Winter training advice / options.

Chinn39 · September 2016

This year I feel I have developed a lot with my cycling and am really enjoying it. I am anxious to carry this on through the winter or at least not lose too much before getting going again next year. I can now comfortably ride with a local club 17mph average group and have built up clothing and kit to allow riding throughout the year (barring ridiculous weather).

My little boy is now playing in a football team, his training and games mean it is unlikely I will be able to get along to the club rides, which means I am going to be limited to weekend afternoon rides. I am not confident on the local roads to ride in the dark and don't have suitable lights to allow this.

What do others do to supplement reduced riding time and miles?
Turbo / rollers
Smart trainer
Spin classes
Other exercise

Any tips / advice gratefully received

sloppyschleckonds · September 2016

Any of the above, and eat less

iFreedom · September 2016

I've got the same type of question. One good option is a smart trainer and trainerroad sweet spot base training. You can actually plan your season and timing around what races you want to hit next year. I'm contemplating this myself and could be a really good option.

Midlands Grimpeur · September 2016

I am a big advocate of getting outside all year round if you can. I do Saturday/Sunday rides throughout the winter and just shorten them so I can get a ride in before dark (usually 1-3 pm). If slotting in an hour or so is feasible I would do that.

If not, all the other suggestions you have made will keep your fitness up. 3 or 4 shorter intense sessions on the turbo should be plenty.

DeVlaeminck · September 2016

Good luck - I've found kids football is a killer as far as trying to stay bike fit is concerned. Whilst going for a ride in the afternoon is fine in theory in practice I've found if I don't get out early in the morning I often end up not getting out at all.

supermurph09 · September 2016

A turbo trainer will really help but don't rule out getting some lights and getting outside, it really isn't something to be worried about. Just choose a sensible route, by that I mean don't be about 10 miles from civilisation.

You may find that if you do solely turbo it'll become demotivating.

supermurph09 · September 2016

You may also find that the time crunched training plan could work for you, I did it a couple of years ago and it worked great for me. You can buy the book on amazon or if it helps I wrote a blog about it to track my progress, you can see that in my signature.

keef66 · September 2016

I just stick on lights, reflectors and suitable clothing and go out 2 or 3 evenings in the week. Quiet country roads where I live though. Plus a longer weekend ride.

Don't remember kids football, and there was a lot of it, interfering with my cycling too much.

fat daddy · September 2016

buy a mountainbike /cyclocross and go off road ..... you could even go around the fields that your kid is playing footy on.

Nothing works your balance, control, core, legs and CV like a slog around wet grass and mud .... your road cycling will benefit from it ... its away from the cars, the idea is to slide about .. and it means you can have another bike

drlodge · September 2016

There's really something zen like, cycling in the dark, on deserted country roads with just you and your lights for company. Especially if its a good hill like Barhatch Lane on a cold winters night.

fenix · September 2016

Lights are ridiculously cheap and efficient these days.

For £40 you can get a magicshine that would let you offroad in the dark and two decent rear lights.

You will need extra kit to keep warm mind you.

if time is short then a turbo is your pal. Something like trainerroad - they do training plans that you can stick to.
If you have no plan then I doubt you'll do it.

Spin classes can be good too - but then you have to go to and from the gym. Extra time wasted.

AK_jnr · September 2016

Some of the best riding I find is in the winter. 6am on a Saturday on the MTB. The trails/paths solid, bottles freezing until the sun comes out. Home for 9. Perfect. So nice to not have to worry about cars for once as well.
Just a shame my MTB is a pile of sh1t and barely rideable. I can imagine its even more fun with a good one!

cycleclinic · September 2016

get out in the dark and maybe get your son into cycling if he is not old enough for the road how about mountain bikes aka the darkside. To me road is the darkside.

bobmcstuff · September 2016

Supermurph09 wrote:

You may also find that the time crunched training plan could work for you, I did it a couple of years ago and it worked great for me. You can buy the book on amazon or if it helps I wrote a blog about it to track my progress, you can see that in my signature.

I did TCTP in Jan-Feb last year after reading your blog plus a few other posts on here etc. and it worked really well for me. Did experienced century.

Worth noting if you have Strava Premium and fancy giving it a go, the Strava training plans are essentially identical to the TCTP (in terms of the workout structure etc.) and offer a little bit of "customisation" in that you can tell it how many rides per week you want it to give you (but that's about it).

Now I mainly do Sufferfest videos for indoor training as I find it a lot less monotonous. AIUI you can use them with TrainerRoad so I am thinking about getting TR for this winter.

Also second the advice about getting outside, some great lanes in easy access from my office and means I miss the rush hour traffic too.

Probably heresy but I do a bit of running in the winter too... Means you can get a decent workout in a short space of time and gets you outside when it's really windy etc.. Obviously not as good for cycling as actually cycling, but does help to keep the weight off. I've not run since April and I'm actually quite looking forward to dusting the running shoes off in the next couple of weeks.

mrfpb · January 2017

+1 for runniing. Parkrun if local (9:00am Saturday) or just run around the park while your son plays football. You burn more cals/minute and so I guess work your cv system harder.

I'm pretty surre I read that a lot of pro riders do some running as suplementary training through winter. It keeps you generally fit if not bike fit

smoggysteve · January 2017

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Any of the above, and eat healthier

FTFY

Probably better eating more of the right things than eating less altogether. That way you have the energy to ride more and have better quality training.

fudgey · January 2017

How long is your lunch break?
I started a job in august with an hours lunch so started to take my bike to work. I can knock out 12-14 miles in 45 mins, quick shower and back to work.

AK_jnr · January 2017

Thats efficient.
If I had an hour total including getting ready and showering I would probably have about 15 minutes to ride. Ha

keef66 · January 2017

AK_jnr wrote:

Thats efficient.
If I had an hour total including getting ready and showering I would probably have about 15 minutes to ride. Ha

That's what I did last night. 20 minutes faffing with kit and finding lights, garmin etc, 35 minute blast on the bike, most of which was in a shower of sleet, then another 20 minutes peeling off wet kit and hanging it up to dry / putting electrical stuff in the airing cupboard / having a hot bath.

Wife thinks I'm mad but I still think it was worth it

Winter training advice / options.

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