5 Ways Winter Cycling Is Ruining Your Fitness

Cycling Weekly

Winter cycling is often the time to build your foundation of fitness as you prepare your body for another year of fun in the sun, however, could you be doing things to your fitness which are actually ruining your form? Sam Gupta runs you through everything you could be doing wrong on the bike this winter. The key thing to remember is that as long as you're having fun on the bike then you can never really go too far wrong.

Transcript

00:00We all know that the winter training period is very important for building your foundation

00:04for the upcoming season. But might you be doing things that are actually compromising

00:09your fitness gains? Well, I've put together a list of five things that you're probably

00:14doing wrong in your winter training. It's commonplace in many people's winter

00:24training routine to neglect intensity when cycling. It's often seen as always being about

00:29the base miles. Now, although this follows a traditional periodization training plan,

00:35there are several issues with periodization when trying to emulate the pros. Although

00:40professionals spend a limited amount of their training time at higher intensities when it's

00:44winter training and out of season, they are spending a small percentage of a much larger

00:49overall training volume there. If you aren't training 30 hours a week and you're doing,

00:54say, just seven, then periodization would suggest that you spend maybe an hour and 24 minutes

00:59above zone one or two. If you are training that total volume, then doing mostly zone two

01:05with such a limited time at higher intensities, you're likely not going to be making the most

01:11of your training time. And over the course of a winter, we'll end up losing fitness.

01:21Indoor training is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. However, limiting your training solely

01:27to indoors could be impacting negatively on your overall fitness, as well as other important

01:33elements of cycling. Riding purely indoors does nothing for bike handling or bunch riding skills.

01:39These are skills that many people could seek to improve and see their results in races improve

01:44alongside. Training purely indoors not only limits the opportunity to work on these skills,

01:49but can also lead to loss of some of them. Another area where only riding indoors can impact your

01:55fitness negatively is that you may be neglecting the easier rides or the longer endurance rides.

02:00Some people are diehard indoor training fans and are happy to spend five hours or even longer

02:05on the trainer. But for most people, this isn't their idea of fun, which is something that a good

02:12training plan should be. Intensity is required to improve and maintain fitness, but the best plans

02:18balance a mix of intensity with volume or else your fitness will suffer.

02:24Finally, purely training indoors can lead to a greater chance of burnout longer term.

02:29Not only is spending time outdoors good for physical health, but it also benefits your mental health.

02:34Add to that the lack of in-person social interaction and the fact that there's no let up in pedaling

02:39while indoors, a mental burnout is a very serious consideration if training purely indoors.

02:45Getting your kit choices right on winter rides can be difficult and if done incorrectly, you can

02:57really impair your training sessions and have a negative impact on your fitness. Firstly, not wearing

03:04enough kit. It can be quite easy when you've been used to wearing shorts and jersey to get your kit

03:09wrong and not wear enough when the temperature starts to drop. If you're not wearing enough kit,

03:14then it can be difficult to raise your temperature sufficiently enough to enable you to perform

03:19well and perform any efforts that you have to do. Not being warm enough can also increase the time it

03:25takes to recover from training sessions, even if they're at a lower intensity. Secondly, another big

03:31mistake is actually wearing too much and overheating. When it gets to winter, it can be tempting to layer on

03:37lots of kit to stay warm and reduce the chance of getting a cold. However, I would say it's always better to

03:43have too much kit on and then strip or unzip it later if you do start to heat up too much. However,

03:50if you can get your kit right in the first instance, then that will reduce the need for you

03:54to carry more kit and then end up stuffing your pockets. However, if you're leaving the house at 8.30

04:01a.m., it's likely that it's going to be a lot colder than it will be midway through the ride. So

04:06wearing too much and overheating has two potential issues. Firstly, fluid loss increases and

04:12dehydration can become more likely. The easy fix is drinking enough fluid as well as consuming salts,

04:18but in the winter, it can sometimes be difficult to want to drink that much more. If you become

04:24dehydrated, this will not only impair your training sessions, but also your recovery from training and

04:29therefore your overall fitness. The other downside of overdressing is that unzipping to cool down

04:35can lead to quite a rapid chill. If you do an effort over the top of the climb, you will then

04:41become sweaty. And we all know that the purpose of sweat is to dissipate heat. So when you combine

04:46that with unzipping and a rush of cold air, you can get cold very, very quickly.

04:51This is an area which a lot of cyclists neglect throughout the whole year. Dedicated strength

05:02work can be a huge benefit, both for increasing power while also reducing the likelihood of injuries.

05:08During winter, many people try and increase their volume of cycling to get those base miles in. However,

05:14doing just volume work and neglecting strength work really does put you at a comparable disadvantage.

05:20Strength work has been shown to increase time to exhaustion, increase maximal power production,

05:26and decrease time trial time. So for those worried that they'll put on loads of muscle and get heavy,

05:32well, unless you're very genetically gifted, you won't put on kilos of muscle. You may gain some,

05:38but with power increasing. Your watts per kilo will increase with your watts per CDA increasing by more.

05:45In other words, you'll be faster everywhere. So if you're just training volume or you just train on the turbo

05:52and neglect strength work altogether, you could be damaging your fitness and the potential to be faster.

05:58A common mistake made by those moving from their end of season break to their winter training is actually just overdoing it.

06:12Doing too much too soon is a surefire way to get ill, burn out later, or give yourself an injury.

06:19Any of these obviously will impact significantly and negatively on your fitness.

06:25When starting to ride again after a break, it's very important to build up that training load,

06:29be that intensity or duration, very progressively and sustainably.

06:34It's also worth bearing in mind that, well, there's a lot of illness in the winter season.

06:39So if you've got kids or you work in an office, it is very likely that you're going to pick up a cold virus

06:44at least once or twice during winter. If you do catch a cold, then this may mean you have to take time off from training

06:51to recover properly. But if you do train through it, you may be unwell for longer and training will be negatively impacted

06:59along with the fitness. If you do take a break to get well again,

07:04then you've got to be careful that you don't overdo it when you start back up.

07:08Training locks can weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses.

07:14So there's five things which I think you're doing wrong in your winter training.

07:18If you have any tips of your own, then do share them down below.

07:22If you enjoyed the video, drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content,

07:25and I'll see you again very soon.

Category

Transcript

Recommended