6 Ideas for a Better Winter
As we reach the Northern Hemisphere winter it can feel like the year is over, time to switch off and hide indoors until next March... But it's a crying shame to waste so much of the year, especially when you could be using the time to get fitter, faster and stronger ready for next summer. Here are six ideas to make your winter better.
1. Get a road bike
If you want to be fitter and faster next year, then a road bike is a great investment. There is a reason that every single pro-racer puts the miles in on the road bike over the winter, there isn't a guy on the World Cup or EWS circuit that doesn't have a road bike in the garage, even if they choose not to fill the Instagram feed with photos of it... Don't get caught up in the whole image of the sport either. Sure, a huge side to road cycling is the professional scene with the lycra, endless talk of cadence and power and controversial supplements, but you don't have to be part of that if you don't want to. There's nothing wrong with pulling on your usual baggies, mounting your flat pedals and heading out for a spin on the road bike for a couple of hours - it's the same as any sort of biking, what matters is getting out there and riding. What's more, now is a great time to buy a road bike - manufacturers are starting to realise that not everybody who rides a road bike wants a 7kg racing snake, today there are more and more bikes available that have longer wheelbases, relaxed head angles, through axles, shorter stems, disc brakes and fatter tyres. Sounds familiar, right? Because road bikes are fairly simple and don't take the same kinds of complex abuse we put our mountain bikes through, that means you can buy a second hand one for a few hundred bucks and expect it to serve you well, you don't have to break the bank on the latest carbon creation just to get fitter.
2. Embrace the turbo trainer
Even professional roadies will admit to you that turbo trainers are pretty joyless. A huge part of the appeal of any cycling is getting outside and moving through the world, so a device that takes that away from cycling is never going to be the most fun thing. However, they have their place. If for whatever reason you can't get out there and ride, then they mean you can still spin your legs and keep your fitness up in a way that is much closer to real cycling than any gym machine. If you finish work too late to ride, or the ground outside is knee-deep in powder then a turbo trainer might be your only option and keeping that fitness through the winter will mean you will be ready to make the most of the better weather when it arrives. In the past turbo trainers have been closely related to road bikes and only worked with 135 x QR axles, that is changing, though. For example, Elite have just brought out their Volano turbo trainer which will work with a 142 x 12mm through axle so you can drop your trail bike onto it and start spinning. At £350 it isn't cheap, but when you start looking at how much a road bike or gym membership costs it starts to look like pretty good value for that money as it should last for years.
3. Yoga
Chances are all of us will have had a riding buddy who has decided that while they can't ride as much through the winter they are going to hit the gym to get stronger for next year. While gym training has its place for athletes, the fact is that without a professional (read: expensive) training plan it can do as much harm as good to your riding. Bulking up like a bodybuilder may feel great, but it's going to make you a lot slower on the bike. More people would get more benefit to their riding if they put that time and effort into a yoga practice. The benefits are simple - the core strength and flexibility you build through regular yoga will help you use your strength when you are on the bike, recover from riding faster, cope better with crashing and, most importantly, it will help you keep riding faster later into life. While the last one may be a long way off if you're 18 years old and reading this, you need to believe that the years will pass faster than you can imagine and you will find yourself slowing down, getting sorer before you know it. One thing that holds many people back from yoga is the image it often presents of breathing in the mother goddess and feeling your soul flow between your toes. The same with the idea that you need to be super-flexible. The trick is to find a yoga practice that suits you - whether it's a class or an online course you do in your own home, there is plenty of no-nonsense yoga out there for people who can't put a foot behind their head and don't own tie-dye. YouTube is your friend here, or you can download one of the many yoga apps to your phone. What's even better about yoga is that it is pretty cheap to get into - to start you don't really need anything more than a $20 yoga mat and some loose-fitting clothing.
4. Ride a bike that isn't as good
We are spoilt riding modern mountain bikes, they are so capable that we forget how much easier they make riding, how much of the job they get done for us. Winter is great a time to get back to basics - take a simple, beater bike with less travel and run it hard. Whether you get an XC whippet and fly round your local woods or something more aggressive for the pump track and BMX track, spending time on a bike like that will force you to work on your bike skills. If you live somewhere muddy, a hardtail means no complicated linkages to get clogged with mud too. When spring comes and it is time to get back on your main season weapon, that time on a less capable bike is going to make it feel as fast and special as it really is. What's more, all the best play hardtails have 26" wheels and with the mass market moving to larger diameters, that means you can find some real bargains in wheels and forks if you hunt around places like the Buy and See here on Pinkbike.
5. Work on the trails
The big question here is: if you aren't doing this already, why not? The world would be a better place if more people took time to work on the trails. And don't assume that working on the trails means digging in new lines or altering existing ones, especially if that is going to piss off landowners, trail associations or other trail builders. Everybody will be grateful if you just go and spend a few hours doing something simple, like clearing leaves and debris from the trails and cutting back the branches and undergrowth. If you want an extra justification for yourself, manual labour is a great way to build real strength.
6. Take some time off the bike
While riding all year round sounds great, the truth is that if you want to stay excited about getting on your bike you need to take some time away from it now and again. If you've been going hard all summer then now is a good time to have a break. It's easy to get demotivated as the weather gets worse and the days shorten. If you take a few weeks now to go and do all those non-bike related things you never have time to do, see the friends you've been blowing off all summer, maybe have a drink or seven, then those weeks will fly past and before you know it you will be hungrier than ever to get back on it, no matter how nasty the weather is. There is also an athletic reason for taking some time away - if you push your body continually it will burn itself out. That is why every single pro athlete will take a little down time after the season to rest and let it all go for a little while, a little time without the bike can go a long way.
MENTIONS: @mattwragg / @marymoncorge
1. Get a road bike
 |
If you want to be fitter and faster next year, then a road bike is a great investment. There is a reason that every single pro-racer puts the miles in on the road bike over the winter, there isn't a guy on the World Cup or EWS circuit that doesn't have a road bike in the garage, even if they choose not to fill the Instagram feed with photos of it... Don't get caught up in the whole image of the sport either. Sure, a huge side to road cycling is the professional scene with the lycra, endless talk of cadence and power and controversial supplements, but you don't have to be part of that if you don't want to. There's nothing wrong with pulling on your usual baggies, mounting your flat pedals and heading out for a spin on the road bike for a couple of hours - it's the same as any sort of biking, what matters is getting out there and riding. What's more, now is a great time to buy a road bike - manufacturers are starting to realise that not everybody who rides a road bike wants a 7kg racing snake, today there are more and more bikes available that have longer wheelbases, relaxed head angles, through axles, shorter stems, disc brakes and fatter tyres. Sounds familiar, right? Because road bikes are fairly simple and don't take the same kinds of complex abuse we put our mountain bikes through, that means you can buy a second hand one for a few hundred bucks and expect it to serve you well, you don't have to break the bank on the latest carbon creation just to get fitter.
2. Embrace the turbo trainer
 |
Even professional roadies will admit to you that turbo trainers are pretty joyless. A huge part of the appeal of any cycling is getting outside and moving through the world, so a device that takes that away from cycling is never going to be the most fun thing. However, they have their place. If for whatever reason you can't get out there and ride, then they mean you can still spin your legs and keep your fitness up in a way that is much closer to real cycling than any gym machine. If you finish work too late to ride, or the ground outside is knee-deep in powder then a turbo trainer might be your only option and keeping that fitness through the winter will mean you will be ready to make the most of the better weather when it arrives. In the past turbo trainers have been closely related to road bikes and only worked with 135 x QR axles, that is changing, though. For example, Elite have just brought out their Volano turbo trainer which will work with a 142 x 12mm through axle so you can drop your trail bike onto it and start spinning. At £350 it isn't cheap, but when you start looking at how much a road bike or gym membership costs it starts to look like pretty good value for that money as it should last for years.
3. Yoga
 |
Chances are all of us will have had a riding buddy who has decided that while they can't ride as much through the winter they are going to hit the gym to get stronger for next year. While gym training has its place for athletes, the fact is that without a professional (read: expensive) training plan it can do as much harm as good to your riding. Bulking up like a bodybuilder may feel great, but it's going to make you a lot slower on the bike. More people would get more benefit to their riding if they put that time and effort into a yoga practice. The benefits are simple - the core strength and flexibility you build through regular yoga will help you use your strength when you are on the bike, recover from riding faster, cope better with crashing and, most importantly, it will help you keep riding faster later into life. While the last one may be a long way off if you're 18 years old and reading this, you need to believe that the years will pass faster than you can imagine and you will find yourself slowing down, getting sorer before you know it. One thing that holds many people back from yoga is the image it often presents of breathing in the mother goddess and feeling your soul flow between your toes. The same with the idea that you need to be super-flexible. The trick is to find a yoga practice that suits you - whether it's a class or an online course you do in your own home, there is plenty of no-nonsense yoga out there for people who can't put a foot behind their head and don't own tie-dye. YouTube is your friend here, or you can download one of the many yoga apps to your phone. What's even better about yoga is that it is pretty cheap to get into - to start you don't really need anything more than a $20 yoga mat and some loose-fitting clothing.
4. Ride a bike that isn't as good
 |
We are spoilt riding modern mountain bikes, they are so capable that we forget how much easier they make riding, how much of the job they get done for us. Winter is great a time to get back to basics - take a simple, beater bike with less travel and run it hard. Whether you get an XC whippet and fly round your local woods or something more aggressive for the pump track and BMX track, spending time on a bike like that will force you to work on your bike skills. If you live somewhere muddy, a hardtail means no complicated linkages to get clogged with mud too. When spring comes and it is time to get back on your main season weapon, that time on a less capable bike is going to make it feel as fast and special as it really is. What's more, all the best play hardtails have 26" wheels and with the mass market moving to larger diameters, that means you can find some real bargains in wheels and forks if you hunt around places like the Buy and See here on Pinkbike.
5. Work on the trails
 |
The big question here is: if you aren't doing this already, why not? The world would be a better place if more people took time to work on the trails. And don't assume that working on the trails means digging in new lines or altering existing ones, especially if that is going to piss off landowners, trail associations or other trail builders. Everybody will be grateful if you just go and spend a few hours doing something simple, like clearing leaves and debris from the trails and cutting back the branches and undergrowth. If you want an extra justification for yourself, manual labour is a great way to build real strength.
6. Take some time off the bike
 |
While riding all year round sounds great, the truth is that if you want to stay excited about getting on your bike you need to take some time away from it now and again. If you've been going hard all summer then now is a good time to have a break. It's easy to get demotivated as the weather gets worse and the days shorten. If you take a few weeks now to go and do all those non-bike related things you never have time to do, see the friends you've been blowing off all summer, maybe have a drink or seven, then those weeks will fly past and before you know it you will be hungrier than ever to get back on it, no matter how nasty the weather is. There is also an athletic reason for taking some time away - if you push your body continually it will burn itself out. That is why every single pro athlete will take a little down time after the season to rest and let it all go for a little while, a little time without the bike can go a long way.
MENTIONS: @mattwragg / @marymoncorge
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Here in the Pac. NW, we get tons of rain and mud in the winter - but it's reasonably temperate. So between lights (for weekday evening rides), weekends, and the occasional sneaking out in the middle of a weekday, there's no reason you can't get a decent amount of riding in. Every ride will take you about 15 minutes more total than in summer, since you need to spend a bit of time cleaning up the bike, and it can get a little dreary - but it sure beats sitting on your arse. Beer's way better after a ride, too...
@Extremmist -- I don't know what your winters are like, but no one who actually does ride in winter around here would ever call someone a "pussy" for not doing so, because they know. And I don't even live in one of the coldest places.
There's also something oddly fun about getting up to speed on a smooooooth asphalt downhill and carving around on those skinny tires around stuff.
And I know what some might say why not go on a long adventure on a mtb? Cause going out on an mtb with absolutely no planing for a full day or more doesnt make you an adventurer makes you a moron. Specially in the winter is really easy to get lost and visibility might get f*cked up and so Will you. so long mtb trips are the best thing ever but they do require a lot of planing whereas a road bike if you feel like pedaling for the whole day you can always find a hotel or a hospital or a car to take. in the midle of the woods thats a diferent story.
you are right the danger is still there so I guess what I meant was that the safety net is wider on the road than on the mountain.
has a kashima fork
OK, I may have that backwards but getting out on the snow, if you have the right location/terrain, is the best way to maintain fitness over winter. Go skate skiing to get your high intensity interval workout and hit the backcountry skin-track to keep your diesel endurance in tune. Use an indoor trainer to flush out the pain your ski legs will be feeling and prevent losing your circular spin form over the winter. Netflix helps the trainer time disappear.
Something that's become a bit of a mantra in our family: "Make sure your kids see you doing things you enjoy."
Get a sex change?
Get into Islam?
Enter a winter soup competition?
So much to do, so little time.
#4 Sensible
#5 Yes
#6 Seriously ???
My favourite winter activity is standing inside with my nose pressed against the window, praying for an early spring.
its a good strength builder, the only main problem is it works almost exclusively static muscles, muscles that support you into a certain position, not explosive muscles, muscles that move you and get you going.
you need explosive legs for sprints, big hits, and hard fast climbs, strong core for stability and control, and strong arms for maneuvering (unless you're a roadie or something). you also need solid cardio so you don't get winded, strength from gym, cardio from running and just riding. and the skill from riding is a plus.
just ride, hit the gym, run, hike, and build trails.
I own a yoga studio and would agree that saying "yoga cures everything" is NOT cool. There's lots of cool stuff going on these days with a mobility-focus, not just static stretching. If you're curious, check this vid I did for my riding buddies which has some hands stretches. It's helped my riding, and lots of my friends too:
jeffmah.com/open-hands
Cheers!
Focus T25 / Insanity Max 30
A professionally designed weight lifting plan (tennis focused)
Tennis of course
Plenty of stretching (not strictly yoga, but I do Rodney Yee's sport specific stretching routine as well)
Rest!
Today for instance, it's 90-degrees(but it's a dry heat) outside..
They tell us we're in for an El Nino winter, but you can't always ride 7 days a week anyway, and a couple days after the rain ends we actually have loam for a day or two.
You people should feel sorry for us.
Just look at number 6 for crissake.. We here in SoKal DON'T 'get' to take time off our mtb's, so we have to spend a LOT more on maintenance and we HAVE to buy bikes more frequently 'cuz we HAVE to ride ALL YEAR!.
The one good part is we don't have to adhere to #1 at least. Besides, I remember when I used to road ride(obviously in addition to MTB'ing), mountain-biking made me a faster road rider, NOT the other way around.
Now that I'm, ahem, 'old', and can't 'assume the position' on a road bike, I DON'T MISS A DAMN THING!
Look at the bright side my snow-bound friends, in order to live in an environment where our winters are usually a LOT drier than your summers, we get to deal with a slimy liberal state government that feels they can't ever tax us too much, while a lot of you don't even have to pay state taxes.
1. No way, as long as I live near mountains, no road bike
2. OK. I cannot go out all the time... 2 small kids, wife also trains.etc.
3. meh
4. what ? that bike looks damn good ! wtf...ok ok.. hardtail... skills, bla bla. 10k bikes are std, bla bla..
5. thas a given
6. eh.. no... too much down time after recent LCA injury..looks like my fridge on fridays !
7. Get enough bike films to fill that hole in your heart in the off season
IT ROCKS living on the southern tip of Africa
Being a mtn. bike site, wouldn't it be natural PB suggest a fatbike, and continue to ride? HTFU!
For mtb, this translates into me being able to do black/double black bike park runs from open to close without much problem (it seems most people gas out after 2-4 hours) while I'm struggling to get any improvement at all on the cross country bike and typically being the last guy on any given group rides even though I've been riding a lot more than most and have better technique.
No Shit,
Snowboard, AM/park
Snowboard Mountaineering
FATBIKE
and more
2: go crusting
3: if you don't know, you blow
www.bikeboards.net
Check ur privilege brah