Let’s face it, cycling is a great sport and pastime, especially when the sun is shining and the sky is blue, however getting out of bed when you know it’s below freeing outside can be a challenge.
 
So, why do we do it?
There are many reasons, but for some the biggest reason has to be the fear of loosing all their hard earned fitness because they know is gonna hurt like hell trying to get it back.. :-)

Another obvious reason would be the fact that with winter we all tend to eat a little more “comfort foods” than required and this tends to result in a few extra kilos that we as athletes can ill afford. Speaking of weight, there is no “magic formula” when it comes to weight loss. Its all about input – output!!!
Simply put, if you eat more calories than your body is utilizing, you will put on weight and visa versa. Obviously what you eat will have an impact on your ability to perform but that is beyond the scope of this article…
 
Now that we have an “idea” of why we train through winter, achieving this is often easier said than done.
At the start of winter so many riders have great plans of just what training they will be doing, how they are going to do it… bla, bla, bla… Once the first cold snap hits, they find an excuse why they should NOT train and the next thing they know… its spring, and all is lost… Sound familiar?
 
The best advice I can give is for you to set yourself some goals. These goals can be a mid-winter race or two but a more important race towards the end of winter or early spring is vital. The mid-winter races are there to help with the motivation and should be used more as a “hard training ride” than as a “win at all costs” race. Having an important race towards the end of winter will help give you a valid reason to train. So, when you are looking for a reason why you should NOT train, think of that important goal.

With the lack of light and freezing temperatures, winter also presents you with a perfect opportunity to get in some good cross-training. Along with the obvious cardiovascular benefits, cross-training helps maintain balance skills, muscle strength, hand-to-eye co-ordination and an improved range of motion.
If you have the facility, then a little gym work should be good for you. You don’t really want to add any weight or pack on bulk so keep the weights low and the reps high. Focus on your core and upper-body but don’t forget to stretch…  

Ply-metrics, Pilates and yoga along with your general circuit training should fit the bill. While cycling may not help you build your core, a good core will help improve your cycling as it aids your cycling technique and will help improve your power.

Running is also excellent as it will give you a tough cardio workout in a limited amount of time while also helping with your bone-density.

Swimming, hiking, skiing and ice-skating are other good examples of sports that will benefit your cycling come the summer months, don’t worry about a structured program, just have some fun and go for it!
 
Another “trick” I use with my athletes is to give them shorter more intense workouts during the week and then let them get in their longer slower rides over the weekend.
The fact that these week day rides are shorter makes it easier for them to be completed on an indoor-trainer. If the weather is “acceptable” however, make a commitment to a training partner and set a time and place to meet before hand. Why, well if you break your commitment you are not only letting yourself down, you are letting your training partner down, and THAT is not “cool”!!!

If you have problems with a runny nose in cold weather, here is a tip for you. Vasomotor rhinitis occurs when cold air makes your nose run, but nasal spray works well to help prevent this. Just make sure that what you are using is not on the banned list of substances :-)

On the weekend, you should have a little more time available so find a group that will enable you to get in some longer rides at a “controlled” pace and not at “race pace’… It’s ok to have a few “sprints” or surges here and there but you don’t want to be hammering it all day long. If you feel the pace is too high, sit in, get sucked along and enjoy the company that only a group ride can give. If you feel that the ride is too slow, then get on the front and do some work. Remember though that this is not a race, so ride within your training zones. Cycling is a sport that has a fair amount of etiquette so make sure the group you are riding in suites your needs. You don’t want to be the "that rider" messing it up for everyone else!
 
Those of you with a little extra time could look at a cycling training camp, preferably in a warmer climate. The objective behind these training camps should not be to simply “ride yourself into a coma” but rather to get in some steady miles over a rolling terrain. The change of scenery and added camaraderie will do wonders for your motivation and obviously aid your winter training.
 
On a final note, you don’t get bad weather you only get bad clothing… :-)

Ride safe, 

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined pretty much the entire world would be forced into lockdown. That sort of carry on only ever happens in Hollywood, right? … Wrong,  2020 took care of that!!!

For the majority of us, our training has been limited to indoors, for others limited outdoor training has been allowed provided we remained within our bubbles and geographical region.

At this point in time racing and events in general are pretty much on a wait and see basis. 
Not ideal for you as an athlete or for your coach as training with a plan is always the best way to achieve those results.

Now that I have gotten the doom and gloom out of the way, there does appear to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Restrictions in parts of the world are starting to lift and hopefully sooner rather than later the world will be returning to a new normal. 

With this in mind, as an athlete you need to start thinking about your training not only going forward but just as importantly what have you been able to achieve whilst still in lockdown? 

I was amazed at the incredible rides athletes were able to achieve indoors and while I can't really agree with the logic behind them I do tip my hat in admiration. I guess it's fair to say mental toughness has been taken to new heights. I was also taken back by the amount of intensity so many riders were training at day after day. All I can really say to this is as with most things in life, moderation is almost always the best approach.

​If you are lucky enough to have some indication when your racing is likely to resume I would highly recommend adjusting your training accordingly. Now is the perfect time to chat with your coach and get the remainder of the season dialed in.

If you have not yet made the commitment to getting a coach another option could be to purchase an online training plan. Again, think about what your training has been like over the past month or two, then decide on what you are expecting to achieve on the bike and choose a suitable plan that will help you achieve that.

As a small token of our appreciation to our athletes and friends we would like to offer a 15% discount on all our online training plans purchased from now until the end June 2020. Simply use the discount code Covid.
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Stay safe and happy training. 

As I've previously mentioned I'm not really a fan of riding indoors however, with the lockdown I did spend a fair amount of time training inside.
As a cycling coach and a rider who has pretty much always ridden to a structured workout having my PC screen "showing me" the watts I needed and my smart trainer trainer making all the resistance changes really did make the workouts "easy".
By this I mean I never had to think about my training, I just rode and my PC and trainer made sure I stuck to the plan.
With Level 3 came a little less restriction so I decided it was time to hit the road once again.... freedom never felt soooo good... :-) 
As good as it was, I suddenly realized that I was struggling to remember just what I had to do, in many ways I felt I was riding blind. In the old days, I would just write what I needed to do on a piece of tape and stick that on my stem and away I went. 
Well, this got me thinking, I have all the technology why not simply load it into my Garmin and take all the guess work out of it, hence this weeks blog as I'm sure I'm not the only one with a memory like a sieve... :-)

As I use TrainingPeaks and a Garmin Edge 520 when riding a quick Google search gave me the info I needed to get myself sorted. Obviously you would need to read up on the system you are using. 

Having used this on a few rides now, I can say with confidence that it does work way better than the old masking tape on the stem trick. It's simple enough to setup and really does help you hit your numbers.

A few pointers before heading out, for sure if its a basic ride, something like a recovery or aerobic workout where its pretty simple to remember your numbers I would not bother but add in some intervals and a bit of mental and physical fatigue and for sure you will start to struggle to recall everything that's required.

Another thing I would look at doing is opening up your workout in TrainingPeaks before you upload it to your Garmin and enable your "lap" button to determine just when you start the interval phase of your workout especially if you have some traffic to navigate or need to ride a few extra miles to find an appropriate section of road that's both safe and practical.

Once you are riding you can scroll through your Garmin pages as normal and at the start of each step you will be notified by a beep (actually 5) with the targets flashing up visually as well. 

It's also important to note that you can set this up for power, heart rate or perceived exertion. 

The link below is the YouTube clip that I used to navigate my way through the setup.
https://youtu.be/_j2LkXqNArw

I hope you find this to be useful, now all you have to do is get out there and ride... :-)

Ride safe & enjoy
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AUSTIN, Texas - August 23rd, 2012 - There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a  two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense. 

I had hoped that a federal court would stop USADA’s charade. Although the court was sympathetic to my concerns and recognized the many improprieties and deficiencies in USADA’s motives, its conduct, and its process, the court
ultimately decided that it could not intervene. 

If I thought for one moment that by participating in USADA’s process, I could confront these allegations in a fair setting and – once and for all – put these charges to rest, I would jump at the chance. But I refuse to participate in a process that is so one-sided and unfair. Regardless of what Travis Tygart says, there is zero physical evidence to support his outlandish and heinous claims. The only physical evidence here is the hundreds of controls I have passed with flying colors. I made myself available around the clock and around the world. In-competition. Out of competition. Blood. Urine. Whatever they asked for I
provided. What is the point of all this testing if, in the end, USADA will not stand by it?

From the beginning, however, this investigation has not been about learning the truth or cleaning up cycling, but about punishing me at all costs. I am a retired cyclist, yet USADA has lodged charges over 17 years old despite its own 8-year limitation. As respected organizations such as UCI and USA Cycling have made clear, USADA lacks jurisdiction even to bring these charges. The international bodies governing cycling have ordered USADA to stop, have given notice that no one should participate in USADA’s improper proceedings, and have made it clear the pronouncements by USADA that it has banned people for life or stripped them of their accomplishments are made without authority. And as many others, including USADA’s own arbitrators, have found, there is nothing even remotely fair about its process. USADA has broken the law, turned its back on its own rules, and stiff-armed those who have tried to persuade USADA to honor its obligations. At every turn, USADA has played the role of a bully, threatening everyone in its way and challenging the good faith of anyone who
questions its motives or its methods, all at U.S. taxpayers’ expense. For the last two months, USADA has endlessly repeated the mantra that there should be a single set of rules, applicable to all, but they have arrogantly refused to
practice what they preach. On top of all that, USADA has allegedly made deals with other riders that circumvent their own rules as long as they said I cheated. Many of those riders continue to race today.

 The bottom line is I played by the rules that were put in place by the UCI, WADA and USADA when I raced. The idea that athletes can be convicted today without positive A and B samples, under the same rules and procedures that apply
to athletes with positive tests, perverts the system and creates a process where any begrudged ex-teammate can open a USADA case out of spite or for personal gain or a cheating cyclist can cut a sweetheart deal for themselves. It’s an
unfair approach, applied selectively, in opposition to all the rules. It’s just not right. 

USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt  to strip my seven Tour de France titles. I know who won those seven Tours, my teammates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours. We all raced together. For three weeks over the same roads, the same mountains, and against all the weather and elements that we had to confront. There were no shortcuts, there was no special treatment. The same courses, the same rules. The toughest event in the world where the strongest man wins. Nobody can ever change that. Especially not Travis Tygart. 

Today I turn the page. I will no longer address this issue, regardless of the circumstances. I will commit myself to the work I began before ever winning a single Tour de France title: serving people and families affected by cancer, especially those in underserved communities. This October, my Foundation will celebrate 15 years of service to cancer survivors and the milestone of raising nearly $500 million. We have a lot of work to do and I'm looking forward to an end to this pointless distraction. I have a responsibility to all those who have stepped forward to devote their time and energy to the cancer cause. I will not stop fighting for that mission. Going forward, I am going to devote myself to raising my five beautiful (and energetic) kids, fighting cancer, and attempting to be the fittest 40-year old on the planet.

Original statement here