As I’ve added strength training in with my aerobic training, I’ve become very interested in maximizing the potential gains strength training can provide. A week after surgery last December, I started lifting and doing whatever I could in the gym about five days a week. There was not much else I could do to keep sane, so strength training became my outlet. Once I was able to get back on the bike in the spring, I was pleasantly surprised with my fitness level from just gym sessions. I came back as strong as I had been each spring after a winter of skimo racing.

One of the few aerobic training sessions last winter

I came across Gym Jones a month or so ago from an article in Outside magazine. It’s not a new story but either I had missed it in 2008 or didn’t read it as I hadn’t yet learned the value of strength.

Too bad Salt Lake City is close but not quite close enough to train there on a regular basis. At some point, I hope to make it to SLC for a Gym Jones session. In the meantime, I hope my current strength sessions will help me to get back in race shape for skimo this winter.