During these cold weather months, many of us begin to get the itch for the first races of next season. These short and dreary days can seem to drag on forever. But there’s a golden opportunity in the off-season—the chance to build a competitive edge that makes rolling to the start line of the first spring race that much sweeter. Whether you're gearing up for a fast-paced criterium, running a time trial, or tackling a grueling gravel grinder, winter is the time to build fitness, hone your skills, and emerge stronger when spring rolls around.
Start with a plan
Building fitness as a cyclist over the winter months requires a structured plan incorporating indoor and outdoor training, strength work, and recovery. A well-designed plan will optimize for gradually increasing the training volume while scheduling enough recovery to avoid injury or overtraining. Taking a scientific approach, measuring your performance before stepping up to the next training block, and adjusting the plan accordingly will yield the best results.
Inventory your races from last year and recall how you did. What could have gone better? Which parts were the biggest struggles? Where did competitors show strengths you were lacking? Identifying your weaknesses is a great place to start plotting your pre-race plans. If this is your first race, schedule a race with a friend and keep a close eye on how you perform in comparison.
Next, take a look at the quality of the race you’re preparing for. Is it short and intense, or a test of endurance? No matter what the race looks like, you’ll need to work on conditioning in all forms, but you can better structure and prioritize your goals when you know your target.
As you build your winter training plan, consider taking a periodization approach to avoid overtraining. Developed in the 1960s, this structured training approach organizes training into specific phases (preparatory, competitive, transitional) and those phases into individual blocks, designed to optimize performance through progressive overload and periodized intensity. When applied to cycling, this training method focuses on base training to develop aerobic fitness, a build phase to sharpen intensity, and finishes with a peak phase to fine-tune your race day power.
Base Training: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Winter is prime time for base training—the foundation of your fitness. The goal here is simple: increase aerobic capacity with low-intensity, steady-state rides. To get a baseline to measure progress against, determine your current capacity by performing a functional threshold power (FTP) test. Test your FTP by doing a 10-minute warmup followed by 20 minutes of all-out effort on a smart trainer or bike equipped with a power meter. The goal is to finish the effort at the same power that you started; if your power drops off, you are too ambitious and must retry at a lower level after a few days of recovery. Take 95% of the watts shown to get your current FTP. Check your FTP every 4-6 weeks to track your progress.
Building aerobic capacity on the bike should make up 70-80% of your training volume during base training.
- Endurance Rides: Keep your heart rate in Zone 2 (60-75% of max). Long, steady rides are your ticket to better endurance.
- Indoor Options: No one loves braving icy roads. Set up your smart trainer, log into apps like Zwift, Rouvy, or TrainerRoad, and knock out structured workouts that keep you consistent.
- Technique Drills: Use the winter months to refine your pedal stroke with cadence drills and single-leg pedaling to smooth out inefficiencies.
The “slow and steady” part of training can be the most monotonous, so consider mixing it up by doing a variety of inside and outside rides, solo and partner rides, and even changing your playlist.
This is also a good time to focus on breathing techniques such as diaphragmatic (or “belly”) breathing, achieving a full exhale before inhaling, and even timing your breaths to pedal strokes. Try inhaling for three pedal strokes and exhaling for six.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate other cardiovascular-building activities, such as swimming, rowing, or running, to give yourself a break from the bike and cross-train your body to prevent repetitive-use injuries. You may be surprised to see how much cardiovascular strength you can build with some of these activities.
Here’s a sample weekly training plan for base training:
- Monday: Long, steady indoor ride. Keep heart rate in Zone 2 for 90-120 minutes
- Tuesday: Technique and strength drills. Focus on single-leg pedaling and incorporate strength-training activities.
- Wednesday: Cross-training. Swimming or rowing with moderate effort, giving cycling muscles a break.
- Thursday: Outdoor endurance ride. Steady effort for 2-3 hours.
- Friday: Active recovery or group ride, low intensity. Adding a social component can increase motivation.
- Saturday: Endurance ride with short intensity bursts every 30 minutes.
- Sunday: Recovery. Give muscles a break by walking or practicing yoga.
Shoot for at least 12 weeks of base training, but make sure you have at least eight. Yes, this will take some planning, but it will pay dividends when you reach the finish line.
High-Intensity Workouts
Staying consistent with your base training will build a quality foundation of race readiness, helping you condition for the season's first races. It will also lay the groundwork for high-intensity workouts, which have the potential to elevate you leaps and bounds above your competition.
As race day approaches, it is time to ramp up your power and push your body to new limits. In the final six weeks before the race, focus on training that pushes your body out of the base training zones to which it became accustomed over the winter months. For this next phase, high-intensity training becomes your best friend.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) boosts cardiovascular health and performance, greatly impacts muscle growth, and is key to building the explosive speed and power needed to win races. HIIT involves relatively short intervals of exercises at levels that reach your maximum threshold. These intervals are followed by a period of less intense workout or rest, and then repeated at the next interval. HIIT can easily be done on an outdoor ride or on an indoor trainer if the conditions outside are icy or sloppy.
HIIT workouts often look like this: Start with a relatively easy warm-up pedal for five minutes on your indoor trainer. Follow the warm-up with a 30-second sprint at maximum effort, followed by a 90-second “rest” pedal. Once the rest pedal is complete, go back to the 30-second max effort. Repeat these intervals eight times, ending the training with a five-minute cooldown spin.
- Threshold Workouts: Target your lactate threshold with intervals at 90-95% of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). Try 3x12 minutes with equal rest to build stamina.
- VO2 Max Intervals: Boost your top-end aerobic performance with shorter, intense efforts like 4x5 minutes at 105-120% FTP.
- Simulate Race Demands: Include workouts that mirror your race’s terrain and effort levels. For example, hill repeats if your event has climbs or sprints for criterium-style races.
Build Strength Off the Bike
HIIT workouts are a great way to help build strength on the bike. However, they are not enough to develop a holistic strength that lays down power while avoiding injuries. That sort of strength is built off the bike, in the weight room.
No magic pill or perfect weight routine will allow you to accomplish all your goals. You may need to try a couple of workout plans to find one that works best for you. However, prioritize sustaining and building the muscle groups you use most while cycling.
- Lower Body Power: Focus on quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves—in that order. For explosive strength, add squats, deadlifts, and lunges to your routine; however, you may consider variations that provide a fuller range of motion.
- Core Work: Cycling is not an effective core exercise, but core exercises can greatly improve your bike performance. A strong core helps you remain stable on the bike and efficiently transfer pedaling power from your legs to the ground. Planks, Russian twists, and bridges are your go-to moves, but squats and deadlifts will also work your core.
While adding strength training to your winter cycling routine will help you when you head to the start line, it is important not to overdo it between weights, HIIT, and rides. Limit weight room time to 2-3 days a week, and make sure you wait at least 8-10 hours after lifting before heading out on a ride. As you get closer to the race, you can ease off strength training and spend more time on the bike.
Leading up to the race
As race day approaches, tailor your training to the specific demands of the course you'll be racing on. Focus on drills that enhance your ability to navigate its unique challenges, ensuring you're fully prepared to cross the finish line successfully. If it is a local race, consider riding or driving the course so you know what to expect—hills, corners, sprints, etc. If the race isn’t local, try to piece it together online. You can probably find videos on YouTube from previous years of the race, as well as maps of the area to get to know the topography.
Once you understand the race course, tailor your cold-weather training specifically for it. For example, if the course has significant climbs, consider prioritizing hill repeats or HIIT drills. If you’re training indoors, adjust the resistance level on your smart trainer to mimic the incline of a hill. Most cycling training apps, like Zwift, allow you to select virtual routes with different gradients to simulate real-world climbs.
During this final training block, focus on high-intensity, course-specific workouts and taper your training as race day approaches. Increase recovery time between workouts to ensure your muscles are well-rested and not fatigued on race day.
Cross-Training: Stay Fresh and Fit
Outdoor riding during the winter months isn’t a guarantee, especially if you live in a northern climate. Snow, sleet, and slush can keep you indoors for weeks on end, and one icy patch can quickly end a fun ride. While spinning on your indoor trainer is good and allows you to stick to your workout plan, it can get boring week after week.
Variety is the spice of winter training. Nothing says your training must stay in the saddle. Swap the bike for running shoes or hit the pool. Running has a higher impact, so it requires less time to reach aerobic goals and engages more muscle groups than cycling. Swimming shares many of the same benefits as running—cardiovascular fitness and muscle engagement—but has a significantly lower impact on the body.
Live in a snowy environment? Try cross-country skiing for aerobic endurance and downhill skiing for strength training. Cross-country skiing is not only great for cardiovascular health, but it also works multiple muscle groups in the body, including the core. It’s a low-impact sport with physical and endurance demands translating well into cycling. It also helps with balance, coordination, and stability. Downhill skiing focuses on the same muscles that you will work on in the weight room — quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. Spending time on the slopes will allow you to get a workout in without realizing it did!
Cross-training is also a great time to work on the weak spots of your body and training. Perhaps an old injury keeps flaring up, and it is located in a muscle group not worked by cycling. Cross-training provides an opportunity to target that muscle group and bring that weak spot up to speed.
Rather than feeling like you don’t have any time for these activities, embrace them as a part of your training. Consider joining a swimming program or the local cross-country ski club. These activities enhance your cardiovascular fitness and engage different muscles. A little variety can go a long way in staving off burnout.
Recovery: The Secret Sauce
As you start to see progress from this winter riding and training schedule, it can be tempting to keep pushing and pushing, trying to gain as much as possible during those winter months. However, this will most likely result in overworking your body and leading to an injury, which would remove you from the start line — let alone the finish line — of your season-opening race.
It is vital to prioritize rest and recovery. Remember, the magic happens during recovery. Make sleep, nutrition, and mobility work a priority.
- Sleep More: Your muscles (and mind) need 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night to recover and grow stronger. Adding just 90 minutes to your sleep schedule for the three days prior to your race can increase your endurance by 3%.
- Fuel Smart: Winter training burns calories, so eat a diet rich in carbs, lean protein, and healthy fats. Load up on carbs three to four hours before a big ride, replenishing 30 grams per hour with gels or bars while riding. After your ride, refuel and rebuild muscle with proteins and healthy fats.
- Stay Mobile: Remember that “rest and recovery” doesn’t mean sitting on the couch doing nothing. Be active and prevent stiffness and injuries with activities such as yoga, stretching, and foam rolling. If you are going stir-crazy, consider a hike, a light jog, or an easy ride.
Pro tip: What is measured improves. It is easy to track our diet, rides, or gains in the weight room. However, we likely don’t track our sleep. Why? This data is only a download away. Get a sleep tracker on your phone and begin tracking your sleep, watching for patterns so you can adjust your lifestyle for optimal sleep.
Measure and Adapt
Winter training is a journey, not a straight line. But it will be more difficult if you don’t have the right tools to ensure you move in the right direction. Tools like heart rate monitors and power meters greatly increase your ability to track your progress. Heart rate monitors provide real-time feedback on the intensity of your workout and are essential for much of the HIIT you will participate in. A power meter measures your output in watts during exercise, which can be an even more precise way to track progress than monitoring heart rate. Most smart trainers have an equivalent of a power meter already built in.
Whether you use one or both, tracking your workout data will allow you to adjust your effort and stay on target. Plus, you are far more likely to follow through with your training plan if you can track your progress.
Race-Day Prep
Never enter a race trying something new. Whether it’s new gear, nutrition, or a new hydration plan, you should be familiar with every component of your setup before implementing it on race day. In the weeks leading up to your event, incorporate one or two longer rides at or near race pace. This will give you the confidence to execute your plan and test your gear before the big day.
Know the race course ahead of time. Study maps and ride or drive the course. If it isn’t a local race, try to find footage from previous years online. Unless it is a brand-new race, footage is likely available.
Don’t be rushed on race day. Arrive at the race with plenty of time to spare. This way, you’ll have time to park, use the restroom, change, have a quick snack, warm up, and do anything else you may need to do before you’re waiting at the starting line. It will also give you plenty of time to check in and talk to race officials about updates or any changes that may have taken place.
With the right approach, winter training isn’t just about survival; it’s your time to thrive. Stick to the plan, stay consistent, and you’ll be more than ready to drop the hammer come race day.
Look into Bike Insurance
Bike racing involves high speeds in often challenging conditions, which increase the likelihood of an accident. The accident doesn’t even need to be your fault; you can be taken out by a fellow racer who makes a strategic mistake. Optional racing coverage on a bike insurance policy from Velosurance covers your bike in such accidents, and your riding gear, including the helmet, glasses, gloves, kit, and shoes, are also covered. The policy also covers theft as well as any other accidental damage, even if it occurs in transit, such as a bike falling off the car rack or being lost or damaged by an airline. Finally, to create a comprehensive layer of coverage, optional liability, medical, and uninsured motorist coverage with customizable limits can be added. Those who travel abroad to race their bikes should consider electing worldwide coverage, which extends the physical damage coverage to anywhere in the world.