Newbie, mountainbiker, recovering from gastritis

[sarahk]

Hello nerds, time to introduce myself.

 

I'm Sarah, 32 years old, former student of Aplied Computer Sciene (can't get much nerdier), soon-to-be student of photography (not so nerdy, but more fun), located in Germany. I've been reading the blog for some time and decided to join because the lone wolf strategy does not really work. I'm a mountainbiker (enduro), recently found out I like road biking as well, fueld by a ovo-vegetarian diet.

 

My main goal is to build more strenght and stamia to become a better cyclist. It's no fun when you're out of breath before you are even on top of the mountain, and even less fun when your arms become tired half-way down. No strenght means no focus, no focus means crashes. The super big goal is to tackle the Big 5 Challenge next summer (http://www.big-5.at/?locale=en). My biggest problem is that I'm still recovering from gastritis which plagued me for the last 3 years. After trying pretty much everything that's not illegal I finally found help this spring in the form of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Nevertheless the illness messed up my eating habits, led to unhealthy weight loss and wrecked my fitness.

 

The data: weight: 57 kg (125 lb), height: 165 cm (5ft 4.96 in), age: 32 years, body fat (measured with a caliper): aprox. 18%. Let's say 20% because of user error. By the way, all those body fat seems to live in the belly area, at least it looks like this.

 

The plan (in order of importance): The beginner body weight workout twice a week (the 3rd workout is rehab gymnastics for my back pain). Cycling twice a week (mtb or road). In the food department: eat a serving of salad every day and prepare them ahead in batches. I'm back to university soon and won't have time to make something fresh every day. Watch my protein intake, according to my data from myfitnesspal it's too low. I eat cheese ocassionally, but don't consume other dairy product. Weight loss is optional, I just want to see that belly fat go.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Welcome to the rebellion. Sounds like you may be a scout in the making, they are the ones who focus on endurance training over long distances. That's smart to work on strength as well as endurance, it sounds like you have a really good plan, the only thing you need to do is stick with it and get your protein. 

[Kilyra]

Wow, sounds like you've been through a really rough time! It must have been so frustrating to deal with these health issues and feel like your favourite activities are slipping away a bit. 

 

Glad to hear you've found something that helps though and are jumping back into things, that's awesome! 

 

Welcome!

[sarahk]

That's smart to work on strength as well as endurance, it sounds like you have a really good plan, the only thing you need to do is stick with it and get your protein. 

 

I'm a bit confused how to alternate strength and endurance days. The beginner workout gave me sore legs, but cycling is workout for the legs, too. How can I avoid training the same muscles on consecutive days?

 

 

@Kilyra Yep, it sucked being constantly low in energy, so I enjoy going back to normal.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Hello Sarah, it's nice to see another cyclist around here.

It's difficult to balance strength training and cycling. What I've tried this year was to back off on the strength training during the season.

The other thing to keep in mind is that a real endurance session probably isn't going much beyond 70% and shouldn't be that hard on your legs.

I don't know much about enduro, is endurance a big factor?

Cyclists, especially mountain bikers, have a home with the Rangers too.

[sarahk]

Enduro is simply a new, fancy term for mountain biking . It requires really everything, endurance to get up the mountain and upper body and leg strength for the downhill part (I prefer that part). Regarding endurance training, I can't afford a proper road bike right now so I use my singlespeed and my guess is that my gear ratio is too big (44/16). Maybe I should swap my front gear for a smaller one?

[Sloth the Enduring]

I mountain bike in Midwestern America were there are no actual mountains, so endurance is a big factor here. My road bike is a single speed with a gear ratio that is too small.

Have you checked out bikejames.com ? He's a coach that specializes in strength training for mountain biking. He has some interesting stuff in his blog.

[sarahk]

It's rather flat were I live, some hills but no real mountains. I plan my workout with my next trip to the Austrian alps in mind (summer 2016). Didn't know that blog, will check it out.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

The soreness you get is called DOMS (Delayed onset Muscle soreness) and it gets better with time. Strength and endurance work different muscle fibers within the same muscle so you can alternate strength and endurance without hurting yourself. Working out again is the best way to deal with DOMS and make it go away.