How Robyn beat back pain and rode her fastest 10-Mile TT in 6 weeks
- Emma O'Toole
- Nov 16
- 7 min read
If your lower back tightens every time you ride in the aero position or out on longer rides, you’re not alone.
In this coaching breakdown, Emma O’Toole shares how one cyclist resolved recurring back pain, improved power, and found consistency again through a “capacity before complexity” approach, building the strength to hold the work before asking the body to do it.
Strength training for runners and cyclists over 30 is a game-changer for performance, resilience, and long-term health.
If you want the full breakdown, check out my Strength Training Over 30 Guides:
TRAINING BREAKDOWN
"Capacity before complexity. Build the body that can hold the work before you ask it to do the work."
By Emma O'Toole
Hello!
Today I’m taking you inside a real coaching journey with Robyn, a cyclist with a preference for time trials who came to me with three big goals (and one very stubborn problem):
1. Resolve persistent lower back pain that flared on longer rides and every time she got aggressive in the Time Trial position.
2. Ride her fastest 10-mile time trial of the season.
3. Become consistent, no more all-or-nothing training.
If you’ve ever felt like your back is the limiter (not your lungs or legs), or you have to keep restarting training after niggles, Robyn’s story will resonate with you. And while this is a cycling case study, the principles translate to you runners reading this too.
Robyn’s starting point:
Strong base fitness, decent threshold power, but back pain from ~mile 6 in the TT position.
She could train hard for 2-3 weeks, then needed to back off because her back tightened again. If she raced a Sunday TT, her training would be wiped out for the following week.
She was doing lots of “core” work: planks, sit-ups, crunches, but nothing seemed to help.
She’d not long spent £350 on a bike fit which gave her a bit of temporary relief, but the issue wasn’t Robyn’s setup, it was her body.
Her words on our first call:
“I just can’t stay in the TT position without my back blowing up.”
This is a classic presentation: capacity-demand mismatch. The position demanded more core (anything between her neck, elbow and knees) strength and hip stability than her body had available, especially whilst she was fatigued or going full gas.
Our first steps:
What that means is we started by looking at the athlete Robyn was at that moment in time: her strengths, her weaknesses, and her current capacity, and then we looked at where she wanted to go. From there, our job was to bridge the gap.
Complexity isn’t judged by how “fancy” sessions look on paper (or TrainingPeaks). it’s judged by how appropriately challenging it is for the runner and cyclist’s current capacity.
So with that in mind, we adjusted the sessions that aggravated Robyn’s back, those complex sessions that she didn’t have the capacity for. Indoor rides seemed doable due to the “lack of rocking” on Robyn’s turbo trainer. At the same time, we turned our attention to building the body to hold the TT position. Robyn started the 16-week BASE off-season strength programme for cyclists over 30, the same plan many of you are on.
Here’s what we changed in Robyn’s strength training (and why):
1) Anti-extension & anti-rotation trunk strength
Instead of endless long-legged planks (which accentuated the weakness in her lower back), we trained the trunk to resist movement in the shapes she needs on the bike.
Pallof press & holds.
Side plank variations with short, high-quality sets.
2) Hip hinge & posterior chain capacity
When cycling your hips are in a flexed state and this is even more aggressive in an aero position like on the TT bars; if your hips aren’t strong and stable, your lumbar spine will take the load, you’ll rock side to side on the bike and you’ll be seeping power and comfort! We built glute and hamstring strength so her hips could do their job.
Glute bridges > single-leg glute bridges.
3) Mid-back mobility, not more lower-back “stretching”
Robyn felt tight in her low back and kept stretching it, this helped provide a bit of immediate relief but no long-term success. So, we included thoracic mobility and hip mobility so support the entire back.
4) Strength training that respects her on-the-bike training
Strength sessions ebbed and flowed with her riding, the use of the RPE and reps in reserve score helped greatly here.
5) Full body training
Strength sessions go far beyond just training her legs, her third session in the week was a dedicated upper body and core day building endurance and strength in common injury hotspots for cyclists which of course the lower back notably is.
All of the above is curated into the BASE off-season strength training programme, three structured cycling-specific, 30-45 minute sessions per week, clear rep targets, tempos, and intensity targets all in sessions that you can do at home.
5 weeks in: The week that everything changed
One of the first wins wasn’t spectacular, it was actually pretty boring (in the best way). Robyn strung together six clean weeks without her lower back flaring up. This is the first time Robyn has achieved consistency like this since her lower back issues began… what this week has done for her confidence and enjoyment on the bike is second to none.
6 weeks in: a 10 mile TT PB
On a flat 10-mile course yesterday morning with great conditions, everything came together for Robyn. The fastest 10 she’s ever ridden taking 12 seconds off her time. More important than the number on the clock was how Robyn felt: strong, controlled, stable.
And she’s headed out on a steady 90 minute endurance ride this morning with no lower back pain. The best way to put this into perspective is to share what Robyn said to me last night:
“Yesterday, I didn’t even think about my back, I was just thinking about each mile and holding my power and cadence.”
That’s when you know your body is doing its job in the background and you’ve addressed the capacity-demand mismatch.
Why this worked (and why “more core” wasn’t the answer)
Cycling is predominantly isometric from the trunk up. Your job isn’t to “move more” there, it’s to resist movement to leak less power while your legs express that power. Planks and sit-ups don’t fail because they’re “bad exercises”; it’s just that on their own, they’re not enough to support the demands of cycling.
Robyn needed:
A stronger core under the definition of the core: the core = anything between your neck, elbow and knees.
Focused mobility work that went beyond stretching the lower back.
Progression that respected her fatigue from the bike and built tissue tolerance over weeks, not days.
A coach-brain approach: capacity before complexity.
Robyn is only 6 weeks into the plan and already seeing wonderful results, whilst that’s it for her TT season this year, I’m excited to see what the next 10 weeks will look like for her both performance wise on the bike, and also enjoyment wise.
“But my back hurts now. Should I still ride?”
Likely yes, but adjust and if it persists get it checked out by a healthcare professional. In the weeks where we were discovering Robyn’s capacity on the bike, we adjusted her sessions and made notes of aggravators. Robyn was also communicating to me what she had been doing with her physio… although now she doesn’t feel the need to have another appointment!
If your limiter on the bike is a lower back niggle or an inability to hold your position, “just ride more” will not fix it. And if you keep restarting because something flares every third week, you don’t have a motivation problem, you have a capacity, and by-consequence, consistency problem.
Robyn didn’t get lucky, she got systematic.
She followed a structured 16-week strength programme built for cyclists.
We matched her strength training to her bike training.
She got great at building the “boring” capacities that make fast riding feel… normal and pain free!
If Robyn’s story resonates, the exact plan she used is here:
(You can even get started for FREE with a 7-day free trial)
Three, 30-45 minute sessions per week, clear progressions, with easy to follow exercise videos. This can be done from the comfort of your own home or at the gym.
Runners! This is a very similar approach to what we saw with Pete, who resolved Plantar Fasciitis, ran 3 PBs, and set new mileage records- read that here.
Please reply to this email with the word: “BASE” and I’ll help you choose the right starting loads and how to pair sessions with your current schedule.
And if you’re dealing with a back that keeps shouting at you at mile 6 and are looking for consulting about your current training? Please reply “BACK” and tell me more about it and I’ll send you back some suggestions.
Training in more than one plane of motion, like the multiplane hip flexor stretch is important for runners and cyclists as our sports are largely one dimensional. I discussed this and gave several of my favourite exercises and progressions in my wonderful free community for runners and cyclists over 30, check that out here.
Have a great day!
Thank you!
Emma x
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Been doing these exercises in your programme since this email and my back is feeling much better on rides!