Seven Common Winter Training Mistakes to Avoid
Not progressing your training
As you get closer and closer to the first events of the season, whether it’s a sportive or road race, then your training needs to adapt. If you carry on doing what you have for the last two months then you won’t be stretching yourself in training.
As you approach the season your rides need to become more and more specific. For example, if you are a sportive rider targeting a major European event then you should start to incorporate more sweetspot work into your training order to replicate the effort required on climbs.
Doing too much, too soon
The principles of training are simple: train hard, recover to allow your body to adapt to that training, and then train hard again. The key is to allow your body to recover in between hard blocks of training and then make the next block slightly harder than the one you have just completed in order to encourage consistent and sustainable progression.
Not getting enough recovery
Without adequate recovery, your body won’t have the chance to adapt to the training stimulus and you won’t see any improvement in your fitness. Therefore, you need to ensure that after each training block you are fresh enough to start the next one.
Not having a plan
The first four points I’ve ran through are all geared towards ensuring you have a steady progression in your training; making each block slightly harder than the one you have just completed and getting adequate recovery.
Getting sick
If there’s one thing that interrupts winter training then it’s illness.
First, let’s dispel a myth – riding in the rain doesn’t make you sick. However, it may weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to getting sick. Most people become ill during the winter because we provide the perfect breeding ground for bacteria in our own homes, offices, cars etc. We come in from a hard ride in the cold and rain with a weakened immune system and expose ourselves to bugs.
There are, however, some very simple things you can do to help stop you from getting sick. First and foremost, don’t overtrain. The more tired you are, the more pressure your immune system will be under. It’s better to train at 80 per cent of your capacity for a whole winter than to try and train at 100 per cent for a few weeks only to get sick and miss the next two weeks.
Riding outside on ice and snow
We have all done it… looked outside on a frosty morning and thought, ‘it will be ok, I’ll stick to main roads.’ Don’t take the risk! No ride is ever worth the risk of injury. It only takes one corner and a small patch of black ice to throw away a whole winter of training.
Wearing too much or too little
It can be really tricky to get your clothing just right in the winter but knowing that you’re likely to stay warm and comfortable on the bike is a sure-fire way to help you get out of the door in the first place. My top tip – and I’m not breaking new ground here – is to focus on layering. Start with a good base layer and then layer up from there with thin but increasingly warm layers.
As you get closer and closer to the first events of the season, whether it’s a sportive or road race, then your training needs to adapt. If you carry on doing what you have for the last two months then you won’t be stretching yourself in training.
As you approach the season your rides need to become more and more specific. For example, if you are a sportive rider targeting a major European event then you should start to incorporate more sweetspot work into your training order to replicate the effort required on climbs.
Doing too much, too soon
The principles of training are simple: train hard, recover to allow your body to adapt to that training, and then train hard again. The key is to allow your body to recover in between hard blocks of training and then make the next block slightly harder than the one you have just completed in order to encourage consistent and sustainable progression.
Not getting enough recovery
Without adequate recovery, your body won’t have the chance to adapt to the training stimulus and you won’t see any improvement in your fitness. Therefore, you need to ensure that after each training block you are fresh enough to start the next one.
Not having a plan
The first four points I’ve ran through are all geared towards ensuring you have a steady progression in your training; making each block slightly harder than the one you have just completed and getting adequate recovery.
Getting sick
If there’s one thing that interrupts winter training then it’s illness.
First, let’s dispel a myth – riding in the rain doesn’t make you sick. However, it may weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to getting sick. Most people become ill during the winter because we provide the perfect breeding ground for bacteria in our own homes, offices, cars etc. We come in from a hard ride in the cold and rain with a weakened immune system and expose ourselves to bugs.
There are, however, some very simple things you can do to help stop you from getting sick. First and foremost, don’t overtrain. The more tired you are, the more pressure your immune system will be under. It’s better to train at 80 per cent of your capacity for a whole winter than to try and train at 100 per cent for a few weeks only to get sick and miss the next two weeks.
Riding outside on ice and snow
We have all done it… looked outside on a frosty morning and thought, ‘it will be ok, I’ll stick to main roads.’ Don’t take the risk! No ride is ever worth the risk of injury. It only takes one corner and a small patch of black ice to throw away a whole winter of training.
Wearing too much or too little
It can be really tricky to get your clothing just right in the winter but knowing that you’re likely to stay warm and comfortable on the bike is a sure-fire way to help you get out of the door in the first place. My top tip – and I’m not breaking new ground here – is to focus on layering. Start with a good base layer and then layer up from there with thin but increasingly warm layers.
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