Racer X Virtual Trainer

Hello,
I've been following alot of the articles on the Virtual Traininer site and I must say that they are top notch. I am actually a quad racer, but almost all of it translates and the type of resources that you guys provide I cannot find anywhere else. Thank you. I have now been working with a personal trainer for three months on a program that as I read alot of the articles from VT, the workouts and training schedules are very similar.

I'm reaching out to you though to get some more info about the cardio portion of my training. We are at just under two months to season and I'm looking to examine my cardio training. In reading different articles, they discuss targeting your weaknesses, whether its strength, endurance, cardio, etc. I find that I fatigue very quickly, not just lung capacity, but also general strenght, the bike begins to control me instead of me controlling the bike. Hopefully all the strength training I have been doing will assist in that.

My cardio up to this point has been all interval training. Elliptical, exercise bike, and treadmill work where we are going at a very high elevated pace for 30 to 60 seconds, then a lowered pace for the same interval and back repeating for 20 minutes or so.

In years past, my training consisted more distance/long session cardio routines. Now with this new concentration and assistance from a trainer, I'm wondering if I've maximized my cardio training. I asked the trainer yesterday if my cardio routine should change now that we're under two months to season. He did not seem to be to versed in an answer and said that my lifting routines would change as we transitioned over to more cardio strength training workouts involving more complex body movement excises incorporating more muscle groups and more plyometric work. Which is fine, but I'm concerned about general cardio. Should I be picking up my durations on my workouts, running more distances ( I know that distance running can really wreck muscle tissue as your body feasts to get energy), longer cycling periods, longer elliptical sessions, etc? I guess I feel that to get in shape I should be doing long distance running and cycling and I wonder if that is just an old idea or not. Any insight you could provide would be immensely appreciated.

The goal now is more tailored to reaching that peak physical conditioning. The strength portion is in place, I have already shed 30 pounds from the weight I ran the last couple of years ( did not put this much effort in past years). So I'm less concerned about weight loss now, as the high intensity cardio strength training should continue to burn large amounts of calories. Also, I have limited access to being able to road bike and also I have no access to a rowing machine.

I look forward to any advice that can be provided.


# 28
NEATV-MX
30+ Expert

Well, it seems that the low intensity portion of your training has been left out. There is definitely a need to base train, so read these articles for some insight.

Why Go Low?
Periodization in Strength Training
Off-Season Training Analysis

One thing that you said that concerns me a little is

Max strength training will only address this problem indirectly. Hopefully your trainer will start transitioning to a period of endurance strength training. This article addresses a lot of the questions you are asking. Pay particular attention to phases of strength training that are talked about in the article (Anatomical Adaptation, Muscular Transition, Maximum Strength, and Power Endurance).

_________________
Tim Crytser
Your Virtual Trainer
www.racerxVT.com