What do you all do in winter/off-season?

hippy

It's winter here in Oz and I'm wondering what most of you track riders do when the racing stops, weather shuts down tracks, road season starts etc.?

It could be anything: sit on butt playing Nintendo, road race, mtb race, casual riding when weather isn't too bad, indoor track so the season never ends??

hippy

drewjc

road racing, with no particular goals except to ride well in a few flatter races and/or crits. Friday track racing in sydney is also an option that i havent explored yet but i am intending to this year.

DarrylZ

Hey there
Down here our winters get cold, but not so that you can't ride.
Its more a issue of not enough daylight to ride before or after work.
Stationary bike, MTB more on weekends. Golf and a bit of weight training in the week.

Watching TDF.

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ed073

Rip legs orf on the Hell Ride, Hippy!!!

bikeguy

Try to forget it's winter. This will be my first year training cycling (I'll be using a stationary ergo) year round.

gntlmn

Cross country skiing is what I do, but it sure puts the muscle on your upper body. The aerobic conditioning you start with is fantastic in the spring, but the upper body muscle is hard to lose. It's really enjoyable exercise though, except for the moose. They don't get out of the way.

bikeguy

The only things that put upper body mass on me are incline dumbbell presses, flyes and barbell benches and if I do all three I might actually get some pecs. My shoulders get somewhat big though if I do any kind of pressing.

I figure I'll get really bored with stationary cycling indoors so I probably will do some running too. Apparently these Finns also put studded bicycle tires on and ride during the winter too. I don't know if I want to do that though.

ed073

You want pecs? Flat bench, incline bench and leaning forward (weighted) dips. Flyes, imho, are just weighted stretches.

Julian Radowsky

Ride my Tacx Cycleforce Swing indoors 5 times a week, get on the road on the weekend if the weather is good enough.

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leif_bike

I still try to get in a 3+ hour Saturday group ride year round. Maybe one additional ride per week in the fall months if the weather is okay. I spend lots of time in the gym and just a tad in the pool. I don't ride too much if the weather sucks in the fall because come January 1st I'll get more then my share of time in the saddle battling the rain and cold here in Seattle.

Leif

bikeguy

Ed073, flyes and DB inc press made my pecs the biggest and upped my bench, bench never worked for me. They also lowered my strength to weight ratio and aerobic performance, so now I've almost completely laid off upper body work. My Wmax is nearing 450 watts+ (25 w 2 minute increments, continuous) but thats starting after 16 min 300 watts and the damn stationary bike makes me do 120 rpm to get up at 450 w.

Pardon me for not posting for 6 months (?) I forgot my password, and I hate accessing the junk-mail infested e-mail account to retrieve the password.

Besides, it was winter, but now it's warming up and I'm all ready for my first competition (TT or mass start). Based on my training rides against the other club riders, I should do pretty well.

ed073

DB incline bench is invaluable. Great for pec development.