Image Creative Commons: Steffe

Last week I encouraged everyone not to be Jan Ullrich and to find a way to stay fit through the wintery cycling off-season in the northern hemisphere. It’s always hard staying in shape in the off-season with snowy roads and cold temperatures, not to mention all of the holiday celebrations and the great food that goes along with them! Not that I am a guru on staying in shape during the off-season, but here’s a list of things that have worked for me in the past and that I have committed myself to this winter.

1. Get out and ride whenever you can! When the weather allows, try to do some riding out on the road. My goal is to get in at least 2 hours on the road each week. I usually try for about 4 hours in the off-season, but 2 should be an easy enough goal to achieve.
2. Indoor training. If you’re like me, indoor training isn’t on your list of exciting training options. But, you can really take advantage of the controlled environment of indoor training sessions to focus your workouts on specific muscle groups, skills, spinning and technique. If you really focus your indoor training sessions, you can get a lot done in about an hour. I vary my indoor workouts from about 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on the intensity, focus, and goal of each session. You can either spin at your local gym or get a good indoor trainer for use at home (that’s what I do). I’m not a big fan of rollers for workouts, but I do like them for improving bike handling skills and riding technique.
3. Spin with a friend. It gets kind of boring spinning alone so whenever you can, find a buddy to spin with. The time will pass more quickly and you’ll have someone to workout against if you need that competitive drive in your sessions. Here’s a video of me and my little training buddy on an indoor session. Believe it or not, even having my three year old “ride” with me makes the time pass faster (and he keeps me smiling too!).
4. Get some training DVD’s. I’m not super creative when it comes to making up my own spinning workouts so I really like the idea of getting a few DVD’s that have pre-built workouts and a coach that’ll keep you motivated while you’re spinning away in your house. My favorite series by far is Spinervals featuring Coach Troy Jacobson followed closely by the series by Chris Carmichael and Carmichael Training Systems. Both of these offer a good variety of workouts, each with a different focus and good coaching.
5. Strengthen that core. Your core muscles are so important in cycling because a lot of the power in your pedal stroke actually originates from your core muscles. I do core exercises 2-3 times per week in the winter. They’re simple exercises and I do anywhere from 20-50 reps of each, depending on where I’m at in the off-season. My favorites are crunches, ab twists, leg lifts, and back extensions. I also have a weak lower back so I work on that a lot in the winter with an exercise ball. The exercise is simple: lay your stomach on the ball and face downward, supporting yourself with your hands in a push-up position. Slowly raise your legs from the floor until they are parallel to the floor. Hold that position for 10 seconds, then lower your legs but don’t touch the floor. Do about 20 reps of that and you’ll be feeling the effect!
6. Strength training. The off-season is a great time to build up some strength. I’m not big on going to a gym to train, so most of these things can be done at home. I also have a full gym at home with the machines I need for some of the training, but if you don’t you can do most of these with simple free weights. I do three sets of 10 reps of each of these: squats, lunges, leg extensions, leg curls, calf raises, bench press, tricep push downs, and bicep curls. It’s important not to overdo the arms and chest, you’re not looking to get huge. Keep everything in your strength training at an aerobic level, so that means fast reps, lighter weights, and not too much rest between sets.
7. Cross training. Take some time off. Off the bike that is. This may sound counter-intuitive, but at the end of your long active season, take some time off the bike. Your body and your mind will appreciate it. My two favorites in the off-season are running and yoga. They keep my legs fresh and yoga really helps me with my flexibility and balance (and believe me, at 42, I can use all the help I can get with increased flexibility). Other great off-season cross training activities are skiing (cross-country or downhill), snowboarding, snowshoeing, and swimming. I’m not huge on mountain biking or cyclocross, but if you’re into that, those are both awesome off-season cross-training activities.
8. Set some goals. The off-season is the best time to start thinking about your long-term goals for the upcoming season. But make sure you set some short-term goals to keep your off-season training focused and sharp. Without goals, training programs fall into routines that don’t produce results.  Goals can be as simple as “I want to maintain my weight at 158 pounds in the next 4 weeks” or “I want to increase my average cadence to 105 during my spin workouts”.  Just give yourself something to work towards.
9. OK, I saved the Captain Obvious tip for last: DIET! Well, let’s make that diet and nutrition. I don’t know about you but I have a bad habit of falling for every holiday sweet and desert on the table. Bad Chris! So, I have to be super disciplined in the off-season in order to avoid the late winter bulge. I keep a daily journal of calories in and calories out. It’s a simple enough equation. I actually really trim down my caloric intake in the off-season, sometimes to only 1600 calories per day. But, when I do that, I also make sure that every calorie in has a high nutritional value. What does that mean? I try to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and fish, unsaturated fats, and whole grain foods for complex carbohydrates.  And, living in the dry climate of Colorado, I try to stay well hydrated.  This requires a lot of discipline and planning, but it’s worth it when spring time rolls around and you’re fit and trim.

I hope you find something in this list that’s useful to your winter training. And please, if you have other ideas or tips, share them here so we can all benefit from each other’s collective wisdom on staying fit through the winter.

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