Endurance miles in winter

ugo.santalucia

funkydisciple wrote:

Dudes/dudettes,

Hope you are all well wonderful people.

Is there a way to build up endurance miles during the winter period without being on the bike? I feel like this is a stupid question but if you don’t ask you won’t konw. I have joined the gym, they have a Wattbike which is really cool, but stationary bikes I find really boring. I feel like I can only do 10mins before moving on to a different part of the gym.

What workouts are you doing (off the bike) to maintain your fitness so that your are in great shape for the new year and Ready for the sportives and club rides?

Thanks everyone.

For cardio fitness you can run, swim... anything really.

If you are after watts, then you need to use the same muscles in the same way, so there is no alternative to cycling. What's wrong with cycling outdoors when it's not subzero?

jgsi

YOU should being doing club rides each and every Sunday all year.
I'm excused because I cant stand the tw ats in my club, f ookin cyclists.

sloppyschleckonds

JGSI wrote:

YOU should being doing club rides each and every Sunday all year.
I'm excused because I cant stand the tw ats in my club, f ookin cyclists.

They speak highly of you though

Ben6899

Ericshun wrote:

JGSI wrote:

Whilst I agree, just try and convince the 'Zwift' generation of the plainly obvious benefit of keeping on the road during a UK winter.
'They' are racking up immense winter mileages,

Yep, I hear that a lot. It's just funny watching them, when they enter their first event around about spring time.

Are you gents suggesting that turbo training doesn't contribute to cycling fitness? My turbo mileage goes up over winter and in Spring I'm generally at my fittest... it could, of course, be a coincidence.

jgsi

No such thing as 'turbo mileage' well not in my book, but I'm old and I'm sure as you are young you are correct, so you have won that argument.








(keep kidding yourself)

pblakeney

Vino'sGhost wrote:

ive decided cross training and base or whatever i feel like until feb is the way ahead for me. That way i start getting good in May which coincides with the start of the good weather.

For the past couple of years my winter goal has simply been to maintain form.
Makes for a much more pleasant spring.
I can understand pros tapering off after a hard season, but recreational cyclists?

Ben6899

JGSI wrote:

No such thing as 'turbo mileage' well not in my book, but I'm old and I'm sure as you are young you are correct, so you have won that argument.








(keep kidding yourself)

I'm not actually that young. And I wasn't aware it was an argument. This conversation is weird.

(very happy to refer to it as "time spent on the turbo")

jgsi

I know, its weird. I actually paid for a month of Sufferfest. I couldnt face a Sunday in the wet and cold as well as Monday to Friday.
30 minutes has me wanting to throw laptop into the sink.

pblakeney

I had a few reminders today as to one reason why people take it easy in the winter. High power and/or speed does not go well with ice. No offs, but a few slippy reminders. I made the mistake of starting off fine and heading up to the high roads. :oops:
Doesn't affect the turbo though, which is what I would have used if it was obviously icy.

giantcannon

I bought a turbo a few weeks back and am already upto 1 hour a night. Back it up with a 40 mile, windy, 2000ft climbing ride round Hampshire today.

cougie

Another weekend with much stronger wind than the forecast said. Oh and with more rain. And with a lot of suicidal woodland creatures. Do squirrels really get depressed near Christmas ?

Great to be out though.

cycleclinic

I rode Saturday and Sunday. No drama in East Anglia. Riding into a headwind is sort of fun.

joe_totale-2

Rode in the incessant headwind and rain yesterday. This kind of stuff is character building, right?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

My regular 2/3 weekly rides of 2+ hours Apr-Oct seem a lifetime ago at the moment, think I've managed one outdoor 2hrs+ plus one indoor/outdoor 1hr+ since November! :oops:

Turbo sessions have typically been a 20-50min workout, a mix of steady climbs and rolling routes, it's probably going to be a shock when I do my next 30+ mile ride!

fenix

Rain and wind and mechanicals for me this weekend. Still good to get out though. I'll be flying come the summer ! ;-)

keef66

Only managed 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon. The wind was indeed character building. Guess when it rained?

But on a positive note it was the kind of weather the Alpha jacket was designed for, and it was indeed perfect

bvduck

Perhaps a counter-question (David from The Sufferfest here). Why do you want to do endurance miles anyway? Here's some thinking about why you shouldn't do 'base' training in winter. Written by the same team that just coached Rohan Dennis to the world time trial championship: https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/trainin ... d-athletes

cycleclinic

Why do I do endurance miles because I would loose my sannity without them, put on weight oh and it works. Also if you do long distance rides like 12hr TT's you need time in the bike to toughen up your arse. My ftp last summer when I peaked was 348w so my ride alot and unstructured approach stragey seems to work. Also I have fun which is the most important thing.

The old fashioned ways of training for work quite well. I am not training for to do. 20 minute 10 mile TT. So ride in winter alot currently for me 400+ km per week, then come spring audax race, TT, belgian trips and perhaps pbp.

I make it work by commuting on the bike all year round. Most of could do that but sadly many people feel they can't or have structured the life in such a way that they can't.

OnTheRopes

thecycleclinic wrote:

Why do I do endurance miles because I would loose my sannity without them, put on weight oh and it works. Also if you do long distance rides like 12hr TT's you need time in the bike to toughen up your ars*. My ftp last summer when I peaked was 348w so my ride alot and unstructured approach stragey seems to work. Also I have fun which is the most important thing.

The old fashioned ways of training for work quite well. I am not training for to do. 20 minute 10 mile TT. So ride in winter alot currently for me 400+ km per week, then come spring audax race, TT, belgian trips and perhaps pbp.

I am not time crunched. If most of used a bike to get to work, and you can you just have to want to or feel society/ work lets you (many of us come up with excuse not to like I can't be smelly for work) then there would be more TOB. You would also be more productive, less stressed......

What do I know, I have not published a document about it.

There is a lot of truth in that. Whatever is said about time crunched cycling and replacing kms with HIIT I still believe a good base of plenty of hours in the saddle over winter gives the best foundation. I have started my base training and am currently riding 400-500 kms a week, though I do have some recovery weeks built in when I restrict it to 8-9 hours.
I ride a mixture of outdoors and indoors and can ride 2 - 3 hours on the turbo when needed.
Being a member of a good club can help with motivation to get outside and I enjoy winter Sunday club rides whatever the weather.

fenix

bvduck wrote:

Perhaps a counter-question (David from The Sufferfest here). Why do you want to do endurance miles anyway? Here's some thinking about why you shouldn't do 'base' training in winter. Written by the same team that just coached Rohan Dennis to the world time trial championship: https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/trainin ... d-athletes

BUT CAKE STOPS !!!

joe_totale-2

In my experience the best winter training plan is to drop LSD then go for a ride outside.

You soon forget about the wind and rain.

imposter2.0

bvduck wrote:

Perhaps a counter-question (David from The Sufferfest here). Why do you want to do endurance miles anyway? Here's some thinking about why you shouldn't do 'base' training in winter. Written by the same team that just coached Rohan Dennis to the world time trial championship: https://thesufferfest.com/blogs/trainin ... d-athletes

The TT world champ course was about 32 miles, so technically 'endurance' - but hardly a long way in the context of this thread. I don't think anyone here will be surprised to learn that you will detrain if you lower the intensity, either. That's kind of the point in off-season riding, as maintaining 100% race form for 100% of the year is almost certainly not sustainable from a health, mental or well-being point of view.

I can't help thinking the article is slightly misleading in that context - as is the obvious appeal to authority.

cruff

There's a place for both. I do road races, crits and TTs. I also stick some long rides in throughout the year (200 milers, generally in autumn after the race season but before the traditional 'base miles')

The old advice about just doing base miles in the winter is, frankly, bollocks if you're racing. If I just did base miles from November until March I'd get annihilated the first month of the race season. However, you can't just do intensity work either, because you'd smash your legs to pieces. It's fine to just do base miles if all you're looking to do is maintain a level of fitness during winter. If you're only doing long TTs then I can see it being beneficial to do a lot of long steady miles with maybe one or two over-under sessions during the winter working up to more intensity as TT season gets closer.

The turbo for me makes sense for interval work (raiser to control effort and no needing to worry about traffic, cornering, descending etc) and when it's really foul (less bike maintenance/parts replacement). Still better to ride outside for longer miles just because its not so mind and arse numbing as the turbo

jgsi

You 'periodise' your training, naff word but it solves the problem of training apps that want you to beast yourself every day of the week....

cycleclinic

The problem is with trying to be on form in march when racing start properly is you can peak at the wrong time. Beside base can include some more intense rides where you actually try, it not interval work.

pblakeney

FWIW, the OP is looking for base fitness to do club runs and sportives, not race.

imposter2.0

Hi Nick..!!

diamonddog

^ Good spot sir.
I am lucky in the respect that winter training is not much different to summer training.

cld531c

Booooo, I was impressed with myself that I spotted him, til I scrolled to the next page and see you beat me to it!

imposter2.0

:oops: