So you have some fitness, but need to boost that to great fitness in four weeks or less? Read on…

Hey Levi, So I have a friend who is kind of a fitness phenom, she’s majoring in nutrition and is into all sorts of fitness exercises. Well, she decided that since we both have bikes that we ride to class that we should do a 42 mile bike ride. Now, I’m a somewhat fit guy and I was kind of wondering what kind of training I needed to do to get ready for this and would a month be to soon to participate? Thanks!!

This is a great question because so many things can happen. That also makes it hard to give you a clear answer, but here’s what might happen:

If the ride covers flat terrain and you can ride at a reasonable pace (i.e. you can converse normally without getting out of breath,) you’ll be fine. You just don’t want to push your limits speed-wise, because if you push too hard, even for 30 seconds, you could ruin the whole ride.

So go slow and steady and have fun. Because the next day you’ll be sore! See, reasonably fit people can usually push themselves pretty hard for a day, letting you get through the 42 miles. It’s just that you’ll be extremely sore the next day, whereas someone that does 40-50 mile rides every weekend will recover quicker.

On the other hand, if you’re talking 42 miles over mountain passes, you’re in for a world of hurt. But again, try to keep a good aerobic pace as much as possible, and stay hydrated!

I have some friends who were in a similar situation. They were generally in-shape, but they weren’t cyclists, and they did a 28-mile charity ride after very limited training. The good news is that they all completed it successfully. However, 42 miles will be tougher, and if it’s hilly, a lot tougher.

You can do it though, especially if you already do some riding to and from class. If it’s an organized ride they may have aid stations with food, water, medical staff, and a “sag wagon” to make sure you finish even if you can’t ride any longer.

What I would do is set-up a rough training plan for the next 4 weeks, working back from the event. Whatever you do, make sure the final week before the event has a decrease in training volume and/or intensity so that you are well rested.

So that gives you three weeks to train. Do at least one long ride each weekend, trying to work up to a solid 30 mile ride the weekend before the event. If you can do the 30 miler, you’ll be able to do the 42.

On the other days, just try to get out on the bike and ride further than usual. You don’t need a specific schedule or advanced training methods, but do listen to your body. If you are too sore to ride, don’t ride! (However, a 15 minute easy ride on flat ground is a great way to loosen up your legs if they get stiff and sore, so try to add this “active recovery” into your routine.)

So your first week might go something like this:

Monday - rest day
Tues - 8 mile ride
Weds - easy spin for 15 minutes
Thurs - 8 mile ride
Fri - easy spin for 15 minutes
Sat - 8 or 10 mile ride, a little faster than usual
Sun - 12 or 14 mile ride, nice and slow

Do what you can for three weeks, take it easy for a week, then ride the 42 miler.

If you had a little more riding under your belt, I’d recommend some interval training. Intervals are great because they get you in shape fast, and they’ll even increase your endurance. (Seriously, you could train for a century by doing intervals instead of endurance rides.) But intervals are tough, so take it easy if you’re not used to intense efforts.

Best of luck!

Who needs expensive equipment or a gym membership to get in shape? No one! You can get a kick-butt workout at home, in your bedroom!

And you can turn your bedroom into your very own home gym for less than $100. (That’s less than the cost of two months at most gyms!)

This special report from CoachLevi.com shows you how to setup a nice home gym that will fit into a small room, but allow you to perform a full body workout for maximum results.

Just enter your name and email below so I can send you the report:

Bonus: A list of exercises you can do in your new home gym is included!

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Do you have a collection of books sitting around collecting dust? If they’re encyclopedias or history books, sure, let them get dusty and yellow. But you need to keep turning the pages of your training and racing books to get the most benefit!

Here’s a page from my book reading strategy (pardon the pun.)

I usually get a book and read it once, straight through, right away (duh.) But I also take notes. Sometimes just mental notes, but it’s best to jot things down as you think of them.

My preferred method of note taking when reading books like this is to write out a list of important points along with page numbers, and then I can fold that up and keep it inside the book. That way I don’t lose it! Then, whenever I want to see something specific, I just scan my notes and get the page number.

You could also dog-ear pages, circle page numbers, underline or highlight important points, and/or write in the margins, but those methods just aren’t my cup of tea.

But even then, that’s not enough.

About once a year, it’s a good idea to reread all your books! It’s a lot of reading, but it’s very easy to forget stuff when you’re absorbing a 200+ page book! You get a good refresher on the material to reinforce what you know and remember, and maybe you even pick up a few things you missed the first time around.

I compare this to watching a movie a few times. Each time you’ll probably notice a new line or some subtle activities in the background, or at least understand all the foreshadowing.

But why?

Seriously, rereading your books is a good idea. Not only could you have forgotten important points, but each time you reread a book, you’re in a different state of mind or different place in your training or career. Things you didn’t give a hoot about before might make a world of difference a year later. Even if you don’t realize it, your mind will be looking to learn new things, so different parts of the book will stand out, and you could even have more ‘eureka’ moments!

Not to mention, you get your money’s worth this way!

How do you apply all this?

Here are a few examples from my library:

Lance Armstrong Performance Program
I review the 7-week plans once or twice a year to make sure I’m planning a proper training schedule, and when I do, I also scan through to see if there are any drills or types of intervals I have forgotten about.

It’s Not About The Bike
Great for inspiration. If I need to get motivated to perform my best and overcome obstacles (whether I’m coming back from an injury, facing a new challenge, or just being lazy,) I’ll read this.

Ned Overend’s Performance Mountain Biking
This is a great introduction to MTB racing for beginners, but I’ll still review it because I forget things sometimes. See, you won’t use all the advice in each race; some tips you might use once every five years. But then if you go five years without doing something or reading a “how to” do it, when that day finally comes, you will have forgotten it and you’ll get flustered!

Chi Running
Gotta keep skimming this all the time to keep improving my running form! (Chi Running book review.)

The Four Hour Workweek
This one gets you to think big and not settle for your current job or living conditions. There is so much inside you need to read it multiple times anyway! This is one I’d read anytime you get complacent and settled in (because you might be settling for less than you deserve, and this will get your head straight.)

Hey, I thought this was a cycling blog, not a self-help blog!

You got me there! Though sometimes your life and cycling overlap, and I always feel better after a ride, so the two do get intertwined!

But if you do want more advice on improving your life, being more productive, and making the most of everything, here are a few good reads:

The Four Hour Work Week Blog - Tim Ferriss

Personal Development for Smart People - Steve Pavlina

Awake at The Wheel - Jonathan Fields

Just make sure you stop back here when you’re looking for cycling, mountain biking, and sports nutrition advice!

Photo credit: austinevan

Now that you have seen Cyclo-Club and everything it has to offer, you might still have a few questions. One that I had to ask myself was “what is the better deal, the Cyclo-Core DVDs or the free video downloads in Cyclo-Club?”

On one hand you can order the DVDs and you get very nice DVDs shipped to you. The upfront cost is pretty high, but it’s a one-time fee.

On the other hand, you can join Cyclo-Club and access $150+ worth of videos and download them, all for under $10 a month.

So we have to weigh the pros and cons of each, and that’s what we’ll discuss today. Keep reading for my DVD vs Download comparison…

Cyclo-Core Workouts on DVD

Pros: If you get the DVDs, you’ll be laying out a lot more than $9.95, but it’s a one-time payment. Once you buy, you’ll get hard-copy DVDs that are yours to keep and use as you wish.

My favorite thing with the DVDs is that you can use them anywhere in your house, without hassle. You can play them straight on your plasma TV in the comfort of your living room, on a laptop or portable DVD player, or you can carry it to your friend’s house and do a group workout.

No matter where you play the DVD, it will provide a high-quality picture.

And of course, no downloads required!

Cons: The one-time payment is expensive. It could be in the $300 range depending on how many programs you buy. Then, once you buy them, you have to wait around while they get shipped to you.

Cyclo-Core Workout Downloads

Pros: First, the downloads are cheaper to start with. It’s just $9.95/month to get into Cyclo-Club where you can download $150+ worth of videos. (Or, if you get a platinum membership, it’s like $750+ worth of video downloads for a $199.95 annual rate.)

Second, they’re perfect if you have a video iPod! The downloads come in MP4 format at just the right resolution for your iPod. So you could carry your iPod with you, then take a break from your ride and get in a core workout along the beach, then go home. Just carry your iPod and it’s done.

So the portability is different, but it’s still there.

Cons: The quality, while pretty good at the 320×240 resolution, is not so good if you watch it full-screen at home. It’s not necessarily bad, as you can still see what is going on, but it’s not the same as DVD quality.

And you’re kind of limited to your computer or laptop though, as there’s no DVD to pop in your living room’s DVD player. (But you can hook your computer to your TV if you have the necessary cables and connections.)

Of course, the download time. You’ll want a high speed internet connection! (A 12 minute video, which would be one section of the workout, is like 72 MB; a full video is more like 200-300 MB.) So that takes a while.

Here’s a screenshot from me watching one of my downloads:

And here’s the actual screenshot from the 320×240 resolution:

Pretty good. But as mentioned, full-screen at 640×680 has a slight drop in quality.

Don’t Forget the Cyclo-Club Discount!

One more thing to consider… As a Cyclo-Club member, you get a 20% discount on any Cyclo-Core DVD purchase!

Yes, just look in the Cyclo-Core store that’s part of the Cyclo-Club members-only section. All the titles are 20% off.

My final verdict is…

The best value is to join Cyclo-Club as a platinum member. Then you get all the good Cyclo-Club stuff and you even get to download a lot of the programs for free. Then buy the DVDs if you really need to, at 20% off.

If you join as a regular member, you’ll be missing some downloads so you’ll have to buy some of the DVDs anyway.

I already have the DVDs so it’s hard to make just one unbiased recommendation, but if I didn’t have the DVDs, I think I’d be happy with the quality of the video downloads. Just weigh the pros and cons I mentioned and see what suits you.

Then…

Go to www.Cyclo-Club.com!

Getting back to my “Susquehanna Experiment” weight training program, it only took a couple practice sessions to realize that low-volume, high-intensity training programs can get pretty complicated. And it only took a couple reps to see how hard it is!

Here are my thoughts on some parts of the routine:

The 5/5 cadence. Lifting a weight for five seconds and then lowering it down for five seconds, all in the same breath, is just plain hard. There is nothing like a constant load on your muscles to show you how long 10 seconds can be!

Under normal circumstances, I have no problem breathing in for a count of 5 and then breathing out for a count of 5. But when that breath takes place while lifting a barbell, and is followed by another eight long breaths under load, it’s a lot harder to concentrate on your breath!

Counting. Normally I would just count my reps and be done with it. In this experiment, I had to keep track of my reps and my breath! That meant I was counting from one to five twice for each rep.

This is where a spotter comes in handy! Have a spotter count your reps for you while you focus on counting your breath. (Eventually I managed to count my reps and just go by feel for the 5/5 cadence, though.)

The weight. Figuring out what weight to use is tricky, too. Even though this is supposed to be intense, and you are only doing 8-10 reps of each exercise, the amount of weight you lift will be fairly low. Trust me, the constant load on your muscles from the slow cadence is more than enough intensity!

I actually did two test sessions just to figure out the proper weight to start with, and even then I wasn’t positive what was best.

Preparation. I don’t know if there’s anything that could have prepared me for this! I hadn’t been lifting a lot, but I hit the weights every so often since I have some light weights at home. I also did a lot of Cyclo-Core routines and lots of extra push-ups.

However, this “Super-Slow” type of lifting still destroyed me!

Soreness. You better believe I was sore! I decided that once every four days is probably all my body can handle, so I went with a Monday/Thursday schedule.

Number of Exercises. At first, when Tim Ferriss recommended doing only 4-7 exercises each time, I didn’t think I’d be getting my money’s worth at the gym, so to speak. But if you do it right, you’ll be too exhausted to do a seventh set of anything!

High Protein Diet. Even though I’m close to being a vegetarian, I enjoyed the high protein diet. Turkey sandwiches, protein smoothies, mmm mmm good!

Now go ahead and get started on your weight lifting routines!

(And remember, you will be able to see all the details at the official Susquehanna Experiment page.)