Singletrack Magazine Issue 128 | Column – Jason Miles

I think body fat could be useful if you were kidnapped and locked in a shed for a few weeks without food or if you’re walking to the North Pole, but other than that you should probably think about how you’re going to survive until spring without turning yourself into a blimp. 

This isn’t a winter training and nutrition guide. I’m not here to tell you how you’re going to get ripped abdominal muscles or how you’re going to have The Best Year Ever next year. Not without charging you money for it anyway. 

Besides, I gain weight like a champ once I realise that the next mad race is months away in the future, slip back into my old crappy lifestyle and invariably leave myself a metaphorical mountain to climb in March. It’s the same every year. “Oooh, thank the lord all those silly races are over with. I can just ride my bike for a laugh, but this time I’m going to eat properly and not start boozing like I always do… but what’s that you say? Pub and a curry? Oh, don’t mind if I do…”

I’ve realised this time that getting into some good habits early on is the best thing to do. It might turn out to be the worst thing to do, but we can come back to that in March 2020 when we do the weigh-in. If I’m over 75 kilograms then everything I’m saying here today is complete and utter bollocks. If I’m under 75 kilos then I’m a bloody genius. 

Back to the point. The point is, I’ve just returned from a week in Tenerife. The kids in Scotland get two weeks off for half-term in October so that’s good, and because it’s a different time to English kids we don’t get stung on the inflated air fares. Hashtag smugface. Unsurprisingly, the holiday was lovely. Lots of relaxing by the pool; there was enough Nothing Else To Do to allow me to read an entire novel and naturally, there was more than enough beer and sangria. No races for ages, remember?

In spite of being on holiday with my wife and two children, I rode my bike up a mountain every day and returned from this week of food, alcohol and reclining with actually LESS body fat and (I think) more fitness. I contracted a weird virus-y cold thing on the flight home, which made me feel like crap for a week, so I’m not sure I am really any fitter, but I keep telling myself that I should be. 

Luckily the air-conditioning in the apartment we rented was knackered and nobody was able to sleep properly, so getting out of bed to go for a mountainous bike ride at 6am every morning wasn’t terribly difficult. And I found I could summit the nearest massive climb, take loads of photos of empty, billiard table-smooth roads and cloud inversions, turn around and ride back in less than three hours. This meant that I got back around about the same time as our two teenage daughters could be bothered to get up out of their pits, so there weren’t any ‘Yeah, it was an alright holiday I s’pose but dad was out riding his bike the whole time, the selfish git’ type moans from them at all.

Establishing good habits early, see? I didn’t have to get out of bed and go for a ride every morning, but I knew that once I’d got into the routine it wouldn’t be as much of a chore later on. OK, fair enough, riding in the early morning in Tenerife isn’t the same as heading out into the drizzle and dark of a British winter, but I’ve carried on now I’m at home and it’s not so bad. 

If you don’t want to get chubbier in the winter, why not set yourself a target? You don’t have to go abroad to get into a good winter routine. How about riding five times a week? Or five hours a week? Or ten hours if you’re feeling tough. If you’re feeling really daft, why not try to ride every day for a month? Or every day until the end of the year? Or the end of January? Or February? Or until the clocks go forward again?

Now is the time to plan what you’re going to do. We can compare notes (and photos if you want) in March.