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.
02:28Not 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.
02:48Getting 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, then it can
03:15be difficult to raise your temperature sufficiently enough to enable you to perform well and perform
03:21any efforts that you have to do. Not being warm enough can also increase the time it takes to
03:26recover from training sessions, even if they're at a lower intensity. Secondly, another big mistake is
03:32actually wearing too much and overheating. When it gets to winter, it can be tempting to layer on lots of
03:37kit to stay warm and reduce the chance of getting a cold. However, I would say it's always better to have too
03:44much kit on and then strip or unzip it later if you do start to heat up too much. However, if you can get
03:50your kit right in the first instance, then that will reduce the need for you to carry more kit and then end up
03:56stuffing your pockets. However, if you're leaving the house at 8.30am, it's likely that it's going to be a lot colder
04:03than it will be midway through the ride. So wearing too much and overheating has two potential issues. Firstly, fluid loss increases
04:12and dehydration 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 dehydrated,
04:24this will not only impair your training sessions, but also your recovery from training and therefore your
04:30overall fitness. The other downside of overdressing is that unzipping to cool down can lead to quite a rapid
04:37chill. If you do an effort over the top of the climb, you will then become sweaty. And we all know
04:42that the purpose of sweat is to dissipate heat. So when you combine that with unzipping and a rush of cold
04:48air, you can get cold very, very quickly. This is an area which a lot of cyclists neglect throughout the
05:00whole year. Dedicated strength work can be a huge benefit, both for increasing power while also
05:06reducing the likelihood of injuries. During winter, many people try and increase their volume of cycling
05:12to get those base miles in. However, doing just volume work and neglecting strength work really does
05:18put you at a comparable disadvantage. Strength work has been shown to increase time to exhaustion,
05:24increase maximal power production, and decrease time trial time. So for those worried that they'll
05:30put on loads of muscle and get heavy, well, unless you're very genetically gifted, you won't put on
05:36kilos of muscle. You may gain some, but with power increasing. Your watts per kilo will increase with
05:43your watts per CDA increasing by more. In other words, you'll be faster everywhere. So if you're just
05:50training volume or you just train on the turbo and neglect strength work altogether, you could be
05:56damaging your fitness and the potential to be faster. A common mistake made by those moving from their
06:07end of season break to their winter training is actually just overdoing it. Doing too much too soon
06:14is a surefire way to get ill, burn out later, or give yourself an injury. Any of these obviously will
06:21impact significantly and negatively on your fitness. When starting to ride again after a break, it's very
06:28important to build up that training load, be that intensity or duration, very progressively and
06:33sustainably. It's also worth bearing in mind that, well, there's a lot of illness in the winter season.
06:40So if you've got kids or you work in an office, it is very likely that you're going to pick up a
06:44cold virus at least once or twice during winter. If you do catch a cold, then this may mean you have
06:50to take time off from training to recover properly. But if you do train through it, you may be unwell for
06:56longer and 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. Training
07:09locks 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 have any tips
07:20of your own, then do share them down below. If you enjoyed the video, drop it a like,
07:24subscribe to the channel for more content, and I'll see you again very soon.
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