Winter training?

[okgo]

What sort of approach will people be taking? Forgetting what bike you'll do it on for a minute, but interested to hear whether people follow the old school approach or whether now new knowledge that is more available out there is taking over and people are changing their routines?

Many new thoughts are out there about what you should be doing, or what you could be doing, I've not really decided what to focus on next year, but be interested to hear how others are planning. And whether anyone is thinking of being competitive next year etc...

[Usget]

My goal is to get my first ever racing license on January 1st and enter my first race in March. Don't know which one yet.

That means my winter training goal is to lose another stone (currently 14st plus a bit) and continue to work on my sprints/bursts of power. I will accomplish this by sticking with the portion control/small breakfast and lunch regime that I have established and normalised in September, continuing my commuting come rain or shine, and working to be able to stay with the fast club ride by the end of the year.

I'm going to come back to this post in March and see how successful I've been...

[TSCfree]

I'm taking a different approach to winter training this year and reverting to an old school approach of a proper base. 15 hours a week ideally, zone 2, 160W, no more than 17 MPH...have I covered all the measurements, oh yes RPE very little . I started too early on the turbo and doing outdoor intervals, consequently I spent 3 1/2 weeks off the bike with a chest infection and I've definitely peaked too early in my first race season. I'm still not sure how I'm going to achieve this all yet. I could commute 50 miles a day and have weekends off or two 80 mile rides Sat/Sun and the rest dispersed through the week, Who knows, either way I've armed myself with quality winter wear and a st load MTFU and get out the door whatever.

Part of the reason for taking this approach was lack of overall strength and stamina. On the two training camps I've been on this year I've realized I suck at endurance/tempo pace. somehow I seem to pretty good at short busts into the red (puncheur) short circuit crits, not really a surprise given my training regime at the moment. So that's where my weakness lies and hopefully this plan might go some way to address it. It's not set in stone and always open to advice as I'm still relatively new to racing.

Edited by TSCfree on Friday 19th September 17:15

[gazza285]

Winter training? Same as Summer, only with more cyclocross racing.

[okgo]

TSCfree said:

I'm taking a different approach to winter training this year and reverting to an old school approach of a proper base. 15 hours a week ideally, zone 2, 160W, no more than 17 MPH...have I covered all the measurements, oh yes RPE very little . I started too early on the turbo and doing outdoor intervals, consequently I spent 3 1/2 weeks off the bike with a chest infection and I've definitely peaked too early in my first race season. I'm still not sure how I'm going to achieve this all yet. I could commute 50 miles a day and have weekends off or two 80 mile rides Sat/Sun and the rest dispersed through the week, Who knows, either way I've armed myself with quality winter wear and a st load MTFU and get out the door whatever.

Part of the reason for taking this approach was lack of overall strength and stamina. On the two training camps I've been on this year I've realized I suck at endurance/tempo pace. somehow I seem to pretty good at short busts into the red (puncheur) short circuit crits, not really a surprise given my training regime at the moment. So that's where my weakness lies and hopefully this plan might go some way to address it. It's not set in stone and always open to advice as I'm still relatively new to racing.

Edited by TSCfree on Friday 19th September 17:15

I think if you can commit enough hours to this approach then there is probably gains to be had. I think a lot of peoples issues was following the pro way of doing it, but with only a few hours a week to do it. I have read the team sky do 5 hour rides where they'll only rack up 100TSS, so clearly there is still positive thought towards that. But then they obviously do build in blocks of specificity nearer the target races etc (classics teams/climbing team in Tenerife etc).

How will you monitor improvement, i.e. whether this worked better than what you did last time?

[TSCfree]

okgo said:

I think if you can commit enough hours to this approach then there is probably gains to be had. I think a lot of peoples issues was following the pro way of doing it, but with only a few hours a week to do it. I have read the team sky do 5 hour rides where they'll only rack up 100TSS, so clearly there is still positive thought towards that. But then they obviously do build in blocks of specificity nearer the target races etc (classics teams/climbing team in Tenerife etc).

How will you monitor improvement, i.e. whether this worked better than what you did last time?

I'm quite good with targets, once set. Last year it was 150 miles a week through the winter. I've upped the mileage and changed the approach for this winter so it's going to be difficult to assess which has been more effective. More miles with less stress or less miles with more stress. I've gone from 4th to 3rd this year on last years approach, I'll probably measure the success with whether I achieve 2nd next year and how fked I feel after a 2 day stage race(Fin del Verano)... Its a good question, in all honesty I'm not sure.

[Gruffy]

I'm still getting newbie gains, having only started in May/June, so I'm not planning to do anything too special until they slow down. My climbing speed is improving quickly as I put meat back on my post-surgery legs and my endurance is already quite reasonable (maintaining this is why I started climbing). Keep the miles coming and get more handling experience.

Next year's focus is on mid to long distance stuff. I'd like to be more competitive on century rides, climb some Alpine stuff and not feel slow on the London to Monaco ride.

[TSCfree]

okgo said:

How will you monitor improvement, i.e. whether this worked better than what you did last time?

I need to find a nearby friendly sports Uni with Vo2 Max measuring capability. 1 test at the start of winter training, the other at the end for future comparison.

[TSCfree]

I've been listening to this podcast : http://semiprocycling.com for finding out about up to date training methods and techniques. worth a listen and he manages to keep fairly objective.

[Ponk]

I've been pondering winter training this week actually. I've hung up my bike for a month as I've got exams coming up so I'm already distracting myself dreaming about bikes!

Last winter was my first and I spent it mostly doing steadyish club rides and fat burning sessions on the rollers. Also did a few club reliability trials in February/March. Through the summer I've been doing loads of speed work, inc tempo club rides and weekly chain gangs. Also did some crits but didn't quite have the fitness to get my heart rate back under control quick enough.

I was thinking I should focus on cardio this winter but I've no idea how to go about it? I don't really have the time to be doing weekly 100 mile epics. Could probably stretch out the club run to 70/80 miles every couple of weeks, plus the winter chain gang.

Is doing a bit of running a ridiculous idea? I won't get the specific workout but I was thinking I'd still see cardio improvements?

I'd like to have a proper go at road racing next year (road race plus crits) so my aim is to be in good enough shape to race the early season reliability trials and see how I go from there.

[mcelliott]

For me from October to December it's basically steady state group/solo rides 2 or 3 times a week generally of no more than two hours, followed by at least one 12 or 13km run a week for said period, and also some gym work thrown in. Into the new year will drop the running and throw in 2 hard turbo sessions a week, whilst increasing the intensity on the road - normally culminating with a week's hard training in the Alps in March. Then I'm good to go.

Just to add also, will continue one long ride a month into December, seeing as I've done all the gran fondo challenges on strava, I may as well see it through!

Edited by mcelliott on Friday 19th September 21:00

[Darkslider]

Just getting into cycling again (both road and MTB) after a phase of 6 months of not being interested. Fairly modest goals at the moment, going to sell my cheap road bike and get a decent cross bike with disc brakes and good mudguard clearance to act as my main road bike, winter trainer and commuter all in one. Hoping to commute to work as often as possible (only 5 miles there but got a nice hilly loop home which is 15 miles, or a much longer way round via Capel Curig in Snowdonia at 35 miles) and aiming for 100 miles a week should do me alright for this winter I think.

[JEA1K]

Going to do my first season of racing come Spring, so the aim is to try and maintain as much of my current fitness over the winter months. Obviously it will be a challenge with shorter days so I might need to structure my time on the bike to make it more effective. Spring/summer has been 2/3 rides of 100 - 120 total and 1 ride of 80 - 100 in HR zone 2 & 3.

In winter I should get 50 miles in 2 nights on the cycle track club chaingang rides and then 1 long weekend ride plus a short weekend ride.

In decent enough shape but will be more careful with my weight during winter. Anyhow, after my first race, I'll probably know how well/poorly my training has gone!

[Celtic Dragon]

I'm looking at a different path. I'm trying an x bike session a week and a long zone 3 ride at weekends. Thats the ideal pattern anyway.

[Grandfondo]

More gym and core work this year plus yoga for suppleness!

[Birdthom]

My plan for winter is as follows:

1. Keep training 6 days out of 7
2. Drop the intensity
3. Buy a mountain bike and mix things up
4. Focus on technique, get a set of rollers and work on some other old-school drills
5. No fixed routine - just ride how I like
6. Get back to regular stretching and core work

[Gizmoish]

I just want to keep riding all the way through. Tempted by a local CX race for a giggle.

[Darkslider]

Gizmoish said:

I just want to keep riding all the way through. Tempted by a local CX race for a giggle.

I did a couple of CX races on my 26" hardtail MTB last year and had a great time! I was lucky with the courses, managed to enter a few which had lots of technical climbs, singletrack, fast turns and huge off camber grassy sections with minimal hike a bike parts. The laps consisted of passing the same lycra clad CX regulars on the off camber descents at twice the speed, completely sideways with foot right out and baggy shorts flapping in the wind, only to be passed back halfway round the course on the tarmac sprint along the back straight I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and it was a really friendly bunch of guys, no stigma attached to what bike you're riding or how fit you are. Everyone's just there for the same reason, to have a bit of fun and not take it too seriously.

Regardless of what bike you've got, you can't beat a CX race for some good old fashioned winter beasting. I decided I'd just bimble round and enjoy it but when you're in the mass start lineup and the flag drops any thoughts of bimbling go out of your head. If you need some motivation to really push yourself a competitive event is the best way to do it.

[agentnomad]

ideally, zone 2, 160W, no more than 17 MPH...


From a post earlier (as I can't find the quote button)

If you are riding at 160W you will be going faster than 17 MPH if you have a back wind or down hill so when below 160W and over 17MPH, your training clock should be paused as it is not training in the zone.

If you can get Golden cheater to work on your PC or even harder on a MAC you will see this in the graphs and metrics reports,

I also have data from track league racing from Manchester and you would be surprised at the shape of the power graph even in some of the races that I have been in the top 3.

From this data your training can be tailored to suit your racing, no need for 4 hour endurance (true 4 hours not 3 hours plus 1 hour freewheeling if you see what I am getting at) if you only race 30 miles.

Golden cheater or the SRM software also gives you critical power curves of the ride and your best effort and this allows you to set intervals to suit you.

I believe you need to work out what you want to achieve and then work backwards to where you are now and train onwards to your goal, be careful with goal setting as some people just give in after achieving the first goal and say I have done it, you need realistic goals and a goal beyond that to keep your focus and motivation.

Whatever you do keep a detailed diary of what you have done in case it works or does not that way you can learn from it, note how you feel as well.

[okgo]

Thought 160w sounded about right for 17mph myself?

Agree that downhill etc make it hard. Though I've managed to do undulating rides were my average and normalised were almost identical by pushing hard down the hills.

I think if you're competing then goals can be easily spread over the season, I'm undecided whether to focus more attention on road racing or time trials at the minute. The training for the two is quite different annoying (positional adaption and the like).