We pitched the advocates of the great outdoors against the supporters of the stationary bike — pros, coaches and sports scientists — to reveal the best of both worlds and explain how this time of year can become your most effective, enjoyable season for training.
Here are 11 suggestions for how to stay on the bike during the winter months, whether indoors or out…
1. Everybody out
“Right now training is more or less 100 percent outdoors on road bikes,” says Ed Clancy, TeamGB gold medallist and energy bar 9bar ambassador. “Endurance cyclists don’t tend to do much static bike training as it’s too far away from what riding an actual bike feels like. The gym still plays an important role in our overall training schedule, but for bike-based training getting outdoors is more effective.”
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There’s plenty of science to back Clancy up. Research shows that metabolic changes in the cold weather mean training will increase fat burning and encourage the brain to release more mood-boosting serotonin. You’ll have to train harder to hit your goals in the cold too.
“Cold temperatures reduce exercise capacity. It can affect the amount of blood and oxygen being delivered to the muscles,” explains Professor Asker Jeukendrup, exercise physiologist and editor of High-Performance Cycling (Human Kinetics), which makes personal bests and King of the Mountains even harder to attain.
2. Enter the zone
Riders and coaches maintain that cycling out in the elements is essential to getting the miles in and building a solid foundation of aerobic fitness.
Outdoor training drill
- 20 mins Zone 2
- 55 mins Zone 2 Endurance
- 15 mins Zone 3 Tempo (Intensity of a ‘spirited’ group ride, conversation may be halting)
- 55 mins Zone 2 Endurance
- 15 mins Zone 3 Tempo
- 20 mins Zone 2
3. Outdoor gear
Warm-up
Face off
See your breath
4. Raid the winter stores
Comeback carbs
Get some sunny D
Hot toddy
5. Join the inner sanctum
6. Get intense
High intensity
- 10 mins including 3 x 1 minute of fast pedalling in a soft gear spinning at 115rpm+
- 5 mins building to Function Threshold Power (FTP – maximum average power you can sustain for 60 minutes)
- 5 mins easy spinning
- 8 x 1 min hard efforts at around 110 percent of FTP or 9/10 perceived effort. Take 1 min recovery in between reps
- 10 mins bringing heart rate down to Zone 1 (low level exercise)
Speed skills
- 5 mins
- 10 mins Zone 3, tempo at 102rpm
- 3 mins easy spinning
- 5 x 1 min 115rpm+ with 1 min recoveries
- 10 mins Zone 3 tempo at 107rpm
- 5 x 1 min 115rpm+ with 1 min recoveries
- 5 mins
7. Indoor gear
8. Training packages
9. Are you in or are you out?
10. Check the weather
- Nimbostratus clouds — Dark, grey, featureless layers of cloud, that when hanging low and heavy in the sky mean rain is imminent.
- Cumulus towers — Individual, cauliflower shaped clouds, that when become tower-like suggest showers later in the day.
- Cirrus clouds / Mere’s tail — When high (like streamers) and altocumulus clouds (like mackerel scales), point to bad weather within the next 36 hours.
11. Cold short-cuts
Get 'cross
Stay on track
Go for a spin
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
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