Winter ’24 training thread – what you training for and how?

Id normally be doing the Strathpuffer in January – done every one thats been on since 2007. But didnt enter for 2025.

May pick up a solo entry nearer the time if im minded to. So just keep doing the do as normal insofar as indoor and outdoor rides.

Only event entered for next year is the Etape Caledonia so far.

Only event entered for next year is the Etape Caledonia so far.

I’ve got a sort of McFred McWhitton route from my front door that criss-crosses the Etape route, basically head north from Auctherarder to House of Bruar via every nasty little hill in the way, and back again via all the ones you missed on the way out. One for high summer once I’ve sickened myself of the gravel bike!

To be fit enough to ride 2000m of ascent and descent at the Golfie, Inners. These days I’m like a burst ball after about half that. I could cheat and buy an e-bike with squidge at both ends, but I just love the suffering of heaving a heavy hardtail up and down the trails too much.

No events in mind (yet), would like to get running form back (currently 9min – miles at parkrun) and start strengthening work to prevent injuries and retain muscle mass as I age.

Hopefully enjoy riding too, maybe sign up to an event or two.

To be fit enough to ride 2000m of ascent and descent at the Golfie, Inners

One of my big days oot next year is a Helensburgh to Dundee 200km inspired by your John Muir Way exploits, so you’re to blame for some of my unrealistic goal setting!

Had an excellent cold but clear 90 minute fasted ride this morning, rolling home past Gleneagles in the sunrise. Problem is I was half asleep for the rest of the day! Perhaps not a sustainable part of the training plan if I’m falling asleep at the desk by 2pm…

Doing a 150km fatbike race in January, no specific training plan, just trying to build up distance and dial in clothing and gear setup for the cold weather. Normally quite a bit of bike pushing involved so mixing in some strength training, hiking and running and figuring out the best nutrition for the ride.

I’ve just eased of the cardio training having been hitting it quite hard over the last two and a half years as I had a goal of completing a 300km ride (Frontier 300) and running an ultra marathon before my 50th birthday next month. I’ve ticked both of those off but have managed to accrue a coupling of niggling injuries in the process, so the plan is to just run once a week and ride once a week whilst doing more resistance training to build some resilience back into my body.

Goals for next year, run at least another 50km ultra and maybe try a 50 mile or even a 100km, and find a 200km gravel event to ride but a lot further south than the Dirty Reiver.

I’ve just hit 59 and hugely overweight so before getting to 60 I’ve set ridiculous goals to achieve including

everesting

virtual Everesting

etape du dales

ronde van Calderdale

fred whitton

Over the past year I’ve really enjoyed more Endurance XC racing, having entered the Torq 9hr single speed solo for a laugh (on no specific training at all!) with a mate at the beginning of the season and not only really enjoying it, but also being quite good. That culminated in a 12hr solo (SS again) later in the summer that I also really enjoyed.

This winter I’m doing the Brass Monkeys series (3x 4hr races) and my local winter XC series (3x 1hr races), and am looking ahead to my first 24hr solo (again, single speed) in July next year.

I’m trying a training plan too, to see if it makes any difference at all. Definitely has me out on the bike more through the week, which is a good thing in my book. I need the push of a training plan to get out regularly, otherwise I get too comfy on the sofa of an evening!

How’s everyone getting on?

Definitely has me out on the bike more through the week, which is a good thing in my book. I need the push of a training plan to get out regularly

This has been my thinking, so far my ‘training’ has really just consisted of practicing getting out twice a week early morning, so getting my lights and layering sorted mostly! Also the thought of getting up at 5am to be on the road for 5:30am usually helps keep me off the booze the evening before…

I’m updating my plans a bit in order to prepare for a local CX race in March. I’d sworn off CX racing as it just didn’t really work for me during the winter months, too much intensity, travel and faff! As a one off though it should be good, justifies two months of intensity work on Turbo and some muddy fun on the gravel bike at weekends.

Then back off the intensity a bit in March before getting back to it in April for another 6 weeks build-up to the Grand Old Dukes event.

I’ve just booked a week in Mallorca in April. My reasoning is that one week of riding there will get me fit enough for our Summer ?

(Actually, it looks like I might be doing the Marcothon, 3 miles / 25 minutes of running each day in December)

Ha, I’d be training just for the week in Mallorca! You might as well just do the 312 while you’re there…

Like TiRed on the previous page my main type of racing is time trials, although this year hasn’t been the best due to a change of jobs impacting my training and racing (I have to work some weekends that prevented me doing any 12hrs) I also came off at the end of August, putting a hairline fracture in my pelvis. Been back on the bike for 8 weeks now, slowly regaining the fitness I had, still not where I was  yet but I’m getting there. If work allows, like TiRed I’m hoping to compete in the BBAR again although age is catching up with me and I doubt I can beat my best average over the three distances I’ve previously done. Its also very course dependent if you get a good time/distance but we’ll see. I’ve also got a hankering to do a 24hr TT, completely nuts but it’s my kinda thing, I love doing long crazy rides !
Up to now due to coming back from injury most of my midweek training/riding has mostly consisted of tempo and endurance, along with a long predominantly Z2 Sunday ride to bring my base fitness up to scratch. I’ve just started introducing sweat spot once a week that I’ll continue for the time being. Come spring I’ll also start doing threshold and vo2 a month or so before the race season starts.

Sounds like we’re pretty much following the same structure! I’d love to get in to TT eventually.

I’m trying not to worry too much about my Z2 work, but as soon as I take it outdoors it definitely strays into higher zones at times, even on the geared bike but particularly on the singlespeed. I just have to console myself that it’s still better than doing very controlled Z2 indoors, because I’m actually more likely to actually do the outdoor stuff!

Yes z2 indoors can be incredibly mind numbing, even with a group ride on zwift to keep you occupied. Unless it’s dangerous (sheet ice or hurricane winds) I’ll always try to get outside for a group/caff ride and add time before and after to get 5-6hrs in.

Would like to race Battle on the Beach next year – never done it and it looks like a great event. Believe entries go live 1 Jan.

Good season of cross racing underway. Seen a lot of mud, which is good, although only one proper heavy Wout van Aert style track. Skills could see some improvement – the faster riders are very good in the turns, been dropped in twisty sections a few times this season.

I liked the look of Battle of the Beach too! Just a bit far away for me unfortunately.

I remember trying to practice cyclo-cross turns at my local football pitches with courses made of plastic cones. Absolutely NOTHING like the real deal on race day, you just can’t replicate that sort of mud!

I remember trying to practice cyclo-cross turns at my local football pitches with courses made of plastic cones. Absolutely NOTHING like the real deal on race day, you just can’t replicate that sort of mud!

I think you can but you aren’t breathing out of your backside and trying to keep blood flowing into your eyeballs so that you can see, like during a race. 😀

I’m planning on doing some XC races next year. It must be 20 years since I last did one, not counting 24hour races. First, I need a suitable bike, which is proving a little more problematic than it should. Second, I need to keep my weight where it is now – 83kg – until Xmas, because it will drop naturally through Spring.so that those Welsh XC climbs are a little less daunting than when I was 90kg! I’m running a couple of times a week and trying to ride whenever it’s not torrential rain, which is an issue this year.

Another good week of early morning ‘base’ rides, I’m nailing consistency right now if nothing else.

Problem is, I’m using my singlespeed as it’s the only bike equipped for potentially icy roads (studded tyres). I love it, and the feeling that there’s no conditions I can’t get out and ride in, but after 50km early this morning I feel like I’ve done 2 hours in the gym!

Trying to figure out how best to work it in to training. It wouldn’t be an issue but after potentially 3-4 hours during the week of singlespeed, I then typically want to get out and smash around on the gravel bike, feels like potentially a lot of ‘junk’ miles when I want to be laying down a good base.

But on the other hand, I just understand ‘junk’ miles as being miles that are slightly too difficult to e.g. then do a high intensity session on the turbo the next day, but since I’m not trying to do that I guess they’re not really ‘junk’ even if I’m too tired to go hard again the next day.

So I guess maybe I just drop the singlespeeding in the 6-8 weeks before my main event so I can switch over to proper high intensity mid-week stuff on trainer?

I still think in general just getting out twice a week mid-week, regardless of effort or bike ridden, is a massive win for me, consistency has always been my weakest point.

Not much booked in yet for ’25  -Hamsterley Beast Enduro and probably some local XC racing. My main focus over winter is not really ‘fit’ but ‘strong’. I’ve alway had good legs and cardio but going into my 40th year next year I’m becomign really aware I need to work on my strength and muscle mass, core, flexibility stuff etc to give my longevity going forward into (gulp) middle age!

I’ve alway had good legs and cardio but going into my 40th year next year I’m becomign really aware I need to work on my strength and muscle mass, core, flexibility stuff etc to give my longevity going forward into (gulp) middle age!

Ditto this!

I’m already feeling the benefit I think, basic strength work just seems to engage muscles properly again, I’m feeling huge benefits on the bike from doing reverse lunges (only up to 20kg weight so far), hip thrusts (but lowering bum right to ground to really put the glutes in extension) and bird dogs or (light!) deadlifts to really learn to engage core, keep ribs down, strengthen the erectors in the low back.

Felt the benefits on the singlespeed this morning, really being able to stabilise core whilst pushing a big gear from the saddle.

Start strength work now but be humble! It got much easier and more productive for me once I backed off the weight I though I should be lifting and started with embarrassingly low weight whilst I dial in form. Maybe by next year I’ll be able to show my face in an actual gym lol

I’d already made a bit of a start over the past summer and it definitely works. Got a barbell earlier this year and started very light, just picked up some more dirt cheap vinyl weight plates from the back of someones shed last week to start loading up a bit.

Time to revisit this thread…

Training:

So I visited the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (MIHP) for the lactate threshold and VO2 max testing. It was brilliant and I hope to return next year. A few days after the tests, I received my report. This shows me where I start to produce additional lactate (LT1) and where it becomes a problem (LT2). Both of these showed room for improvement through training, and my reasonably high (for age) VO2 max indicated that I had some ceiling capacity to do this.

I was given some suggested workouts to improve: Long and easy Zone 2, LT1 sessions, LT2 sessions and VO2 max improvement sessions. It became apparent that most of my riding had been in Zone 3.   I have now completed a few good quality training sessions and I’m really enjoying my riding.

Events:

I’ve entered the winter Jennride-  100 miles bikepacking over 2 days in the Lake District in February, and also the Manchester Bee Line 200-  200 miles of bikepacking over 3 days in May.   Also a Velo29 event this Saturday… a chance to bag the last medal of 2024.

I’m still looking at other events and challenges for next year. Any suggestions? MTB, road or gravel 🙂

So I visited the Manchester Institute of Health and Performance (MIHP) for the lactate threshold and VO2 max testing. It was brilliant and I hope to return next year. A few days after the tests, I received my report.

That’s cool, how much did that cost?

Z2 is still my bugbear, I get the principles and I like the theory of it, especially being injury prone it’s reassuring that ‘going easy’ can be productive, but recently I’ve been enjoying using the singlespeed as I have no idea what state the roads will be in and it has spiked tyres. Even on flat roads these are not ‘easy’ miles, I’m not breathing hard but am using the leg muscles and the upper body!

Did they give you anything practical to take away? Power or HR? Will you be using it on the turbo? Is Z2 as slow as I get the impression it is supposed to be?

Hmmm. Just stumbled across this thread.

Toying with the idea of doing the North Yorks Moors 300 again (did it last year, but I’d like to try and do it in a one-er), and or The Land Between (515km gravel event in Northumbria) in August.

To do either, I need to at the very least get some better padded shorts, and possibly a saddle-fit.

Oh. And lots of long rides!

Big distances! Would recommend Bioracer (or Stolen Goat) Epic bibs. Thick and reasonably dense pad, very compressive legs. I love them. How did you split the 300 up last year? How do you split up the 515km?

Longest gravel ride I’d like to do is 210km (slightly tweaked version of the ‘Tour of the Cairngorms’/’Cairngorms Outer Loop’). The Grand Old Dukes event I’m working towards is 180km but is a bit of a different beast as it’s largely forestry type tracks rather than the mix of terrain in the Cairngorms!

I might somehow have managed to negotiate a 4 day weekend in May to do an ‘endurance block’ which will hopefully consist of 4 days gravel around Lochaber and Argyll, I’ve been sitting on some fantasy routes around there that I never thought I’d get a chance to ride but this could be it! In the meantime I need to dial back my ambitions for winter riders, between the weather and the time available (and the mud) I’m just not getting the 80-100km days done that I thought I might. If you’re doing more CX than gravel it seems the average speed can plummet pretty quickly AND you’re working a lot harder.

How did you split the 300 up last year? How do you split up the 515km?

185/125km. Spent a few hours on the Sat night in Dalby forest.

No idea on the Land Between, need to look at the route. It’s supposed to be a bit more gravel-friendly, so hoping on 2 long days and one overnight stop.

That’s cool, how much did that cost?

£180. Bargain! I would have thought it would have cost 2 or 3x that.

I’ll post up some pictures of my report…

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Sights set on my first xc race in around 25-30 years in February! Still trying to decide what category to enter, fun or ‘enthusiast’ whatever that means. Training wise on zwift it’ll be a red and orange coloured one Monday and Tuesday, green Wednesday and yellow Thursday, just picking whatever actual workout I fancy from each list when I get on and an outside ride or two at the weekend. Not sure about the targeted zone 2 stuff for us mortals, I’m sure if you’re doing 25 hours a week it’s good But they’ve got a lot more time to work on the other bits too

Have had some pretty involving family stuff in the last few weeks then I goosed my shoulder hitting black ice on the school run so I havent been getting any of the sneaky volume from cargo biking or any quality sessions.

I have managed to get in the odd run and a few easy sessions on the turbo just for mental health. I’m not too worried about losing fitness but it’s definitely important to get out and use the body when I can. Always worth remembering that the point of training is to enjoy it and not get too stressed out if it’s not going quite your way.

Early thoughts on trying to bike-train over the winter:

1. I like TrainerRoad.

2. I don’t like Zwift much.

3. VirtualPower is a total lottery.

4. Keeping my bike & turbo trainer out on the balcony in winter is pretty good for riding but may not be helping point 3.

5. Trying to do a hard bike session after a full day on a snowboard is…. problematic.

Always worth remembering that the point of training is to enjoy it and not get too stressed out if it’s not going quite your way

Yep, I have to remind myself occasionally that I’m never going pro so can afford a bit of slippage here and there! 😆

That being said, following some basic structure definitely seems to be the key to just getting out more, I went too hard at the weekend in the name of trying a new route I really wanted to do. It was worth it in many ways but 3 days later I’m still knackered! It was basically 4.5hrs and equal proportions Z2/Z3/(low)Z4. Probably didn’t eat enough either.

Lesson learned might be to do the fun rides but just lower my ambitions a wee bit…

14 weeks after my fractured pelvis and I’m more or less back to where I was fitness wise. My CTL on training peaks is around the 90 mark (it was just 32 8 weeks after the crash and before I started riding again) I’ll probably do the Rapha500 over Christmas to get some long Z2 rides in then after the festive season I’ll introduce some threshold stuff, over unders, pyramid, 30 on 30 off etc. keeping an eye on my fatigue and if it gets to much I’ll have a rest/adaption week (normally every third week) so my TSS is much lower so I don’t overtrain. Been there, done that and it ruined a good two months of my race season.

Picked up a solo entry for my 1st Strathpuffer 2 weeks ago. Told AI (Chat GPT) that I need a training plan for it, with some workouts linked to zwift workouts and hey presto it gave me a 5 week training plan to follow, mixture of real life training and virtual, of which I’m progressing through week 2 now.

Pretty impressed with the AI generated plan tbh.

Pretty impressed with the AI generated plan tbh.

Could you give us a sample? I guess there’s enough stuff out there that it’s not going to be far wrong.

I didn’t feel quite up to my 5:30am outdoor fasted Z2 this morning but by 6:30am had sufficiently caffeinated to get out on the turbo and try something. I just adapted my usual sweetspot routine for Z2, i.e. gradually lowered cadence every 5 minutes until I was ‘spinning’ 80rpm. Felt like this was useful training for gravel riding where you might have no choice but to sit at low cadences, so useful to get used to them whilst keeping HR down.

Not sure about the targeted zone 2 stuff for us mortals, I’m sure if you’re doing 25 hours a week it’s good

Meant to respond to this, I sort of agree with you, plus getting fixated on Z2 seems like a good way to miss out on a lot of fun riding, but it seems like a good way for me to maintain consistency if I deliberately keep some rides easy, especially since my weekend rides are likely to be pretty unstructured, so if I was doing 2 x high intensity midweek as well I think the wheels (or legs) would fall off pretty sharpish. Z2 midweek keeps me sane and still allows for fun times at the weekend.

@markspark Cannock? That was one of my first too last year! Its a great event. ‘Fun’ category is the one to go for if you’ve never raced before (in recent history at least!).

I distinctly remember someone on the grid giving me advice on how to pace for a ~1 hour race.

“Go off the line at your absolute maximum, on the verge of blackout/vomiting, to ensure you dont drop too far back…

Then, simply maintain that pace till the end of the race….”

@13thfloormonk

Here you go, this is what AI has planned for me next week (I’m most looking forward to the 28th which AI has nothing to do with 😀 )

Edit: FFS that paste went badly

Take 2…

Week 3 (23rd–29th December 2024)

Monday 23rd Dec:

75 mins, sustained efforts (4×10 mins at threshold effort, 5 min rest).

Zwift Workout: “4×8 FTP Intervals” (Custom or Threshold Improvement Plans).

Tuesday 24th Dec:

2.5-hour steady ride with short surges on climbs.

Zwift Workout: “Sweet Spot” (Workouts > FTP Builder Plans).

Wednesday 25th Dec:

Rest (Christmas Day!).

Thursday 26th Dec:

60 mins cornering and technical descents practice.

Zwift Workout: “Mixing It Up” (Workouts > Sprint Workouts).

Friday 27th Dec:

5-hour ride, simulate race fuelling and pacing.

Saturday 28th Dec:

RAVE!

Sunday 29th Dec:

Rest

Rave?? 😆

That looks like a tough week, are you already riding ten hour weeks?

5 hours at race pace on the back of a week of threshold, sweetspot and sprints sounds savage, what does the next week look like?

Yep, off to a rave on that sat eve 😀 Can’t wait!

Did 9hrs 55mins, 100 miles, last week. Hopefully by the end of tomoz (Friday) I’ll be on 8.5hrs for this week so far. Feeling pretty good but I know next week is going to be tough cos it’s Xmas.

Race pace for me by the way is 24hr event race pace. Slow and steady!

Week after looks like this:

Week 4 (30th December 2024–5th January 2025)

Monday 30th Dec:Rest or active recovery (e.g., stretching or light yoga).

Tuesday 31st Dec:60 mins with short, sharp efforts (8×1 min hard/2 min easy).

Zwift Workout: “30/30s” (Workouts > VO2 Max Booster Plans).

Wednesday 1st Jan:90 mins steady ride (Zone 2).

Zwift Workout: “Endurance Ride” (Workouts > Build Me Up Plans).

Thursday 2nd Jan:45 mins skills ride, easy effort.

Zwift Workout: “Active Recovery” (Recovery Rides in Training Plans).

Friday 3rd Jan:3-hour ride with some night riding.

Saturday 4th Jan:Rest.

Sunday 5th Jan:60 mins recovery spin.