Winter Training

[Peter Armstrong]

Personally, during the winter I would be backing off on the intensity and doing lots of tempo work whilst enjoying riding the bike, keeping only a few "hard" sessions in there. There are arguments for both approaches, but my personal experience is that smashing yourself to bits for 12 months is not good for mind nor performance. The bike racing season it pretty long and you will be training hard during it, so do you really want to be training hard during the off season too?

Yes! yeas I do. Life has forced me to have pently of rest, What with moving house this year and other random events. If i do not have a stuchured plan i fear I will just do the same as last winter which was not alot.

 

[VamP]

Personally, during the winter I would be backing off on the intensity and doing lots of tempo work whilst enjoying riding the bike, keeping only a few "hard" sessions in there. There are arguments for both approaches, but my personal experience is that smashing yourself to bits for 12 months is not good for mind nor performance. The bike racing season it pretty long and you will be training hard during it, so do you really want to be training hard during the off season too?

Like you say can go both ways, but it doesn't sound like he's been smashing himself yet.

My approach is to build in a couple of easier months, one between my summer and cross season, and one after the cross season finishes. Not time off, just less structured in general.

 

[Rob3rt]

Like you say can go both ways, but it doesn't sound like he's been smashing himself yet.

My approach is to build in a couple of easier months, one between my summer and cross season, and one after the cross season finishes. Not time off, just less structured in general.

No but if he is going to race next year, he will be smashing himself from Feb/March onwards, right up until September/October or so.

 

[400bhp]

@gam001 is the King of turbo trainers and fitness.

He must have increased his power by a fair bit over last winter by following some training gumph. (averages 20mph regularly now whereas a year ago, perhaps averaged 16)

Sadly his waistline didn't decrease by the same proportion ;-)

 

[VamP]

No but if he is going to race next year, he will be smashing himself from Feb/March onwards, right up until September/October or so.

Let's hope so...

 

[Peter Armstrong]

@gam001 is the King of turbo trainers and fitness.

He must have increased his power by a fair bit over last winter by following some training gumph. (averages 20mph regularly now whereas a year ago, perhaps averaged 16)

Sadly his waistline didn't decrease by the same proportion ;-)

Ha Ha, get lost!

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Ha Ha, get lost!

Ow wait...........

 

[Peter Armstrong]

At the min I just do a 10 min warm up them watch a vid like this
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJrWJ09Mwc

 

[400bhp]

Silly Billy ;-)

 

[gam001]

He

@gam001 is the King of turbo trainers and fitness.

He must have increased his power by a fair bit over last winter by following some training gumph. (averages 20mph regularly now whereas a year ago, perhaps averaged 16)

Sadly his waistline didn't decrease by the same proportion ;-)

He he...very true, although my waistline did decrease a little...I like my food too much
Unlike @Rob3rt , I haven't been hammering myself by going ridiculously fast on a TT-bike or doing 48 hill repats (yes, I did say 48 ) for the last 6 or 7 months, and so I don't need the "rest" like he does...so I'll be focusing on short sharp interval turbo sessions on Tues & Thurs with 3 to 4 hour endurance weekend rides on Sat & Sun.
I'll do a few weeks of 15-20 min TT efforts, then switch to a few weeks of 3-5 min hard efforts, etc and keep mixing it up every few weeks. Trying to get my LT / VO2 power up during the turbo sessions, and then just burning calories / maintaine endurance engine / get in a social ride at weekend when I have more time. It all depends on what you want to improve I suppose. Generally speaking, raising these two measures will make you a better "all round" rider.
I've never used turbo-DVDs so can't recommend any in particular - I just do an hour in the garage with my iPod or radio blasting, and imagine I've got to stay on the wheels of @400bhp and @Hacienda71 going up a steep hill...it's funny, as I always seem to manage it in my garage...
Hoping to raise LT power by around 25watts but reduce waistline by a bigger proportion this winter...easier said than done with me...I'm not a professional cyclist afterall
Good luck with it and, above all, enjoy it

 

[Hacienda71]

He

He he...very true, although my waistline did decrease a little...I like my food too much
Unlike @Rob3rt , I haven't been hammering myself by going ridiculously fast on a TT-bike or doing 48 hill repats (yes, I did say 48 ) for the last 6 or 7 months, and so I don't need the "rest" like he does...so I'll be focusing on short sharp interval turbo sessions on Tues & Thurs with 3 to 4 hour endurance weekend rides on Sat & Sun.
I'll do a few weeks of 15-20 min TT efforts, then switch to a few weeks of 3-5 min hard efforts, etc and keep mixing it up every few weeks. Trying to get my LT / VO2 power up during the turbo sessions, and then just burning calories / maintaine endurance engine / get in a social ride at weekend when I have more time. It all depends on what you want to improve I suppose. Generally speaking, raising these two measures will make you a better "all round" rider.
I've never used turbo-DVDs so can't recommend any in particular - I just do an hour in the garage with my iPod or radio blasting, and imagine I've got to stay on the wheels of @400bhp and @Hacienda71 going up a steep hill...it's funny, as I always seem to manage it in my garage...
Hoping to raise LT power by around 25watts but reduce waistline by a bigger proportion this winter...easier said than done with me...I'm not a professional cyclist afterall
Good luck with it and, above all, enjoy it

We only go fast up the hills because we know you are chasing us up them Gaz.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

OK, so my plan is......

Just kill it on the turbo.

 

[Rob3rt]

Unlike @Rob3rt , I haven't been .... doing 48 hill repats (yes, I did say 48 )

@gam001 That hill I rep is very short though, each rep is just a 20 second or so sprint as it is only about 250ft long, the gradient is about 20% and the surface is cobbled. If you think I am bonkers, then you will think another local rider on the HC scene is certifiable, last week he did 4 reps of Long Hill, then 6 reps of the Cat and Fiddle, in one ride (that's approx 104 miles if you count the Cat as 6 miles and Long Hill 4 miles, and excludes miles riding out to Long Hill or in between climbs!) , went home had some lentil soup then went out on a club chaingang (probably 30-50 miles) in the evening.

BTW @Hacienda71, there is no way James went up there at 19+ mph, haha. Similarly some of the other times are pretty suspect, likely GPS errors due to the short segment as you said before.

 

[Hacienda71]

@gam001 That hill I rep is very short though, each rep is just a 20 second or so sprint as it is only about 250ft long, the gradient is about 20% and the surface is cobbled. If you think I am bonkers, then you will think another local rider on the HC scene is certifiable, last week he did 4 reps of Long Hill, then 6 reps of the Cat and Fiddle, in one ride (that's approx 104 miles if you count the Cat as 6 miles and Long Hill 4 miles, and excludes miles riding out to Long Hill or in between climbs!) , went home had some lentil soup then went out on a club chaingang (probably 30-50 miles) in the evening.

BTW @Hacienda71, there is no way James went up there at 19+ mph, haha. Similarly some of the other times are pretty suspect, likely GPS errors due to the short segment as you said before.

Flag it

I was going to pull his leg about it next time I see him.

 

[Rob3rt]

@Hacienda71 He commented on my reps so I asked him WTF with the 10 secs, lol - Not bothered to flag it.