Ramp Up Your Winter Training

Wrap up, be brave, and get out there! It's time to up the ante on winter to make sure you're in race-fit shape come spring. Jim Cotton goes in search of insight and inspiration

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Cheer up, we’re well over halfway through winter. OK, so the remaining chunk, February and March, tends to bear some of the harshest conditions, but that’s offset by the lengthening days, slowly rising temperatures, and promise of the race season just around the corner. Now is the time to raise your game and do everything you can to make sure you’re building your form progressively towards your first event of spring. Below, we set out a selection of tips and advice from riders and experts on how to ramp up your training — sow the seeds of performance now, yield big rewards come spring!

1 Make your sessions race-specific

Winter is traditionally a time for base miles, but as the race season approaches it becomes ever more important to incorporate some higher-intensity riding. Russ Downing, British ex-pro who raced for many teams including Team Sky, JLT-Condor, and most recently Holdsworth, confirms that now is the time to start getting race-specific.

“At a basic level, I’ve always thought of training as a pyramid,” Downing says. “All through winter you’re at the base, big volume but easy. As you reach the end of winter and towards competition season, you need to cut down that volume and start doing some intervals and efforts to get your legs ready.”

Needless to say, the transition into racing will still be taxing, no matter how much fitness you’ve built over winter — so make sure your main event isn’t your first of the new season. Think of this as the beginning of a season-long journey.