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.
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