Weight training - useful or not?

[VeloVT]

eek! Just read through the old thread and it's amazing how protective people get of their opinions. (I'm sure I'm guilty of this on occasion too, of course).

I can't answer the specific question you ask.

I can say though, that I do find weight training to be helpful for both running and cycling. Many of the arguments AGAINST weight training in that thread could be plausibly made against including weights in training for endurance running, and yet in my experience it really helps my running, and I'm doing strictly distance running. I find that when I lift consistently, I can tackle fairly steep hills without breaking pace much -- that extra power is as important as aerobic fitness. Or perhaps more clearly, muscular power is as much of a limiting factor as aerobic fitness, at least for me when I'm trying to run up hills . (The lifting I do, when I do it, focuses on power rather than endurance, so few reps + heavy weights, but I haven't experimented with "explosive" lifts so I can't comment on that, although it makes intuitive sense to me).

I think the same applies to cycling. Of course this is a great oversimplification of "training metrics", and I'm not claiming a preponderance of scientific evidence backs this view (although I don't think there is a preponderance against it either). I'm just sharing my personal experience.

Good luck!

Oh just one more thing -- I would want to take an "explosive" program really slow at first, to make sure all of the supporting/stabilizing muscles were conditioned and up to the task before putting a lot of new kinds of forces on them.