Winter training for running and cycling
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What do you do in winter, stop training?
Running in winter or cycling in the cold is not always possible, but...
In modern sport, the means, methods and equipment available to anyone who wants to stay active all year round are so many and so varied that you are spoilt for choice.
Take, for example, two groups of endurance athletes: runners and cyclists. Until a few years ago, people would have said that for these two types of athlete the winter season was the right time to rest and switch off completely, or perhaps to devote themselves solely to alternative activities such as the weights room, the swimming pool and little else.
That is no longer the case at all.
Professionals learned long ago that 'the seasons aren't what they used to be': competitive races in every discipline, especially cycling and to a lesser extent running, are now organised all year round, at every latitude. Whereas December and January used to be devoted solely to volume with no racing, now all you need to do is travel to the southern hemisphere and take part in one of the many race circuits held during what is, for them, the summer season, and the job is done. If you wanted, you could keep racing 365 days a year, travelling around the globe and chasing events.
Amateurs certainly don't have the same freedom to travel, but they are by no means denied the chance to keep their passion alive, competitively too, during the cold season, with race circuits running all the time.
And there is never a shortage of training.
Of course, indoor activities are preferred to outdoor ones, to avoid bad weather and difficult conditions that are often risky, especially on the bike and particularly at certain latitudes where winter conditions can be especially harsh. Gyms have no shortage of equipment for runners, with the most advanced treadmills, or for cyclists, with exercise bikes of every kind. The downside of all this equipment is that it cannot reproduce the original athletic movement 100%: even with the most advanced technology, it will never be possible to perform exactly the same movement we would make running or pedalling on tarmac, packed dirt or other surfaces. These machines are often too restrictive, locking the athletic movement into a mechanical pattern that rules out any irregularity or personal movement. They certainly help the body stay very well trained, but the athlete still clearly perceives the difference.
On a treadmill, for example, in the case of running, the push-off is different, the impact with the ground is much more cushioned, and a surface 'moving' under your feet certainly gives extra help in swinging the leg forward after push-off, with a noticeable effect compared with what happens on tarmac. Riding on rollers, on the other hand, or worse still on any spin bike or exercise bike, has the drawback of minimising the role of 'balance' in the athletic movement, removing a far from negligible component of this sport.
While there are downsides, these machines have just as many advantages, allowing us to do almost any kind of training while staying in the same place: the times and speeds we can reach today are identical to those achieved in real conditions, the only drawback, especially with the treadmill, being that you have to change the pace manually, so changes of speed happen at different rates from those possible in reality.
Some rules, however, have stayed the same over the years and hold firm despite all the upheaval in today's habits. Indoors, as well as on outdoor sessions when the weather allows, it is good practice at this time of year to keep a high volume of training at an aerobic pace, with plenty of climbing or on surfaces other than tarmac, for both cycling and running.
In workouts, especially in running, standing recoveries and so-called "above threshold" paces are avoided for two simple reasons: the first is purely health-related, because stopping completely, or stopping pedalling on the bike, and then starting again would increase the risk of muscle injuries linked to low temperatures. The second reason is much more closely tied to performance and race goals: if in winter we are in a phase far from our events, it could be counterproductive, or at least not advisable, to work on sharpness and top speed; on the contrary, low temperatures would favour recoveries performed at a good intensity, keeping the focus of the training period on aerobic and only partly anaerobic athletic qualities.
In this phase, "alternative" training methods come into their own and, if built correctly into the training plan, they can bring clear improvements in future events or performances. We are talking about gym sessions to work more specifically on the tone of muscle groups that are too often neglected, such as the Core or the upper body, or "alternative" sessions in the pool, perhaps combined at the same time with indoor cycling in a kind of 'mini-brick' session, following the example of triathletes, who know the benefits of this kind of training well.
In any case, this time of year lends itself to a wide variety of training stimuli, and often even a week on the ski slopes can provide new workloads for muscle structures that are often neglected in the daily training routine.
Body and mind will benefit, and considerably so.
Running in winter or cycling in the cold is not always possible, but...
In modern sport, the means, methods and equipment available to anyone who wants to stay active all year round are so many and so varied that you are spoilt for choice.
Take, for example, two groups of endurance athletes: runners and cyclists. Until a few years ago, people would have said that for these two types of athlete the winter season was the right time to rest and switch off completely, or perhaps to devote themselves solely to alternative activities such as the weights room, the swimming pool and little else.
That is no longer the case at all.
Professionals learned long ago that 'the seasons aren't what they used to be': competitive races in every discipline, especially cycling and to a lesser extent running, are now organised all year round, at every latitude. Whereas December and January used to be devoted solely to volume with no racing, now all you need to do is travel to the southern hemisphere and take part in one of the many race circuits held during what is, for them, the summer season, and the job is done. If you wanted, you could keep racing 365 days a year, travelling around the globe and chasing events.
Amateurs certainly don't have the same freedom to travel, but they are by no means denied the chance to keep their passion alive, competitively too, during the cold season, with race circuits running all the time.
And there is never a shortage of training.
Of course, indoor activities are preferred to outdoor ones, to avoid bad weather and difficult conditions that are often risky, especially on the bike and particularly at certain latitudes where winter conditions can be especially harsh. Gyms have no shortage of equipment for runners, with the most advanced treadmills, or for cyclists, with exercise bikes of every kind. The downside of all this equipment is that it cannot reproduce the original athletic movement 100%: even with the most advanced technology, it will never be possible to perform exactly the same movement we would make running or pedalling on tarmac, packed dirt or other surfaces. These machines are often too restrictive, locking the athletic movement into a mechanical pattern that rules out any irregularity or personal movement. They certainly help the body stay very well trained, but the athlete still clearly perceives the difference.
On a treadmill, for example, in the case of running, the push-off is different, the impact with the ground is much more cushioned, and a surface 'moving' under your feet certainly gives extra help in swinging the leg forward after push-off, with a noticeable effect compared with what happens on tarmac. Riding on rollers, on the other hand, or worse still on any spin bike or exercise bike, has the drawback of minimising the role of 'balance' in the athletic movement, removing a far from negligible component of this sport.
While there are downsides, these machines have just as many advantages, allowing us to do almost any kind of training while staying in the same place: the times and speeds we can reach today are identical to those achieved in real conditions, the only drawback, especially with the treadmill, being that you have to change the pace manually, so changes of speed happen at different rates from those possible in reality.
Some rules, however, have stayed the same over the years and hold firm despite all the upheaval in today's habits. Indoors, as well as on outdoor sessions when the weather allows, it is good practice at this time of year to keep a high volume of training at an aerobic pace, with plenty of climbing or on surfaces other than tarmac, for both cycling and running.
In workouts, especially in running, standing recoveries and so-called "above threshold" paces are avoided for two simple reasons: the first is purely health-related, because stopping completely, or stopping pedalling on the bike, and then starting again would increase the risk of muscle injuries linked to low temperatures. The second reason is much more closely tied to performance and race goals: if in winter we are in a phase far from our events, it could be counterproductive, or at least not advisable, to work on sharpness and top speed; on the contrary, low temperatures would favour recoveries performed at a good intensity, keeping the focus of the training period on aerobic and only partly anaerobic athletic qualities.
In this phase, "alternative" training methods come into their own and, if built correctly into the training plan, they can bring clear improvements in future events or performances. We are talking about gym sessions to work more specifically on the tone of muscle groups that are too often neglected, such as the Core or the upper body, or "alternative" sessions in the pool, perhaps combined at the same time with indoor cycling in a kind of 'mini-brick' session, following the example of triathletes, who know the benefits of this kind of training well.
In any case, this time of year lends itself to a wide variety of training stimuli, and often even a week on the ski slopes can provide new workloads for muscle structures that are often neglected in the daily training routine.
Body and mind will benefit, and considerably so.
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