 Poster: A snowHead
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I'd echo what others have said. Cycling is a pretty solid form of excercise, especially for ski based fitness. I remember seeing a programme with Didier Cuche and he said throughout the summer months he cycles around his home in the Alps for at least 2 hours every day! (in conjunction with numerous other training excerices obviously).
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I train for several reasons. First and foremost I enjoy it and that's a basic requirement to be keen on anything. I train specifically for skiing because I race. And being fit and strong is essential in ski racing. Not only to get good results but to avoid getting injured.
But yes, just about any form of exercise is a million times better than doing nothing at all....
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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As primarily a cycling enthusiast that skis for a week or two a year, cycling keeps me perfectly fit for skiing, and although I am late 50's I am less tired at the end of the day than most without any of the aches and pains that beset infrequent skiers. I'm sure primoz knows much more about training for competition level sport than any of us, but the fact is competition level in any sport is a level above what any recreational participant gets up to, whether it is cycling or skiing.
And yes, I do sometimes carry around more weight than I should and yes, it is relatively easy on a bike and less damaging to knees etc than carrying weight running, but even so my legs deal with the forces involved skiing with no problems, and cardio is always fine. Upper body strength? Well, you can't have everything, can you ? 
From my experience, serious recreational cycling is perfect training for recreational skiing.
FTR, I cycle between 6-10K miles/year, did 100/day through the Pyrenees last April, but did train for that. I would recommend the Sufferfest videos (http://www.thesufferfest.com/), but would highlight that the name is very, very apposite. Do Not Blame Me for any pain encountered as a result.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Cycling isn't an exercise; it's just brilliant fun that happens to keep you a bit fitter
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This!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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As I said in an eariler post id agree with primoz and his views on training for ski racing but for the average skier who maybe skis for 6hours a day then cycling would be far more beneficial. To ski all day you need more stamina than explosive training alone can provide. And another point.... why as a recreational skier would you want to put all that strain on your joints by lifting heavy weights? How often does the average skier, ski full tilt that requires that kind of explosive power?
Personally I think id rather do less high impact training, save my joints and hopefully ski well into my old age.
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| tomb wrote: |
| I've gotten into road cycling this year... really can't think of a better suited aerobic activity to aid in ski fitness preparation.... especially when you incorporate a lot of hill climbs! |
Rowing is better, as it develops the upper body more, which is very useful for poling along. (And also useful for resisting queue-bargers!)
Cycling is very good, though, particularly if one incorporates short, intensive efforts into the regime to complement the general aerobic fitness.
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This is from my own experience as a keen cyclist and skier. I've been cycling for around 25 years, since I was 12 years old. An ex-racing cyclist, having competed for several years, I still have a decent set of leg muscles despite not having raced since I was 22 years old. I have continued to ride my bike over the years since I stopped racing. This makes a difference compared with your average not-overly-athletic person when it comes to a day of skiing. I no longer cycle much, if at all, through winter so through winter my fitness isn't anything special. So a full day of skiing is do-able for me but I will get tired by mid-afternoon and I do notice the burn of the lactic acid in my legs happening much quicker. However, when I'm doing a lot of cycling through summer and I am, therefore, much fitter if I spend some time skiing at the indoor slope at Chill Factore in Manchester I notice a massive difference in how much the fitness helps. I've bought myself a set of cycling training rollers recently so that I can do some cycling indoors before we go away in Feb, I know that this will make a difference to my fitness for skiing. To be fitter when skiing helps in a few aspects for me. My legs are less tired for longer in the day so come late afternoon I still feel ok. Less tired means less mistakes and reduces the chance of injuring yourself. My cycling shoes have carbon fibre soles so are stiff like a ski boot so some cycling before I go skiing helps my feet get used to the solid sole and don't ache for the first day or so of the holiday.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Cycling is my main exercise - I do 8-10 40min sessions each week to and from work. Each session is around 450 calories burned on my computer. My route involves some short sharp hills and because each session is quite short I can make them fairly intense. Recently had a medical for insurance and my resting heart rate is 46, blood pressure bang on normal, nurse was impressed by my lung capacity. I'm 43.
There are two main reasons why cycling is EXCELLENT general CV exercise (in contrast to the nonsense Snowman wrote) -
1. it is low impact so you can do a lot of volume without picking up injuries (compared to say running where I find even 4 sessions a week tends to leave me with shin/calf/achilles/IT band niggles)
2. you can fit it easily into your day by using it to get around.
Don't get me wrong, I do run and swim a bit to and they are great compliment to the cycling but I'd never be able to do the volume of exercise that I do alongside work and family commitments without cycling.
That said I completely agree with primoz that cycling is not great condition for ski racing. Ski racing is not primarily exercise for the CV system. And cycling only works a narrow set of the muscles needed. It does little for the core which must be key for ski racing at high levels.
Recreational skiing is just not that demanding though is it? Not if it's lift served and you have half-decent technique. Ski touring is a different matter and high volume CV exercise like cycling must be good preparation for that.
All in all, cycling is brilliant for building general fitness around a normal life but clearly isnt optimal sport specific training for high level skiing.
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