Felt_Rider said:... I don't think I am up to the intensity of training that some of you more advanced riders are at because I am working on a beginner level conditioning. So I don't feel like I am overtraining at this point, but still progressive to me as I try to push a little harder each week on intervals.
I returned to the weight training this week, but with no cardio at all. I feel ready to start riding again, but I will return very lightly...
Consider this ... you may not be overtraining via the amount of cycling you've been doing. And you may not be overtraining via the amount of weight training you've been doing (which as I recall was considerable). However ... when combining the two you may quite easily be pushing yourself more than you realize. Intervals are very demanding and your body only has so much recouperative ability, especially when combined with the stresses of everyday life.
Provided you were bodybuilding right to the point that was optimum for your body's recouperative ability, which is where I would assume you were training as you "fight the good fight" as you put it, then adding the extra cycling/aerobic sessions on top of that may have pushed you over the limit. It doesn't take much. It just has to lie beyond that boundry.
Now if you cut back slightly on the weight training (I'd bet good money you didn't do that did you? 😉 ) and you added the cycling, then your body would have a better chance to adjust accordingly.
Although I don't know you personally, I do know bodybuilders and how many of them think. Been one myself. One word sums up most of their training habits. That word is obsessive.
For example, I know a guy named Charlie S. (Jeff is his brother) that used to work out a Coffee's back in the day. As of a couple years ago, even though he was in his late 30's he would do up to 40 sets per bodypart!! :eek: This guy has issues, man.
He used to quite literally make fun of my training regimen because I would use moderate weights and only do around 8 sets per bodypart, especially for muscle groups like biceps. This, according to him, was absurd and a waste of time. Of course he would juice up quite a bit too. All I had to do was tell him to get out the tape measure to shut him up. His arms finally got over 20" though but that was probably due more to the HGH/Test stack than his training methodology. 😉
My arms are around 19" but I only do 3 sets of each biceps and triceps once or twice a week. It's a pretty puny routine but I'm not shrinking any. And I no longer have any guilt about doing that few of sets. I could do more weight training but at this stage of the game my goal is to improve aerobic fitness.
Perhaps next winter I'll cut back on the cycling and do more lifting. It's hard to say, because at 44 I don't really think I'm going to be able to build anything up much regardless of how much or often I lift (naturally, of course). I can maintain pretty easily though. I know I won't be able to focus on both cycling and weights as one of them will suffer.
