back in the weight room

I went to the weight room at the Geauga Y today for the first time in a couple of weeks. When I'm riding a lot, my legs are usually too tired to lift. For some reason, the same volume of skiing doesn't have that effect. If anything, it builds up my leg and core strength at the same time it pushes my cardio system to the max. Weird. Maybe I can apply aspects of the more explosive skating motion to my pedaling stroke.

I did a few sets of leg press, extensions, and curls, then did some core stuff. I started ramping up the weight I am using, especially on the leg press machine. I should easily surpass the weight I used last year. Hopefully the strength training will translate directly to power.


I'm working toward a couple tests I'll do early in February. Tackle the Tower is February 6th. That will give me a general feel for my power to weight ratio in a competitive situation. I'll use that as a springboard for threshold testing I'll do on the trainer. It's always interesting to see hours of preparation get boiled down to a single number. 

I feel pretty good about my preparation so far. But it looks like a big melt is on the way, so we might already be into the patchy part of the three week old ski season. If the ski season is already over, I'll probably be spending time on the trainer.