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.
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