I've always been a big fan of pushing my limits physically, and its been fun the last couple of years to really grow as an athlete again and focus on improving my fitness as much as I can. My cycling coach with DRT Consulting has really helped me with that. I have always been athletic and most "skills" have always come easily to me. I learned how to downhill ski after doing the bunny hill one time before heading to the big hills. Stuff like that. I had a few years of career training that I had to step away from serious athletic training, but I have enjoyed the last few years of finally getting settled with my anesthesia practice and being able to focus on cycling more.
While athletic, I always seem to have to put in a little more effort than some to keep my strength and fitness at the top level. Add on top of that, the need to rehab from some serious surgery the last few years, has had me working double time to be in top form. I have been very pleased to say my hard work is paying off by seeing improvements in my fitness levels. Let's face it, we all work really hard on the bike to be at the top level, but I am hoping some of my off bike routines will maybe give me a little extra edge come cross season. Besides, I am doing some extra things to get my surgery leg back to at least 50% by that time.
Darrell Carr (pictured above) is the mastermind behind the strength/ core workouts. He's a former D1 college wresting national champion and is very knowledgable about pushing the body to its best. On days that Don has me doing core workouts, I get some major workouts in from this guy. He looks so nice and sweet, but I really think he tries to kill me at times. I was introduced to D. from fellow rider and personal sponsor supporter Matt Johnson of Johnson Chiro. Darrell has his simple (but tough) workout rooms in an old embalming room of a revamped funeral home that is Matt's office. I always get a kick out of this. I tell D. that if I die during the workout at least the funeral facilities are kinda in place.
The cool thing about Darrel is that we do a lot of non-typical gym stuff. Most things we do never involve barbells and standard equipment. The majority is done with kettle bells, balance balls, TRX, and just plain old body stances. Just when you think you have something down pat where it's almost easy, D. switches it up to make it incredibly hard again. As you see above, we have moved on to doing squats on a balance ball after standard squats became easy. I was doing about 300-400 body squats a set, now the ball forces me to use my bad leg or fall on my face.
Here we are doing a little trx exercise. Having your legs suspended does a cool job of making a simple core exercise ten times harder. As you can see from the tan lines, I still do my time on the bike. D. and I do several exercises mixed in my workout that are seen in popular things like P90X and TRX. The difference is that he has picked the ones that improve cycling and cyclocross strength such as barriers, and dismounts, as well as focusing on things that get the hip flexors to get the pedal stroke more connected with the core. He also focuses on my personal weaknesses. Its easy revert to doing things in the gym that your good at, but having a personal coach doesn't let you do that. Weaknesses are the focus, not strengths, that way balance is achieved.
It's a real blessing to be able to have the help from experts around me like my cycling and core coaches. Some moments I don't like them very much because they put me in the hurt locker, but I really love it deep down since I have seen great improvement over the last year. I started at around 25-27% body fat a few years back and now I can say I'm down to around 10- 11%. Finally, a body fat level that is categorized in the "elite athlete" column! They give me the direction, but it still takes a personal work ethic to follow it to be a well rounded athlete.
Aside from that, my very least favorite thing is doing what you see above- ankle PT. Not sure why I dislike it so much, but I have so many thera-bands I'm gonna start a PT supply business. I think I need to start thinking of PT as "training" and maybe that will help. Has anyone ever liked PT?
I guess I better get used to it because having one side of my body be totally weak isn't well rounded. So I'm gonna stick to it and get better.
The French Lick Kenda Cup qualifier is on racing tap for the weekend. I'm curious to see how the turnout will be, its probably the biggest stakes mtb race Indiana has ever had, so that's pretty cool! I look forward to doing my best and seeing if some of this dedication can pay off some more. I'm looking to improve on my DRT XC race times from a few weeks ago, should be fun trying. The cool part is that Summit City Bicycles in Fort Wayne has been working hard to get some 29er race wheel in for me. I can't wait to try these hoops out, everyone keep your fingers crossed that the mail system is 100% on delivery to the shop this week.
This way, my bike will be well rounded also!
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