What is the cycling regimine of a top guy?

There's more than just cycling and lifting weights. There's diet, rest and recovery, on bike/track time, testing, etc. There's a lot that goes into being a pro rider.

10

Maybe 12

Cycling like how many days they take it and how many they don't ? ha ha sorry couldn't resist.

djc wrote:

I have tried to ask this before with no luck but want d to know what kind of mileage pro riders are doing per week and what type of work outs? Is it all power meter zone based or heart rate based?

I find it hard to believe cycling and just weight lifitnijg is good enough to get you ready for a pro season. I feel the bike is great for overall endurance but maybe not so much for all out effort

Cycling is excellent for low impact cardio...and as far as all out effort, I think it was two years ago JB51 did a cyclocross race....his heart rate was avg 187 or so for an hour. Also the top GNCC riders...Russell, Duvall, etc average over 180BPM for three hours. Most of those guys bicycle or use a spin bike to work their cardio.

Just as a guess their workouts are heart rate zone based...as in they'd have a target in mind to maintain for X amount of time. Some though, just go out and smash pedals till they're spent....

Although I know this is a big range but I'd guess top moto guys are doing rides of between 20-40 miles...they are NOT doing 100 milers on the regular. For them it's all about staying in specific zones/heart rate levels for "x" period of time (minutes) rather than having to go bang out "x" number of miles. My guess is they are doing somewhere around 100-130 miles per week.

What I don't really get is say running Cardio or bike riding is differint then dirt bike cardio. I would put dirt bike riding more along the lines of wrestling cardio or something that is full body intense workout. Like say you get on a spin bike and do 45 min with a hr of 175 just to make up a number. I still feel you can gas out in five minutes or less going at at the same hr on a dirt bike

The top guys average about 150-200 miles a week on the bike in the off season. 75-100 in season. Some of the cycling is TT style (Time Trial) for 35 minutes. Some of it is 40 milers at zone 2 and zone 3 pace and some days they are 20-30 mile recovery rides.

Not sure how much cycling current pro's do, but I do follow Wardy and the O;Show on Strava. They ride often together and consistently put in between 20-25 miles on their MTB. I seem them on there 4-5 times a week. They ride mostly MTB, but when they ride road bikes they usually do around 50 miles.

drive out to the middle of nowhere. park the truck, get on the bike to take the picture for instagram then get back in the truck and stop at the nearest chipolte on the way home.

es337 wrote:

drive out to the middle of nowhere. park the truck, get on the bike to take the picture for instagram then get back in the truck and stop at the nearest chipolte on the way home.

Or ride a few hundred yards for the video. I know a few guys who cycle a few hundred a week and they have the freakiest looking skinny varicose veins looking calves ever. It's very noticeable.

This is what a Tour de France riders legs look like after a stage in the mountains.....

swimming is actually best for cardio. cycling puts a strain on your back and it doesnt engage the body the same as riding a dirt bike. aside from that many guys i assume to upwards of 30-50 miles with varying pace

Racer111 wrote:

The top guys average about 150-200 miles a week on the bike in the off season. 75-100 in season. Some of the cycling is TT style (Time Trial) for 35 minutes. Some of it is 40 milers at zone 2 and zone 3 pace and some days they are 20-30 mile recovery rides.

This sounds horrible just in terms of how long it would take to go on these rides. This is one of my biggest issues with bike riding is when you go on a longer ride it can turn into a tortue session when you just want to get home.

Phillip_Lamb wrote:

swimming is actually best for cardio. cycling puts a strain on your back and it doesnt engage the body the same as riding a dirt bike. aside from that many guys i assume to upwards of 30-50 miles with varying pace

Yeah this would name more sense.

Depends on what your trying to build. If your starting from scratch you have to build a base which takes low heart rate (135-150) for about 2 hours 3-4 tines a week. Once you have your base you can begin experimenting with what you need, first would be building up endurance (hr 140-145) for 3 hours would be great to start with 2 times a week, add in a day or two of intervals where you do that same 3 hour ride 145 hr but adding in 30-50 minutes of short sprints that last 3-5 minutes at a time reaching 175 heart rate then returning to 140-145 hr for 3-5 minutes then repeating 4-5 times, if you get gassed drop back down and finish ride at 120-130 hr, this builds your heart strength. The goal is to eventually get strong enough to hit your max hr during intervals (when at peak recovery and strength) whuch should be based on age 185-195. Some people get to this point the smart way by building a huge base before building strength which can be done if your able to do a peddle each week that’s really really long, my brother was the king of 100 mike bike rides which built huge base but in my opinion can burn you out if you force it. It’s a very tedious line, you have to be on top of everything if you want even half of what these top guys have fitness wise because you can tear your body down if you don’t do it right. And remember these guys have done this cycle of training for years, that compounds in on itself after so much time so stay at it and those months of tiny improvements will pay off after a long time. Also always try to keep doing something new on the bike or in the gym, your body can quickly adapt if your train the same way and you top out, the only way to continue increases is to move on to something new, even if it’s picking up some soup cans and strengthing those shoulder muscles focusing on technique.

Are there any that dont cycle? are their any that just run or something else?

djc wrote:

I have tried to ask this before with no luck but want d to know what kind of mileage pro riders are doing per week and what type of work outs? Is it all power meter zone based or heart rate based?

I find it hard to believe cycling and just weight lifitnijg is good enough to get you ready for a pro season. I feel the bike is great for overall endurance but maybe not so much for all out effort

Heart rate work. No point doing power meter style work since cycling isnt their 1st sport

Get the Strava app. You can see what a lot of the pros do on there.

I normally do 50km rides 4 days a week. I will throw in 30 min interval rides climbing as well. I’m no pro though!

Like Jeff said, it's really easy to over do it on the bike. And the pros have been building for years, don't fool yourself to thinking you could just jump on a program and see any benefits. But bikes are lots of fun and addicting just like beer, sometimes it's hard to say no.

How do these guys keep from ruining(rooning for those from Manitoba) their neck?

I dont have a heart rate monitor but back when I rode bicycle my routine was to ride almost every day for just 45 minutes in sprint mode to really get my heart beating. After awhile my neck KILLED me to the point I could hardly stand to drive my pickup down a bumpy road.

There must be some counter excercises to correct this?

Sandberm wrote:

How do these guys keep from ruining(rooning for those from Manitoba) their neck?

I dont have a heart rate monitor but back when I rode bicycle my routine was to ride almost every day for just 45 minutes in sprint mode to really get my heart beating. After awhile my neck KILLED me to the point I could hardly stand to drive my pickup down a bumpy road.

There must be some counter excercises to correct this?

Yes ride mtn bike instead of those bent over race bikes

Sandberm wrote:

How do these guys keep from ruining(rooning for those from Manitoba) their neck?

I dont have a heart rate monitor but back when I rode bicycle my routine was to ride almost every day for just 45 minutes in sprint mode to really get my heart beating. After awhile my neck KILLED me to the point I could hardly stand to drive my pickup down a bumpy road.

There must be some counter excercises to correct this?

You probably had a poor fit, bad technique & bad preparation.

I could ride my TT bike for over 2 hours at 23 mph with no major issues during my 70.3 Ironman races. Lot of mates who went on to race 140.6 would stay aero on bike for 5 hours & run close to 3 hours for the marathon after.

If your serious about training & racing you work things out.

Cycling i prob best option for SX pro's, swimming as someone else said is much more complex to train properly & my guess is most MX guys wont have a decent enough technique to use it.

500guy wrote:

Cycling like how many days they take it and how many they don't ? ha ha sorry couldn't resist.

Once they start having a “period” it’s 3 weeks on and 1 week off!

Jeff alessi wrote:

Depends on what your trying to build. If your starting from scratch you have to build a base which takes low heart rate (135-150) for about 2 hours 3-4 tines a week. Once you have your base you can begin experimenting with what you need, first would be building up endurance (hr 140-145) for 3 hours would be great to start with 2 times a week, add in a day or two of intervals where you do that same 3 hour ride 145 hr but adding in 30-50 minutes of short sprints that last 3-5 minutes at a time reaching 175 heart rate then returning to 140-145 hr for 3-5 minutes then repeating 4-5 times, if you get gassed drop back down and finish ride at 120-130 hr, this builds your heart strength. The goal is to eventually get strong enough to hit your max hr during intervals (when at peak recovery and strength) whuch should be based on age 185-195. Some people get to this point the smart way by building a huge base before building strength which can be done if your able to do a peddle each week that’s really really long, my brother was the king of 100 mike bike rides which built huge base but in my opinion can burn you out if you force it. It’s a very tedious line, you have to be on top of everything if you want even half of what these top guys have fitness wise because you can tear your body down if you don’t do it right. And remember these guys have done this cycle of training for years, that compounds in on itself after so much time so stay at it and those months of tiny improvements will pay off after a long time. Also always try to keep doing something new on the bike or in the gym, your body can quickly adapt if your train the same way and you top out, the only way to continue increases is to move on to something new, even if it’s picking up some soup cans and strengthing those shoulder muscles focusing on technique.

So it’s mostly heart rate based?

Phillip_Lamb wrote:

swimming is actually best for cardio. cycling puts a strain on your back and it doesnt engage the body the same as riding a dirt bike. aside from that many guys i assume to upwards of 30-50 miles with varying pace

Dumbest! post! Ever!!

You obviously know NOTHING about fitness. So much idiocy in that post it’s laughable.

Aldon said in an interview he has his guys do a minimum of an hour every morning. Low intensity since the high intensity is done on the bike

One of the top guys does a lot of his “around town commuting” on his beach cruiser. I wonder, do t hose miles count?