I take a spinning lesson once a week on tuesday and go for an endurance ride on thursdays and a club training on sundays. Which only gives me 8 hours on the bike. I try to make up for it by doing some core strenght training with weights 2-3 times a week.

I also discovered squash last week. It was a lot of fun, but I could hardly walk for 2 days. Will try again this week and hopefully have a better recovery.

I have one of my roadbikes mounted on the Tacx, but I also find it hard to get motivated after a hard and long day of work. Once I'm on it, watching a dvd helps me get in a 1 to 1.5 hour training, but it's getting started that I find difficult.

I live in a place where I don't have to to worry about motivation. If it's too cold to ride outside (which is damn rare), you can go skiing in the mountains.

When I lived in NE Ohio (land of cold wet chilly winters), it was a lot harder. I'd spend all winter on the trainer in the basement with metal cranking in the headphones. That or working out at the university gym where I at least had some scenery to look at.

I fly to Australia every year for the Euro Winter and do my training there. No way you can get me to stay in europe of the winter

not all of us have that chance

As Jr a MTB rider, my rides are much shorter. Since my races are at most 2hr, my longest training on trainer is about 1:45 now. I gradually make it longer, i will stay at 2:15, which is the longest I need. Outside, its about 2-3 hours and sometimes, about twice a month, I do 4-5hr rides, mostly for fun or punishing myself after some bad event hehe

During winter I... Race I'm very fortunat that I live in Australia, and although it can get really cold and wet alot of Endurance races are on during winter- We also have a state and local winter XC series both of which are 8 and 6 races respectively.


Summer for me is much harder to stay motivated- it gets very very hot and working fulltime, starting early means most of my rides need to be done in the afternoon / evening. Thats tough. Usually music helps, and trying to ride somewhere cool or shadey... Obviously it's no help to you guys that are snowed in.

The gym would be worth hitting up for a good perv once or twice a week... And maybe keep your mind off riding, TV, a good movie or 3 - the computer or even home work. Go through race plans in your head or whatever.


I seriously can understand how you guys sit on a trainer for that many hours though. Even sitting on the roadie for that long would drive me insain.

_________________
Cul™ is a regreted trademark of the CulBaire Co'op Pty Ltd, as are his random rambelings and assiociated bullshit

http://www.24hour-cul.blogspot.com

I live in New York City. Here is what I do to stay motivated over the winter:

1) Spin Classes. While I agree indoor stationary bike training can be tedious, but keeping the sessions to around an hour I can tolerate them. The key is to keep the intensity high: high-L3/4.

2) Ice Bike Riding. In the winter, I put studded on tires on my mountain bike ride the hardpack roads north of the city. We ride for about 3-4 hours nonstop at a mid-L3 intensity.

3) Urban Riding. Midweek, I take the mountain bike around the city, seeking areas free from traffic such as the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront. We ride for about 2 hours low-L3 and get a bite to eat. In total, I get about 10 hours of riding in per week, but its all L3/L4.

4) We they fit into my schedule, I take an abs or power aerobics class or other core body strength class.

5) I do some light weight, high repetition weight lifting but never legs as I do not believe in leg-specific strength training.

6) Most important -- I watch football on Sundays and don't feel guilty if I go out late Saturday evening!

_________________
John979

just bought myself a portable DVD player, its getting cold here and I havent had time to go out and thus haven't been riding in a week. so I'm going to try the player, now I need the DVD's

_________________
Jack of all trades, master of none.

If you can, get Netflix. Unlimited movies for about $21/month. They send you three to start out with, along with postage paid return envelopes. Everytime you finish a movie, you pop it in the mail and about 2-3 days later you get the next movie on your list (formed on their website).

_________________
2001 Bianchi SL-2 Reparto Corse
2006 Rocky Mountain ETSX 70
2006 Scott Genius RC-LTD
2007 Rocky Mountain Element 70

ah dude, I'm not an american and therefore can't subscribe to netflix.
but we do have blockbuster here. Rented top gun the other day, hadn't seen it in a long time, it's good to ride to.
we had a big dump of snow the other day, I love riding in the snow, the key is to stay seated and use the high gear. the christini AWD bikes are looking real good as a next bike now though.

_________________
Jack of all trades, master of none.

Last week, I had some difficulty in deeper snow using IRC Blizzard tires. What tires do you use? I am looking to switch to Continental Spike Claws, maybe four rows of studs.

_________________
John979

I use the tires that came stock on the bike(1997 raleigh tarantula, retailed for $300 at the time)
I don't ride anything fancy in the snow cause the snow can be hard on a bike.

the tires are big fat ones which I keep at a low air pressure

I've thought of getting studs but I don't necessarly ride on ice, I also keep the tire pressure rather low so, tubeless tires might be a good option

you will get stuck if the snow is too deep and you are in too low a gear, it is also very difficult to climb modest hills in deep snow, if you stand you will lose traction, I find clipless pedals to be indispensible for riding in the snow because you need lots of power and can't get it while standing. some times I get stuck and have to walk but that is all a part of the fun

_________________
Jack of all trades, master of none.

- Old Tour tapes

- Spinervals DVDs from www.spinervals.com

- Weights, stretching and running

- Weigh yourself every day!

_________________
Bike + Clarky =

I love Krank

whick spinervals tapes do you use. I use "the uphill grind", and "Have mercy"

_________________
Cannondale is quite simply the best

My miles go down in winter but I try to keep the hours of workouts up. I mostly ride my cx bike for actual riding. Slower speeds mean I can stay on the bike longer. Other workouts include at least 30 min a night on the ergometer, tolerating riding the trainer or rollers (which I can't stand longer then an hour), and running. But.. it's inevitible, I'll pick up about 8 - 10 lbs before winter's over.

Also, always good to take a trip to warmer climates. Going to Big sur region next month.

Our team took us out training in the snow in Germany... Imho not a very smart idea of them to go training over there if they don't want the whole team to be sick; we even went through a heavy painfull snow storm last Saturday. I joined them for the team athmosphere and that was great!

_________________