What do you do during winter?

PartisanRanger

This isn't necessarily cycling preparation, but I downhill ski during the winter. Mogul skiing does strenghten the quad muscles, though. Plus, skiing is tons of fun and I'm quite good at it.

whoawhoa

I'm jealous. I get to go skiing once a year and love it! But living in the southeast (like a lot more southeast than North Carolina, even) is no place for someone who enjoys snow.

This winter my training program will look something like this:
Monday-Off or 30 minutes easy
Tuesday-2x20's @ft + tempo session (total of 3 hrs)
Wednesday-easy mtb ride with several all out 30 second intervals, or 10 second sprints (1-1.5 hrs)
Thursday-2x20's +tempo or 5x5 v02max intervals
Friday-1-1.5 hrs z2-3
Saturday-long ride (3-5 hrs) tempo if ~3hrs~, easy if ~5hrs~
Sunday-Moderate to long tempo ride (2.5-3 hrs, often on mtb)

13.5-17.5 hrs. Fair bit of intensity, I'm not a "base" person. I anticipate that around late january/early february I will plateu in my ft work due to my ft power being a high % of my v02max, meaning to improve further I will due a 2 week or so block of v02max work and then go back to continue raising my threshold. The v02max period will probably drop to around 9-10 hrs per week with 3-5 v02 max sessions each week.

Cyclist14

When I first stated building my base again ( about a month ago) my trainer workouts would include 2x5 min. ILT's for each leg and then high cadence (130+) spinning. I have been able to get rid of a few rough spots in my pedal stroke.

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Ciocc 7005 with Colnago Carbon Fork and Ultegra 10

mtnrider

Do you live near Viraquo (I think that is how you spell it). My friend owns Blue Dog Cyles there. Any way I hang out. use there trainer some, search for snow, work, build bikes, wax/scrape skis, homework, and dream of next season !

jortony

In Chicago the roads are cleared pretty fast so deep snow is rarely a trouble. You can easily ride for 30 miles a day in sub freezing temperatures, with the right clothing combinations you will be fine, and much happier that at the gym or on a silly trainer. The snow is actually very fun if you have that option. If it is deep grab your cyclocross or moutain bike and gear it low and tear some snow drifts apart =). Be careful for buried park benches, and holes =)

Winter makes me mad all year long, I dislike it during the summer, but it really isn't so bad, and riding through the really crappy weather gives me a deep satisfaction to smile my black slushy smile through my frozen face at the softening decline of the unhappy motor vehicle drivers. I also love getting to a stopping point and pulling off all of my outer and insulating layers and walking around like the human torch with a cloud of steam near obscuring my lit eyes. =)

Good luck and stop thinking about it, just get out there.

Jacob

hound-dog

I ride my bike in the winter. Roads are plowed pretty good here. Don't have a pic of my actual bike, but the Hammerhead Winter Trike on this page is identical:

http://www.atomiczombie.com/book-bonanza.htm

Mine's flourescent orange. Rides great, even in a couple inches of snow. Even in winter, ya gotta be cool!

whoawhoa

Hah, the weather was totally crappy here in the southeast yesterday. Which sucked cuz I had a half day of school. So I did a 3.5 hour ride on the trainer! Crap that sucked. The craziest thing was how physically worked I was, not just mentally. I did a long warmup, 4x15 @ FT, spun, 5 minute break to eat and refill bottles, then did temp @ 85ish% of FT until I totally cracked. The last 30 minutes I was dead, and at like 220 watts.