I\’ve begun to mix it up now.

About five years ago, I began to do off-bike exercises to develop some strength in my core; arms; and upper body. I gleaned a number of exercises from various sources; and after some experimentation, I grouped them into arm; upper body; leg; lower body; and core exercises. It wasn\’t long before I further divided the exercises into arm A and upper body A; arm B and upper body B; and so on.

A few months ago I began to experiment with switching things around. They do say, don\’t keep the exact same routine all the time. It\’s supposed to help your body if you \”surprise\” it now and then. Thus I\’m starting to do arm A/upper body B, for example.

I try to do some sort of off-bike work six days a week. They aren\’t long sessions; and many of the exercises I do during only one session a week. That\’s why, for instance, it took several years for me to be able to perform the \”crank plank\” reasonably well. 

It\’s also a good idea to mix it up for your weekly ride schedule: don\’t always do a pace ride on Tuesday; and cadence drills on Wednesday, etc. But naturally sometimes a \”pace\” ride feels more like a \”force\” workout because I have to battle a headwind all the way back home.

For some time I haven\’t gotten into my max heart rate rage much. I\’m sure I need more work on it, though. It\’s far from fun; and I can\’t last long at it; but I might need to do a lot of it when Tour de Cure time comes. If I haven\’t done much of it, my body will get all mixed up and not know what to do!