What you do this winter can really make or break your season
in the coming year. Winter training is different for everyone since we live in
different areas of the world; some of us spend a solid five months indoors
while others can ride outside year round.
There are some vital components to creating a very good winter training program no matter where you live, and of course a power meter has a lot to do with it.
There are some vital components to creating a very good winter training program no matter where you live, and of course a power meter has a lot to do with it.
Before you embark on your official winter training plan,
though, you’ve got to make sure you’re well rested and recovered from the long
season. Hopefully you’ve taken a couple of weeks off and given yourself at
least two weeks of easy cross-training; this is essential to recharging your
physical and mental batteries.
Once you’re rested, recharged, and ready to go, your winter
should contain the following four important components:
1. Focused indoor training
workouts
2. Solid workouts at your sweet spot
3. A cross-training routine
4. Balanced rest periods
These four components combine to create a strong winter
program that can give you one of your best winters ever. I’ll expand on each
point so you can use them all to the best advantage.
In most of the United States, the winter is quite cold,
which means we will spend at least some of it on the indoor trainer. (All you
southern California readers out there, don’t stop reading; just try to
incorporate some of these workouts into your outdoor routine.) Even though most
of us love riding our bikes outside, the indoor trainer can provide some really
great workouts with no real distractions: no cars, no wind, no hills, no dogs.
All the things that can get in the way of a focused session aren’t problems on
the indoor trainer.
Now that you’re resigned and committed to the indoor
trainer, what workouts should you do? There are two basic types of workouts I
prescribe to my athletes in the winter: cadence-based workouts and sweet spot
workouts. Almost all the workouts my athletes do during this season are some
permutation of these two basic types. Cadence-based workouts emphasize cadence
changes first, with power and heart rate of second and tertiary importance.
Cadence workouts typically do not stress the cardiovascular system but are more
focused on improving the muscular system. They can range from high rpm efforts
emphasizing neuromuscular power to very slow rpm efforts emphasizing muscular
strength.
What is the purpose of cadence-based workouts and why should
you do them this winter? The higher cadence workouts help you maintain your
ability to quickly contract and relax your muscles, which is a very important
skill in cycling. By training your neuromuscular power throughout the winter,
you can keep the critical ability to quickly change your cadence and even
enhance it.
This type of indoor workout is relatively simple and can
also easily be done either indoors or outside. One of my favorites is
one-minute fast-pedaling intervals, where you pedal over 110 rpm for one minute
and then pedal at your self-selected (normal) cadence for a minute and then
repeat. This is a great leg burner, but it doesn’t get the heart rate too high
and therefore push your training into more of an anaerobic zone.
On the other side of the coin, lower cadence workouts are
also great to do in the winter because they can enhance your muscular strength,
which can in turn help you to sprint with more peak wattages and push a bigger
gear into the wind in a time trial or up a steep climb. Muscular strength
workouts are based around hard but short intervals done in the biggest gear you
can manage at low rpm. Many people believe the myth that riding for hours in a
big gear at slow rpm will increase muscular strength and make them more
powerful, but this only makes you good at riding in a big gear at slow rpm!
Riding at 50 rpm for hours on end just doesn’t create enough muscular stress to
strengthen the muscles. Consider this analogy: If you’re trying to bench press
200 pounds in the weight room, you need to start at 150 pounds and build up to
it with low reps, high sets, and the most weight you can lift. You have to use
heavier and heavier weights to stress the muscle in order for it to adapt. If
you lifted 100 pounds one million times, you would never adapt to lifting 200
pounds one time. The “big gear” myth is similar; when you pedal at 50 rpm for
hours on end, it’s just like lifting 100 pounds for a million reps. While 100
pounds (metaphorically speaking) is more than your normal pedaling force of 80
pounds, it’s just not enough stress on the muscles to get them to strengthen.
In order to increase your muscular strength on the bike, you need to do hard,
short bursts of effort in a big gear. For example, put your chain in the 53:12
gear and slow down to about 8-10 mph, then (staying seated) tighten your
abdominals, grip your handlebars tightly, and with all your might turn that
gear over until you reach 80 rpm. Once you reach 80 rpm, the amount of force
you’re putting on the cranks has reduced to a point at which it’s just not
enough stress to create muscular strength improvements. You should plan on
doing about twenty of these power bursts in a session to create enough of an
overload to achieve some benefit.
The second type of training I prescribe to my athletes in
the winter is called sweet spot training (SST). When you ride just below your
functional threshold power (FTP) at approximately 88-93% of your FTP, you are
riding in your sweet spot. Why is it called the sweet spot? As shown on the
chart below, when you’re in this area of intensity, the level of physiological
strain (read: amount of pain) is relatively low, while the maximum duration (read:
time) that you can stay in this area is quite high. You can also see that your
increase in FTP is greatest in this area, so training in your sweet spot really
gives you a tremendous bang for your buck.
When you do SST, start out with 15- to 30-minute efforts and
gradually build up to 60- to 120-minute efforts if you can. These efforts
aren’t easy ones, but you’ll get a tremendous cardiovascular benefit from them.
Make sure to do at least one to two sessions each week, and you’ll see a big
difference in your FTP come February.
Cross-training is another key to winter success. One of the
most important cross-training exercises you can do this winter is some type of
core abdominal exercises combined with stretching. A Pilates or yoga class can
really help you develop strong abdominals, which in turn help you transfer
energy from your upper body to your legs and protect your back from injury. If
you can, take a class or do a video every week; that will be enough to make a
difference. For cardiovascular work, I recommend doing some mountain biking,
hiking, trail running, roller blading, and cross-country skiing (if you have
the snow). Just keep it fun and not too intense, as cross-training is supposed
to enhance your cycling, not cause injury or major cardiovascular stress.
Cross-training is great to do in the off-season, since we don’t really move our
muscles in multiple planes on the bicycle, and will provide some great muscular
and cardiovascular stimulus.
A word of caution about starting any new exercise: take it
easy for the first two weeks. I once had a client who was very fit and decided
to go out and run ten miles in the first day of cross-training. Needless to
say, he was barely able to walk for the next two weeks. He also inadvertently
pulled a muscle, which forced him to take three weeks off from all training. So
be careful and break yourself in slowly when you start a new exercise.
The final component of a successful winter program is rest.
It doesn’t sound like it’s that big of a deal, but too much training in the
winter will make you a “January star.” It’s great to train hard in the winter,
and it’s the key to really pushing yourself to the next level for the coming
year, but if you constantly train hard in the winter, you’ll peak in January.
The key to increasing your FTP this winter and making it your new normal
fitness level is to train intensely for only two days in a row. After two
intense days, give yourself a rest before coming back to training, except every
other week give yourself two days of easy training after two hard days instead
of resting so you can keep your battery charged. Your goal this winter is to
never let your battery charge go below 97%. Two days of hard training will
bring your battery down to 97%, and a day off or a day of easy training will
allow it to recharge back to 100%. This way you can balance hard training with
proper rest and enter the season fresh and strong, without turning into one of
those riders that wins all the January rides!
These four components of winter training all combine successfully
to ensure you create your best winter of training ever. A proper winter program
will push your FTP up to the next level, maintain your ability to change
cadences, and put you at the start of the season with a fresh mind and ready
body for a strong and long season! Be sure to keep your focus this winter. This
season really is the time for you to rise to the next level and make next year
a breakthrough season!
