Last night the Lebo Master Cycling team put in another training session.  To say these things are fun would be a stretch. But then again I really do enjoy them.

The team is made up of a bunch of over 50 (in many cases over 60) guys that love cycling and competiton.  One member of the team is a professor at the university of Pittsburgh. He arranged for us to train one night a week at the UPMC sports complex on the southside of Pittsburgh.  This give us a place inside with enough space for the entire team to setup our trainers. 

This session our coach (a former pro cycling racer) added sprints to the program for the first time this year.  The routine is to setup your bike gearing, go as hard as you possibly can for 15 seconds and then rest and recover for two minutes. We repeat that at least four to six times in a row.  We first to a 15 to 20 minute warmup before the sprints.  The first sprint is not to bad.  But by the last one you are completely out of breath before you start.  Of course this is not all we do.  After a two minute rest at the end of the last sprint we start a climbing ladder exercise.  Three minutes standing, two resting, five minutes standing, two resting, seven minutes standing, two resting… . You get the idea. We finish the session by doing intervals for about 15 minutes. 

At times during the training you feel like you will never make it to the end.  But by ten minutes after the session you feel great and are ready to do it again, on other day of course.

 I can’t stress enough how much this type of training helps keep us old farts in shape and young, well feeling young at least.  You should try it.

Paul