Winter '24 training thread - what you training for and how?

Update!

I've been having a great winter's riding, the consistent approach is really paying off as I'm getting out more and actually ticking off some 'bucket list' routes that I had planned but didn't realistically expect to ride. Sorting my winter layering, lights and having the ice tyres has opened doors to riding in all conditions.

Problem is these routes are 'relatively' demanding, as in they take 4-6 hours and it's impossible to stick to Z2 all the way round as I'm on gravel and mud riding a CX bike which basically demands a bit of 'input' at times...

My indoor structured stuff hasn't been going so well just due to silly stuff like last week when I stopped during a rest interval to sort a creak out and started the next interval not realising the brakes were rubbing, absolutely buried myself to maintain power and ultimately had to sit up. Or my 30/30 intervals which I've actually performed worse at every week despite holding similar power.

I can only assume I'm just doing too much and building fatigue. I can improve recovery a little (I've got a sack of Torq Banango recovery shake I've not opened yet) and not do silly things like a 5km run the day before a hard interval session, but ultimately I think I'm just trying to do too much in a week.

I've got a rest week coming up (going up north to look after mum for a week, easiest not to take bike anyway) and will revisit the 'plan'. I'm enjoying the outdoor riding too much so will just work the indoor stuff around that, I think maybe just reduce turbo to once a week and maybe do an over-under session to build endurance but still get a sprinkling of intensity. Although first I have three weeks of drills for the upcoming CX race so that'll be some form of sprints and runs at the football pitches.

Ultimately I'll not be making the fitness gains I hoped to make for my event in June, I'm realising why PROPER training requires so much dedication, because you can't just go out and ride what you like, when you like. Is reason number #437 why I'll never be a professional athlete I guess 😆

I don't gave any events that I am working specifically towards but I have set a few goals for this year. I have found it tricky to balance my long distance running with road cycling over the past 18monts with running taking the priority.

So for 2025 I want to balance out both. Which will be a substantial commitment for me and my 53 year old body!

Each month this year I am aiming to run a marathon and also ride a Gran Fondo. The marathons will be a mixture of road and trail routes. The Fondos will be a mixture of outside and Zwift.

January went gone well with a marathon and a Fondo both completed.

Events will come along naturally as the year progresses. For example I am considering doing the High Terrain marathon at Glentress in February. Tour O'Borders in September is another possible event.

Nice! I guess most of your running and riding would have to be low intensity to build volume, and use your 'high intensity' sessions for weights and strength?

I was just starting to make progress with strength work then had to ditch it to squeeze in some HIIT for the CX race, so next year I'll be starting strength a lot earlier...

TBH I have never done any weights or strength training. It just has never happened for me.

I have a good base level of fitness, I do run typically in the lower zones and I do a lot of hill climbing. Zwift is generally in Zone2 with the occasional hill climbing session.

Interestingly I was listening to an ultra running podcst recently and the guest fitness coach was talking up the benefits of zone 1 excercise to improve stamina. Which for me actually makes sense as I have dogs which I walk three times a day at a nice slow pace. Walking the dogs after a long run or bike ride also doubles as  recovery for me.

Hmm... noticing that I'm not feeling any fitter or stronger after a decent winter so far, unsurprisingly I think the long/mixed intensity gravel rides are just too fatiguing as my interval sessions aren't going so well. Had a rest week of sorts last week (just 1 dog walk per day and a 6km run) but still felt a bit sluggish over 100km yesterday (usual problem fuelling on the go on a winter ride with clumsy gloves on!).

Time to back off the big rides for a few weeks I guess and focus on intensity, ultimately I think a big gravel ride is too much like an 'event' and doesn't really contribute very well to structured training, dare I say it's a bit too much like 'junk' miles (except of course very good fun). Priorities I guess!

I'm still pinning my hopes on Spring and the milage increasing with the nicer weather and a new bike.  Riding has dropped down to 2x per week + commuting (which isn't much).  And those 2x have been weather / other plan dependent So in 7 weeks I've done 7 rides of 40miles+ and a couple of shorter 15mile lunch rides. 

So far I feel fitter / faster, but the clock isn't lying, I'm slower up the big hill than I was in the Autumn.  According to Strava it's currently about 30min30s to the top solo (~6km ~2% but it's almost parabolic so while the start is a false flat the end is ~7%), my record this year is 27min30s with someone pacing me (i.e. getting a draft through the opening km's).  My PR is 24min30s, and I really need to be consistently doing it in ~22min (based on clubmates times for the kind of people I think would do what I need to do successfully).

Weight loss has at best been within the margin for error.  I'm back down to my pre-Christmas weight (so +2kg then -2kg, but with the slight positive this is now post some weight training which always makes me retain a few extra kg's of water.  I still need to seriously look to lose almost 1kg a week for 6 months though 😬 

Another week, another excellent long ride at the weekend, another 4 day recovery 🤣 

I really did try to pace this one more carefully, but I guess mixing gravel, muddy farm tracks, singletrack, road, cobbles, climbs etc. just demands a certain intensity no matter what. Strava says I did 3hr50m Endurance/Moderate, 2hr40m 'Tempo' and 39 minutes 'Threshold' although my heart rate bands on Strava are quite broad. 

Also, despite trying my hardest, I don't think I ate enough, I burned somewhere between 3500kCal and 4300kCal depending what metric you trust. I ate 3055kCal during the ride which included lunch on the go. That included 385g of carbohydrates which is less than 60g/hr. Although no doubt I made up for all of this binging on crap once I got home 🙄 At least I'm confident I could make up that short fall if I had energy drink in my bottles instead of just water, I'll probably start using a hydration pack so I can carry both.

I wish there was a way that you could turn these rides into effective training but I can now relate entirely to a lot of the 'training conundrums' you see on Trainerroad forum etc. as I can see that I'm doing a lot of quality riding but not getting any faster, and am wondering if I should be dropping some of the bigger rides I have planned in the next couple of months, but then, is that really worth it just for the possibility of a slightly-better-than-mid-pack finish at an event that's not really a race anyway? 😆 

Definitely thinking I should sack off any competitive aspirations in future years, it's a pain in the backside trying to fit 'fun' riding around structured training!

I wish there was a way that you could turn these rides into effective training but I can now relate entirely to a lot of the 'training conundrums' you see on Trainerroad forum etc. as I can see that I'm doing a lot of quality riding but not getting any faster, and am wondering if I should be dropping some of the bigger rides I have planned in the next couple of months, but then, is that really worth it just for the possibility of a slightly-better-than-mid-pack finish at an event that's not really a race anyway? 😆 

Definitely thinking I should sack off any competitive aspirations in future years, it's a pain in the backside trying to fit 'fun' riding around structured training!

I'm splitting my week into 3 main rides, the Sunday club run which I generally semi-deliberately aim to run out of fuel on.  

The Tuesday night at the velodrome, which generally entails something like 3x 15min intervals lapping with one or two others (i.e. 1 minute over threshold-1 under).

Thursday club ride which is only 25 miles plus 8 each way to the start/finish and involves Pisshill which is ~24minutes at threshold again.

It's all different types of vaguely structured fun. Although Garmin keeps telling me I need to do more aerobic threshold work. So I might need to figure out a day on the trainer for that.

Thursday night 

My weeks are still split over 3 rides, the longer ~90km one on Sunday, Velodrome on Tuesday, and shorter/harder 60km on Thursday (40km at a brisk pace with 10km to/from the start).  Plus just enough commuting to count as active recovery.

I feel like it's slowly paying off without having to be so structured it stops being fun.

But my Garmin keeps telling me I'm not doing enough aerobic work (i.e. 5 minute hard intervals).  Which is weird because that's all the Chilterns is 😂.  I might have to do a session a week on the turbo to address that. 

Posted by: thisisnotaspoon

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I feel like it's slowly paying off without having to be so structured it stops being fun.

That's a good point, I'm not 'not getting faster' I guess, just not getting faster as quickly as I would like. I guess my current routine just isn't very efficient.

Posted by: thisisnotaspoon

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But my Garmin keeps telling me I'm not doing enough aerobic work (i.e. 5 minute hard intervals).  Which is weird because that's all the Chilterns is 😂.  I might have to do a session a week on the turbo to address that. 

I didn't used to trust my Garmin but it did suggest 3.5 days recovery from the last ride and I think it's nailed that!

Posted by: thisisnotaspoon

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I wish there was a way that you could turn these rides into effective training but I can now relate entirely to a lot of the 'training conundrums' you see on Trainerroad forum etc. as I can see that I'm doing a lot of quality riding but not getting any faster, and am wondering if I should be dropping some of the bigger rides I have planned in the next couple of months, but then, is that really worth it just for the possibility of a slightly-better-than-mid-pack finish at an event that's not really a race anyway? 😆 

Definitely thinking I should sack off any competitive aspirations in future years, it's a pain in the backside trying to fit 'fun' riding around structured training!

Thursday club ride which is only 25 miles plus 8 each way to the start/finish and involves Pisshill which is ~24minutes at threshold again.

 

I've just rode Pishill for the first time today despite it just being down the road from me. I imagine it's normally a pretty nice climb but today it was bloody cold along there and a freezing headwind the whole way up to Christmas Common. Needless to say, it wasn't fun 🤣 

Dammit, I assumed the forum had eaten at least one of those replies.

I've just rode Pishill for the first time today despite it just being down the road from me. I imagine it's normally a pretty nice climb but today it was bloody cold along there and a freezing headwind the whole way up to Christmas Common. Needless to say, it wasn't fun 🤣 

Haha, I quite enjoy it, fast on the flatter start and a spirit at the end suits me perfectly 😂 And generally the valley shelters you from the prevailing headwind.

It's worse in on a still night in winter as you can leave Reading at ~7C, the temperature drops a bit, but not much into Harpsden  / Henley, then as soon as you start up Fairmile you hit a wall of cold air descending the valley and you go from sweating to shivering.