How to balance mid vol and weight training

Hello guys!

Thanks for an awesome podcast, which i listen to all the time - and i know its a topic which have been covered before - im somewhat in a different situation.

This winter im going to take up (red. already have a tiny bit though) weight training again.
Im going to attend mid vol - where I sometimes well take out the “recovery” ride on wednesday. I do all my training after dinner and my son is a sleep - so around 7.

I have the posibility to do weight training every morning before work - so my question is - which day would be best to do those workouts to the legs ect. Same day as I do my intense cyclings workouts, so the legs will have a break wednesday and friday? Or do them monday and wednesday - where theres no intense cycling indoor?

I have no idea which is best - so I hope you can guide me.

Thanks

This is Dylan Johnson on how to incorporate weight lifting into you training program.

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Hi there,

I’m approx 1 month ahead of you. I’m focusing on 6 key movements- upper body push, upper body pull, hinge, squat, and lunge movement, and plank. This correlated with coach chad’s 5 exercises, and info on British cycling website. The first two weeks I didn’t use any weights at all- all body weight. It is ‘too easy’ but it certainly allowed me to get used to the movement before loading up. Personally, I avoid single leg squats for now, I do the standard version. Far less doms the next day.

I do these on Sunday evening and Tuesday evening, having done cycling/tr workouts in the morning. I’m feeling a bit more robust already, and really enjoying the variety to my training.

Best of luck integrating it into your training, I’ve tried two years prior to this unsuccessfully. Easy loads and consistency first!

Cheers

Research seems to show that the best option is to do the hard cycling sessions and the strength training on the same day, with the cycling in the morning and lifting in the evening. My own experience has been similar.

Challenge is that if you can only cycle in the evening, I don’t think it’s a good idea to lift that morning as it’s going to compromise your cycling sessions (assuming cycling is your priority). So I would lift the morning after the hard cycling days i.e. Wednesday and Friday mornings. Not ideal as means you’ll have only one totally rest/recovery day each week (Monday) but does give you ~36 hours between lifting and the next hard ride.

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I’ve experimented with strength sessions on M/W following a mid volume plan. Can get very challenging once you get into the build phase. Mostly due to having only one true recovery day a week.

Lately I’ve been doing my strength sessions in the evenings on T/TR which allows me to really nail the cycling workouts. I do find however that the strength sessions are affected.

Thanks for all the feedback so far :slight_smile:

Cycling will have priority - so perhaps the best days for weighttraining is wednesdays and fridays mornings (i am only able to do weight training in the mornings) - and that’ll leave me fresh for the tuedays workout - which usually is the most intense, and give me around 36 hours recovery from wednesday morning to thursday night.

I will be starting base vol again in 4 weeks time - until then ill start the weight training so i dont get so sore, when i start the base plan again. I guess i will do weights 2 times a week until build, where i probably will do weights only once a week to maintain - if that gives any sense