land and differing beliefs, yet little seems to change.

In the world of bike racing, strength training is the religious war. When the weather gets cold, coaches, trainers, and athletes head inside and start to beat their keyboards (in place of their chests), sling insults, and proclaim how strength training is the prodigal son or a false saint.

I could leave you in suspense as to my position, but I won't. I sit right on the fence.

(I'm sure that was totally unsatisfying if you were expecting a tirade for or against strength training. But the reality is, it all depends. Yes, like most things in life, the issue is not black or white.)

First, the argument against strength training. For those of you who love strength training, you'll hate this part. For the scientists and data junkies, login to PubMed and get your search on.  (1) There is a lack of research showing definitively that strength training helps with cycling performance. It's easy to cherry-pick studies that show an improvement in VO2max, increased threshold, maximal power production, etc., but they are limited, have flaws in methodology, don't show significant differences, and/or haven't been reproduced. (2) The lack of specificity in most strength training means it doesn't translate to cycling performance well. (3) It takes energy to do weight training, and that is energy that could be used to do more specific training or to recover faster. (4) Cycling is an aerobic sport. That's it. An athlete's maximal strength has little to do with cycling success. Even at peak wattage, a cyclist is producing only about 50% of his/her peak force. Increasing this wattage further is a product of improvements in the person's energy systems, not muscular strength.

Next, the argument for strength training. (1) If you can't physically turn the pedals, you need to get stronger. And you probably have a hard time getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. I'm not sure you should be worrying about riding a bike in your condition. (2) You can't generate power if your core isn't strong enough to support/stabilize the force your legs produce. Well, actually, that's not very relevant since generating maximal force is not really required to perform well in a sport whose success is based on your cardiovascular performance. (3) Maximal force is correlated with standing start performance. So you're a kilo rider? Oh, you only ride road races. Did that 50m gap at the start line ever win you a race? (4) If you're injured, you can't train....

Wait, what was that? If you're injured you can't train? Since when!? Since I've been lying here with my herniated vertebral discs. Since I pulled a muscle in my neck. Since I tried lifting a box my wife made me move and I may have torn my biceps. Since I broke my hip after tripping over a toy on the floor.

OK, I've been a little harsh on the strength training. It really doesn't help your cycling. But it can help you maintain muscle balance and be a part of good abdominal and back health. It can be part of a general strength and stretching routine that helps you get through life without injuring yourself in daily activities—or carrying your track equipment between the car and infield. And it can be a good weight bearing activity to help ensure you develop and maintain good bone density (cycling alone is great for cardiovascular health but often leads to decreased bone density if its the sole activity for a person).

So where do I come down on strength training? I think it is a good off-season activity for cyclists because they need the strength and suppleness to get through everyday life so they can keep riding consistently. And for long-term bone health, cyclists need to do a weight bearing activity. But for cycling performance, ride smarter. That may be better form on the bike, more hours, less hours, more intensity, improving 1 minute power, ... whatever. But you'll find the time and energy you spend on the bike will pay off more than the time and energy you spend doing strength work ... just as long as you stay healthy enough to stay on the bike.

USA Cycling 2010 Officials of the Year

Old school officials' patch

The work of an official largely goes noticed except for the start and results at a bike race. I remember officiating much of SuperWeek working 12 hours/day in temps of 90+ with about 6 hours of sleep/night by the time we'd eat and be able to get back to where the officials stayed. Sure you can find people who work more, but the point is, the time and energy of officials is often taken for granted unless something isn't correct.

Not that there's anything wrong when a job well done means an event goes smoothly and event personnel become sidelights to the races. But it's good to give a shout out to officials who work long, hard days, do a great job and rarely get noticed. So check out the USA Cycling 2010 Officials of the Year. I know a few of these people, and they're great people as dedicated to the sport as any racer!

Pinning Race Numbers: A Commentary

How to pin on race numbers—it's a topic I love, some for the rhetoric of the argument, but also because I think it demonstrates a person's perspective on bike racing and their ability and/or willingness to see it from different perspectives. So a little commentary on the topic....

(The following addresses the #1 technique for quality number pinning, but for a more instructional and comprehensive coverage of the topic, check out the original Race numbers: Pinning and Placement.)


Bike racers want their numbers to lay flat and not flap in the wind. They think that crumpling their number helps this. Let me give you the secret: 8 pins. Not 4 pins (and absolutely not 4 pins using the provided holes—this is cycling, not sailing club), not even 6. You get a handful of pins at nearly every race. Save a few. Then don't be lazy, don't whine, use 8 and this entire official/racer argument goes away, save the lazy bike racer.

But of course, bike racers are (by definition, I believe) lazy. So we have a problem.

For officials, seeing the numbers on riders whizzing by 5 deep at 25+ mph is an exercise in futility. A single line at 30 mph is no better, but this is the job of the official. Some officials are lazy, too (former racers?), and don't actually try to read all the numbers every lap, so they don't care how numbers are pinned. These officials should be stoned—they are the ones that take a millennium to figure out results because they have no practice at picking out 10 places in order at the finish. But most officials do care and spend the entirety of a race trying to decipher the perspective-bending Dali-esque attachments racers manage to make with their numbers. For them, crumpled numbers are the emblem of their nearly-futile task, not the cause of it. Sure, the stickler quotes the rule book, but one of the jobs of an official is educating riders. Aside from the occasional power trip, it's just part of the job.

So we have lazy bike racers and officials who've found a scapegoat for the nearly impossible task of reading thousands of numbers during a day.

The reality is that the rule is stupid for three reasons. First, like all other riders, I pin on my number, warm up, go to the bathroom, sit down, load and unload my rear pockets multiple times, and perform numerous other actions that WILL crumple my number whether or not I did it intentionally.

Second, the Tyvek material used for numbers reflects sunlight pretty well if you get the right angle. A poorly crumpled number (intentionally or incidentally) will probably have a few surfaces that reflect light and reduce the visibility of the number. However, a pristine number can reflect light across its entire surface rendering it completely illegible.

This illustrates the third point that proper placement of the number is usually far more important than the surface smoothness for visibility of the number. Up on the back: bad. Down along the side of the jersey: good. Right side up? Yeah, I'm talking to you, genius—put your number on right side up. (Cat. 2 - Cat. 5 — I've seen them all do it this season.)

That all points to the fact that you need to learn how to put on a number like a pro. When you crumple the number, don't just wad it up and be done. You need to decimate it! So get comfy and start crumpling. And rolling. And flexing. Now repeat. Finally, find a nice edge and smooth it all out. Hey, don't rip it—that's way amateur. But when you're done, the thing should feel like silk and lay on your jersey like your head on a 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton pillowcase.

Once you take the pro approach the officials won't notice a thing but the high resolution outline of your number. Unless it's upside down. Or on your back. Or flapping like a sail from 4 pins poked through the 4 dummy holes.

So just use 8 pins, put it on your side, and get the race started already.

Testing is training

A number of riders I talk to are resistent to doing a fitness test. Maybe it's the name, "test," that gets them nervous. What else could we call it? Evaluation? Assessment? Masochism? OK, maybe that last one's not helping.

It seems some riders want to be in peak form before they do a fitness test. Get over it. Do the test already. It's probably better training than you do most of the time and the purpose is to assess your current fitness—not your ideal performance—in order to improve your training. It's not so you can tell your friends how much you bench (power is today's cycling equivalent of the meathead weightlifter talk).

So if you have a fear of doing a fitness test, do like I said: get over it and do the test already. If you think that disappointing numbers are going to ruin your future in cycling, you need a shrink not a training plan. So instead, use the data from the test to determine where you are now, how your current performance compares to a similar time last season, and what you can do to improve your performance for the future.

There are lots of fitness tests out there. If your coach prescribes one, follow those directions closely. If you're doing your own, just pick one and stick with it so you can compare your results over time. Two popular training books, The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel and Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Allen & Coggan each describe some assessments.

In short, use a fitness test to challenge yourself and plan your move forward. Save the psyching out for your competition at the races.