winter training - what to do?

TheGreatGatsby

its starting to get colde now and darker for longer and earlier with frsh snow falling on the mountains pretty much every day so I guess that winter must be here or really close! Coming out of a summer - 6 months - of riding varied terrain and distances I was thinking about what the best thing to do in winter was with regards to training?

I'm hopefully going to be going to Australia in the new year for a year or so and will hopefully be racing again over there so would like to keep up (or get some!) fitness for the summer. Is it just a case fo doing more, longer low intensity miles throughout the winter months or should it be more specific than that? I am also planning on taking a 2 week break from riding - other than for leisure - when I'm on my road trip will this help in the lng run or put me back a couple of weeks in terms of fitness and training?

Any pointers on winter riding would be appreciated!#

Gats

SteveR_100Milers

Depends on what your targets are for next year...?

Alex_Simmons/RST

Get down to Oz as soon as you can. Winter is road racing season here - it's too hot in the summer. Depending on where you end up - there may not actually be a winter.

2 weeks off won't kill you but try to do some other form of aerobic exercise - something that's fun. Then get back into bike aerobic work on the trainer with a focus on solid endurance through to sub time trial pace riding all through the winter.

SteveR_100Milers

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Get down to Oz as soon as you can. Winter is road racing season here - it's too hot in the summer. Depending on where you end up - there may not actually be a winter.

2 weeks off won't kill you but try to do some other form of aerobic exercise - something that's fun. Then get back into bike aerobic work on the trainer with a focus on solid endurance through to sub time trial pace riding all through the winter.

Can you do this without a power meter??!
sorry I just had to say it... :oops:

TheGreatGatsby

targets for next year are to race again. train well to be race fit. and generally ride my bike in a different country as much as possible whilst having a bloody good time doing so. Result are of neglible importance to be honest but if I do well then groovy if not then I got a good work out! Is that a cr@p agenda for getting back into competitive racing? Not saying I wont tak eit seriously cos thats not in my nature but to actually enjoy racing and riding in a competitive/social way. I'd like to get back to how was I was when I was racong here but without the bad part!

Won't be getting to Oz until jan at the earliest I think and then we're probably going to be in melbourne.I have to admit I'm a little concerne about having two weeks off the bike for a road trip but I am concentrating on the fact that the recovery period after a hard summer will pay its dividends. I am planning on commuting to wherever I end up working once back in the uk and then on weekends doing long mid intenstity (50-100 milers@18+mph) club runs aswell as riding for myself - cambs to london, london to bath etc. - just to get up my endurance. Towards the end I guess I'll start on the old HIIT for the races.

does that sounds about right?

gats

Alex_Simmons/RST

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Get down to Oz as soon as you can. Winter is road racing season here - it's too hot in the summer. Depending on where you end up - there may not actually be a winter.

2 weeks off won't kill you but try to do some other form of aerobic exercise - something that's fun. Then get back into bike aerobic work on the trainer with a focus on solid endurance through to sub time trial pace riding all through the winter.

Can you do this without a power meter??!
sorry I just had to say it... :oops:

Of course you can - I never mentioned power in my post. As long as one understands the benefits you miss out on when you do use power meter.

popette

sorry to digress but I just wondered if you knew how accurate the power readings on turbo trainers (imagic) are.
I had a ridiculous power reading and just wanted to check.

Ric_Stern/RST

popette wrote:

sorry to digress but I just wondered if you knew how accurate the power readings on turbo trainers (imagic) are.
I had a ridiculous power reading and just wanted to check.

I've not used the I-Magic. However, i've used (own) the Grand Excel, other Tacx models and they all vary significantly against known standards (calibrated SRM and Power Tap). They vary both as different models, and between different units of the same model (even after 'calibrating' them), i.e., I've used two Grand Excels and they each varied by different %. Most (all?) trainers are like this.

I don't know what a ridiculous power is, or how good you are. But you can make some ball-park check to ascertain *roughly* how accurate (or not) the unit is.

Ric

SteveR_100Milers

Ric, have you got a simple approximation to calculate power output for a given size rider on a flat surface for a given speed? Be it a table or a formula. Rough and ready is fine.

Ric_Stern/RST

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

Ric, have you got a simple approximation to calculate power output for a given size rider on a flat surface for a given speed? Be it a table or a formula. Rough and ready is fine.

www.analyticcycling.com is the best calculator, and is very accurate. However, rubbish in = rubbish out. In other words, if you're not certain of the exact inputs you can end up with rubbish results.

ric

ut_och_cykla

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm
seems to work ok too.

Ric_Stern/RST

ut_och_cykla wrote:

http://www.kreuzotter.de/english/espeed.htm
seems to work ok too.

i don't find it very accurate (it makes too many assumptions)

ric

cervelorider

popette wrote:

sorry to digress but I just wondered if you knew how accurate the power readings on turbo trainers (imagic) are.
I had a ridiculous power reading and just wanted to check.

Even though the readings are not accurate, as long as the tyre pressure and calibration are carried out before each session, you should get re-usable power outputs for your training sessions.