We all know that the winter training period is very important to lay the foundation and be ready for the upcoming season. But could you be doing things on the bike that could actually be compromising your fitness gains?
1. Putting on the wrong clothes
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First of all, not using enough equipment. When you’re used to wearing shorts and t-shirts, it can be pretty easy to get the gear wrong and not wear enough when the temperature starts to drop. If you don’t wear enough gear, it can be difficult to raise your temperature high enough to allow you to perform well in whatever endeavor you have to do. Not being warm enough can also increase the time it takes recover from training sessionseven if it spends a lot of time at the bottom cycling training areas.
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Both will have a negative impact on your fitness in the short term and if you are too cold and feel unwell as a result, that will impact your training and fitness in the long term. Even just forgetting winter cycling gloves either cycling shoe covers and get numb hands or feet it can affect you significantly as your hands and feet have a very high level of nerve endings meaning if they get cold the rest of you will feel cold and as a result you won’t feel good on the bike.
Second, using too much and overheating. When winter rolls around, it can be tempting to layer lots of gear to keep warm and reduce the chance of catching a cold. I’d say it’s always better to have too much gear on and then unzip if it starts to get too hot. However, if you can get your gear right the first time, that will reduce the need to carry more gear and fill your pockets. For example, the Sunday club race (Zone 2 Endurance Walk) is a staple of most winter cycling training plans.
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However, if you leave home at 8:30 am, it will likely be much colder than it was halfway through the trip. Using too much and overheating have two potential problems. First, fluid loss increases and dehydration may become more likely. The easy solution is to drink enough fluids and consume salts. But, in winter, it can sometimes be harder to want to drink that much. If you become dehydrated, this will not only affect your training sessions, but also your recovery from training and therefore your overall fitness.
The other downside to overdressing is that unzipping to cool off can cause a chill pretty quickly. If you push yourself over the top of a climb, you will have gotten sweaty. We know the purpose of sweat is to help remove heat, so when you combine it with unzipping and a blast of cold air, you can feel cold very quickly.
2. Intensity of oblivion
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It’s commonplace in many people’s winter training routines to neglect intensity when riding a bike; it is often considered to be about the base (training). Although this follows a traditional periodization training plan, there are several problems with periodization when it comes to emulating the pros. Although professionals spend a limited percentage of their training time at higher intensities when it comes to winter and off-season training, they are spending a small percentage of a much larger overall training volume.
If you’re not training 30 hours a week, and you’re doing, say, only 7, then periodization would suggest going maybe an hour and 24 minutes above Z1/2. If you’re training that full volume, then doing mostly Zone 2, with such limited time at higher intensities, you’re likely not getting the most out of your training time, and over the course of the winter, you’ll be out of shape.
3. Only drive indoors
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Training indoors with one of the best indoor cycling training apps It’s fantastic, that’s for sure. However, limiting your training to being indoors only could have a negative impact on your overall fitness, as well as other important elements of cycling.
Mount indoors only – glued to a turbo trainer – does nothing for bike handling or group riding skills. These are skills that many could look to improve and see their racing results improve. Purely indoor training not only limits the opportunity to work on these skills, but can also lead to the loss of some of them.
Another area where solo indoor riding can negatively affect your fitness is that you may be neglecting the easier rides or the more endurance rides. Some people are die-hard fans of indoor training and are happy to ride for 5 hours or even more indoors. However, for most people, this is not their idea of fun, which is something a good training plan should always be. Intensity is required to improve and maintain fitness, but the best plans balance a combination of intensity and volume, or else fitness will suffer.
Finally, training purely indoors can lead to a higher chance of burnout in the long run. Spending time outdoors is not only good for physical health, but also benefits mental health. Add to that the lack of in-person social interaction and the fact that you won’t stop pedaling while indoors, and mental exhaustion is a serious consideration if you’re training exclusively indoors.
4. Neglecting strength work
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This is an area that many cyclists neglect throughout the year. Dedicated strength training can be a great benefit, both to increase power and to reduce the likelihood of suffering from common bike injuries. During the winter, many people try to increase their cycling volume to get those base miles. However, doing only volume work and neglecting strength work really puts you at a comparable disadvantage.
Strength work has been shown to increase time to exhaustion, increase peak power output, and reduce time trial times. For those concerned that they will gain a lot of muscle and become heavy, unless you are very genetically gifted, you will not gain pounds of muscle. You can gain something but, with the increase in power, your watts per kilogram will increase with your Watts/CdA increasing further. In other words, you will be faster everywhere. So if you’re just training volume, or just on the turbo and neglecting strength work, you could be hurting your fitness and potential to be faster.
5. Exaggerate
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A common mistake made by those who move from their end of season break to your winter training is overdoing it. Doing too much too soon is a sure way to get sick, burn later in the winter, or get injured. Any of these will have a significant and negative impact on your fitness.
When remounting after a break, it is very important to increase the training load, either in intensity or duration, in a progressive and sustained manner. It’s also worth keeping in mind that the winter season is when many illnesses are most prevalent. If you have kids in school or work in an office, chances are you’ll catch a cold virus once or twice during the winter.
This may require you to take a break from training to properly recover from the cold. If you train through it, you may not feel good for longer and training will be negatively affected along with fitness. If you have a break to recover, you need to be careful not to overdo it too soon afterward. Lots of cycling can weaken your immune systemmaking you more susceptible to contract diseases.
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