Whats best for winter?

Hi folks, i’m wondering what everyone falls back on to maintain what we’ve built throughout the year, through the winter months.
I’m coming towards the end of my road race season and my first full year using TR and i want to continue training through the winter but have no interest in racing cyclocross, i’d love to build my tt ability and be ready to pick up where i’m leaving this season when spring comes round.
I’m currently riding well at 3.72 w/kg and really enjoy my workouts. What does everyone else do to keep the fire burning without burning out?

T.i.a,

Mike

I plan to start swimming and doing some yoga. I also like playing tennis, so I might do some practice. I also snowboard about 7-10 times a season.

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Take a couple of weeks off, and then start back with base, but mix in fun rides.

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The day after my last organized event of the year, heading to China for 3 weeks, so no training while gone. Good time for a break and then start back slowly with my own non-plan workouts for a while. May even try dropping a little weight before starting back with SS base, etc.

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Ride

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Fixie, MTB, Strong Lifts 5x5. Club rides with the B or C groups.

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This looks amazing!!! Sadly not blessed with such landscapes here in the UK

Good point, will need to reconnect with some friends who don’t race, for sure. Also, weight work will help keep me engaged hopefully :ok_hand:

getting into the gym to gain strength that creates injury prevention and works all the things that we ignore for the most part by being cyclists…it’s a really imbalanced sport with tons of repetitive movement.

Then lots of base work to build aerobic capacity without much fatigue.

Brendan

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I add gym work 3-4 days a week back into the schedule for 4-5 months. But keep doing 1-2 hard(ish) bike workouts each week plus long enjoyable rides on both Sat and Sun until weather turns.

Nothing too particular for weekday workouts . M-F have one day of SST (3x12, 3x15, 2x20, 1x40) and one day 6x3, 5x5, 4x8 in the 105-110% range. Every other week throw in some short VO2Max stuff on a weekend ride (3 x 1 + 3-5 x 30s + 3 all out 10s). Basically enjoying the bike and gym but don’t want to lose too much because at my advanced age building it back is far harder than keep it.

If I get short on time due to work during the week I really enjoy the TR 30-45 min SIT workouts (Birling, Rowdow, et al)

January will get back on a more bike-centric base-build plan with racing to start in April but not serious until June/July.

-Mark

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Thanks Mark,

I think this will be the way forward for me, 2 or 3 weight sessions and possibly some stretching classes with short but intense workouts either on a wattbike or on the turbo trainer. Then at the weekend perhaps a cafe ride one day and a longer, non-stop on
the other.

I totally agree that maintaining fitness is way easier than trying to get it all back in a few months!

Really appreciate your feedback,

Thanks,

Mike

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Thanks Brendan,

Great point about injury prevention and i will definitely be hitting the gym to work on certain areas like core and lower back strength.

Appreciate your help, thanks,

Mike

But we should get the snow

new beast of the east

Zwift.

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Reintroduce myself to my MTB although my gravel bike will possibly also get a lot of use.

My mental state right now is more " I’m fit, why are there no more races :sob:???"

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The gym and injury prevention is certainly what I’m going to finally do over the winter and maintain afterwards as in general I’m ok riding a bike but as a human I’m way too brittle!

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good luck with the training!

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heck yeah! good thing with lifting over the winter months is that you can then continue it all year round with 1x a week maintenance lifts

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Not this: Strong Lifts 5x5. It is too much work for most people even without endurance training. Starting Strength’s linear progression is much more suitable and even then you will need to back off endurance work for the first few weeks.

Love this!! Will lifting during race season be detrimental to the condition of my legs or will they just adapt to the added stresses of lifting along side my bike workouts?