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.
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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
00:10your fitness gains? Well, I've put together a list of
00:13five things that you're probably doing wrong in your winter training.
00:22It's commonplace in many people's winter training routine to neglect intensity
00:27when cycling. It's often seen as always being about the base miles. Now, although this follows
00:32a traditional periodization training plan, there are several issues with periodization when trying
00:38to emulate the pros. Although professionals spend a limited amount of their training time
00:42at higher intensities when it's winter training and out of season, they are spending a small
00:48percentage of a much larger overall training volume there. If you aren't training 30 hours
00:53a week and you're doing, say, just seven, then periodization would suggest that you spend maybe
00:58an hour and 24 minutes above zone one or two. If you are training that total volume, then doing
01:04mostly zone two with such a limited time at higher intensities, you're likely not going to be making
01:10the most of your training time and over the course of a winter will end up losing fitness.
01:16Indoor training is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. However, limiting your training solely
01:21to indoors could be impacting negatively on your overall fitness, as well as other important
01:27elements of cycling. Riding purely indoors does nothing for bike handling or bunch riding skills.
01:33These are skills that many people could seek to improve and see their results in races improve
01:38alongside. For example, if you're doing a lot of cycling, you're probably going to be doing a lot
01:44improve alongside. 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
01:54impact your fitness negatively is that you may be neglecting the easier rides or the longer
01:59endurance rides. Some people are diehard indoor training fans and are happy to spend five hours
02:04or even longer on the trainer. For most people, this isn't their idea of fun, which is something
02:11that a good training plan should be. Intensity is required to improve and maintain fitness,
02:17but the best plans balance 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.
02:28Not only is spending time outdoors good for physical health, but it also benefits your
02:33mental health. Add to that the lack of in-person social interaction and the fact that there's no
02:38let-up in pedaling while indoors, and mental burnout is a very serious consideration if
02:43training purely indoors. Getting your kit choices right on winter rides can be difficult. If done
02:55incorrectly, you can really impair your training sessions and have a negative impact on your
03:00fitness. Firstly, not wearing enough kit. It can be quite easy when you've been used to wearing
03:07shorts and jersey to get your kit wrong and not wear enough when the temperature starts to drop.
03:13If you're not wearing enough kit, then it can be difficult to raise your temperature sufficiently
03:18enough to enable you to perform well and perform any efforts that you have to do. Not being warm
03:24enough can also increase the time it takes to recover from training sessions, even if they're
03:28at a lower intensity. Secondly, another big mistake is actually wearing too much and overheating.
03:34When it gets to winter, it can be tempting to layer on lots of kit to stay warm and reduce the
03:39chance of getting a cold. However, I would say it's always better to have too much kit on and
03:45then strip or unzip it later if you do start to heat up too much. However, if you can get your
03:51kit right in the first instance, then that will reduce the need for you to carry more kit and
03:56then end up stuffing your pockets. However, if you're leaving the house at 8 30 a.m, it's likely
04:02that it's going to be a lot colder than it will be midway through the ride. Wearing too much and
04:07overheating has two potential issues. Firstly, fluid loss increases and dehydration can become
04:14more likely. The easy fix is drinking enough fluid as well as consuming salts, but in the winter,
04:19it can sometimes be difficult to want to drink that much more. If you become dehydrated, this
04:25will not only impair your training sessions, but also your recovery from training and therefore
04:30your overall fitness. The other downside of overdressing is that unzipping to cool down
04:36can lead to quite a rapid chill. If you do an effort over the top of the climb,
04:40you will then become sweaty. We all know that the purpose of sweat is to dissipate heat. When
04:46you combine that 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
05:08injuries. During winter, many people try and increase their volume of cycling to get those
05:13base miles in. However, doing just volume work and neglecting strength work really does put you at a
05:19comparable disadvantage. Strength work has been shown to increase time to exhaustion,
05:24increase maximal power production, and decrease time trial time. For those worried that they'll
05:30put on loads of muscle and get heavy, unless you're very genetically gifted, you won't put
05:36on kilos of muscle. You may gain some, but with power increasing. Your watts per kilo will increase
05:43with your watts per CDA increasing by more. In other words, you'll be faster everywhere.
05:49If you're just training volume or you just train on the turbo and neglect strength work altogether,
05:55you could be damaging your fitness and the potential to be faster.
06:05A common mistake made by those moving from their end of season break to their winter training is
06:11overdoing it. Doing too much too soon is a surefire way to get ill, burn out later,
06:17or give yourself an injury. Any of these obviously will impact significantly and negatively
06:23on your fitness. When starting to ride again after a break, it's very important to build
06:28up that training load, be that intensity or duration, very progressively and sustainably.
06:35It's also worth bearing in mind that there's a lot of illness in the winter season. If you've
06:40got 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
06:50time off from training to recover properly. If you do train through it, you may be unwell for longer
06:57and training will be negatively impacted along with the fitness. If you do take a break to get
07:03well again, then you've got to be careful that you don't overdo it when you start back up.
07:09Training locks can weaken your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses.
07:15So, there's five things which I think you're doing wrong in your winter training. If you
07:19have any tips of your own, then do share them down below. If you enjoyed the video,
07:23drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content, and I'll see you again very soon.