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. Although this follows a traditional periodization training plan, there are several
00:35issues with periodization when trying to emulate the pros. Although professionals spend a limited
00:41amount of their training time at higher intensities when it's winter training and out of season,
00:46they are spending a small percentage of a much larger overall training volume there.
00:51If you aren't training 30 hours a week and you're doing, say, just seven, then periodization would
00:56suggest that you spend maybe an hour and 24 minutes above zone one or two. If you are
01:03training that total volume, then doing mostly zone two with such a limited time at higher
01:08intensities, you're likely not going to be making the most of your training time. And over the course
01:13of a winter, we'll end up losing fitness.
01:21Indoor training is fantastic. There's no doubt about it. However, limiting your training solely to indoors
01:28could be impacting negatively on your overall fitness, as well as other important elements of cycling.
01:34Riding purely indoors does nothing for bike handling or bunch riding skills. These are skills that many people could
01:41seek to improve and see their results in races improve alongside. Training purely indoors not only
01:47limits the opportunity to work on these skills, but can also lead to loss of some of them.
01:52Another area where only riding indoors can impact your fitness negatively is that you may be neglecting
01:57the easier rides or the longer endurance rides. Some people are diehard indoor training fans and are
02:03happy to spend five hours or even longer on the trainer. But for most people, this isn't their idea of
02:10fun,
02:10which is something that a good training plan should be. Intensity is required to improve and maintain
02:16fitness, but 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. Not only is
02:29spending time outdoors good for physical health, but it also benefits your mental health. Add to that the
02:35lack of in-person social interaction and the fact that there's no let-up in pedalling while indoors,
02:40a mental burnout is a very serious consideration if training purely indoors.
02:50Getting your kit choices right on winter rides can be difficult and, if done incorrectly, you can really
02:57impair your training sessions and have a negative impact on your fitness.
03:02Firstly, not wearing enough kit. It can be quite easy when you've been used to wearing shorts and
03:07jersey to get your kit wrong and not wear enough when the temperature starts to drop. If you're not
03:13wearing enough kit, then it can be difficult to raise your temperature sufficiently enough to enable
03:18you to perform well and perform any efforts that you have to do. Not being warm enough can also increase
03:25the time it takes to recover from training sessions, even if they're at a lower intensity.
03:30Secondly, another big mistake is actually wearing too much and overheating. When it gets to winter,
03:35it can be tempting to layer on lots of kit to stay warm and reduce the chance of getting a
03:40cold. However,
03:42I would say it's always better to have too much kit on and then strip or unzip it later if
03:47you do start
03:48to heat up too much. However, if you can get your kit right in the first instance, then that will
03:53reduce
03:53the need for you to carry more kit and then end up stuffing your pockets. However, if you're leaving
04:00the house at 8.30 am, it's likely that it's going to be a lot colder than it will be
04:04midway through
04:05the 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,
04:25this will 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
04:35can lead to quite a rapid chill. If you do an effort over the top of the climb, you will
04:41then become
04:41sweaty and we all know that the purpose of sweat is to dissipate heat. So when you combine that with
04:47unzipping and a rush of cold air, you can get cold very, very quickly.
04:57This is an area which a lot of cyclists neglect throughout the whole year.
05:01Dedicated strength work can be a huge benefit, both for increasing power while also reducing the
05:07likelihood of injuries. 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, increase maximal
05:25power production and decrease time trial time. So for those worried that they'll put on loads of muscle
05:31and get heavy, well, unless you're very genetically gifted, you won't put on kilos of muscle. You may gain
05:38some, but with power increasing. Your watts per kilo will increase with your watts per CDA increasing by
05:45more. In other words, you'll be faster everywhere. So if you're just training volume or you just train on
05:52the turbo and neglect strength work altogether, you could be damaging your fitness and the potential to be
06:03faster. A common mistake made by those moving from their end of season break to their winter training is
06:10actually just overdoing it. Doing too much too soon is a surefire way to get ill, burn out later or
06:18give
06:18yourself an injury. Any 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,
06:30be that intensity or duration, very progressively and sustainably. It's also worth bearing in mind that,
06:37well, there's a lot of illness in the winter season. So if you've got kids or you work in an
06:41office,
06:42it is very likely that you're going to pick up a cold virus at least once or twice during winter.
06:47If 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
06:58be negatively impacted along with the fitness. If you do take a break to get well again, then
07:04you've got to be careful that you don't overdo it when you start back up. Training locks can weaken
07:10your immune system, making you more susceptible to illnesses. So there's five things which I think
07:17you're doing wrong in your winter training. If you have any tips of your own, then do share them down
07:22below. If you enjoyed the video, drop it a like, subscribe to the channel for more content,
07:26and I'll see you again very soon.
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