In terms of year round training, in temperate climates, such as those found along the the Pacific Coast and much of the Atlantic seaboard and in the South, including Florida, Arizona and Texas, much of what we talked about in our fall training chapter will work for you. If it's rainy weather that's still keeping you inside and the dangers of being caught outside in the cold are not a threat to your very survival, here are some things to consider:
It is helpful to change your attitude about what cycling is if you want to ride year round in those areas with milder weather. If, for example, you fear getting out and getting your miles in because it may rain on you, you might as well put your bike in the attic until next summer. Your actual time on the road will of course be less due to weather conditions and there being less sunlight, but you will want to get out whenever you can if you want to be ready for your next cycling season and soon your tour.
There are even health benefits to doing so. In and around rainy weather, the air is highly charged with negative ions which are important to offsetting the positively ionized air that comes from tail pipe emissions or paint or other chemical discharges. Also, actual miles on the road are far superior to those derived from stationary bikes for this reason and those we will discuss later in this chapter under 'Indoor Cycling Options'.
Rain, unless the skies are heavy with gray thick clouds is much unpredictable. In order to cycle year round, then, you can expect to ride heavier in the wet season because fenders are highly recommended. As are heavier tires also filled with anti-flat gel and the clothes and rain gear you will always want to have along will bear more weight (bicycle clothing options are discussed at this page). In addition, the whole exercise will take more time due to the fact that the roads won't be as fast due to the added friction of water and road debris and you will want to clean your drive train every time the streets get it wet.
One can ride in the rain comfortably if you have the right gear. The Burley Design Cooperative, located in the rainy Pacific Northwest offers a complete line of clothing for biking in the wet. In such conditions it is the small things that can make a world of difference for you. Rain booties are one such helpful wet riding tool. Burley makes the kind you can slip over the outside of your street shoes. In order to be able to see better when it is raining outside, a visor (Giro makes one that can even be velcroed to many of their helmets) or baseball hat will do wonders to make the road before you very clear indeed. And because water as it evaporates leaves the surfaces it touches cooler, this is called convection, waterproof or at least water resistant gloves will go along way toward making your moisture laden trips pleasant ones. Cold hands will only exacerbate the chill you fell should your face or other unprotected areas get damp.
If yours is a recumbent, because of the seated position you will find yourself in, you will find that water tends to collect right on your lap. The heavier waterproof (not just water resistant; the kind found at marine stores) rain pants with an equally waterproof zipper (not buttons) are helpful here. Better yet, if you run a fairing (I won't ride in the rain without one anymore), not only will your feet and legs stay dry but you can even outfit your bike with a rain poncho to keep your lap dry as well.
There are other things to consider when riding in the wet. Be prepared for a far greater amount of debris on the road's surface. Rain will tend to wash a lot of the rubble away from the road's shoulder oftentimes right on to your path. In addition, little shards of glass become somewhat adhesive when moist causing them to stick to your tire's where they will work themselves in to then cause a puncture at a later time. This is why, earlier, I had suggested flat proofing your tires. I recommend Slime.
It is also important to keep your brakes dry. You can do this by lightly tapping them every 30 seconds or so. Also, keep lots of oil on your chain. If you don't have time to clean it after your riding, at least keep it lathered in oil.
Once you get out of the wet, you will need to get your gear dry so that it will be ready for the next time. The best way to do this is to drape your wet outer wear on a free standing clothes rack that you will want to then position close to a heater. Besides drying such articles, this will also keep them, your helmet in particular, from developing a moldy smell.
In much of the U.S., the best way to remain fit for the two wheel road all year round and not live the compartmentalized lifestyle of your being a car driver one part of your life and a cyclist the other is to simply eliminate your vehicle all together. Such cyclists don't know the meaning of the term 'cabin fever' because they are not afraid to be in the out of doors. In How to Car Free you will find many helpful ideas for how to make this a reality. In the colder parts of the U.S., there are even cyclists who look to their frozen season as a great time to ride and stay in the best of shape. One such group is the Ice Bikers.
If, however, you can't implement any of the above because of work, scheduling or if your winter season makes it just too cold, or the roads are mushy or non existent outside, we'll now talk about what you can do to stay in bicycle shape when there is a roof over your head.
Indoor Cycling Options
A word of caution is in order here. When I used to work at a health club, those looking for fitness after many years of neglecting their body's needs and much overweight would occasionally remark to me with some variation of, "You know I missed a week because I got sick and then I stayed away from the gym for another few weeks and before I knew it the year was over and my membership expired and the years kept stacking up. Now look at me." As you know, cycling is the same way. The more you fall out of your good two wheel habits, the easier it is to neglect cycling altogether. So don't use the weather as an excuse not to be ready for the good roads of spring because one season lost can easily become a lifetime.
If you are truly shut out from the outside roads, you have three indoor cycling options available to you, a stationary bike, a wind trainer or rollers. In the words ahead we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of all three.
A stationary bike, like the kind found at most gyms (if you belong to one, of which we'll talk about later) will do wonders to keep your lungs and heart in shape if ridden regularly. The rule of thumb for such conditioning is to maintain a brisk pace for at least 24 minutes. Doing so will keep, at least, your cardiovascular system in shape for cycling. Some gyms even have recumbent versions, others have miniature televisions screens on which you can watch a ball game or whatever else may interest you.
There are bike shops that feature a line of exercise bikes, even the recumbent style, that you can buy for home use, Compared to other forms of indoor cycling, however, a stationary bike does not keep you familiar with the bike you put on the asphalt. To begin with, the actual way in which you fit yourself to such machines is much compromised. Using such exercise equipment also doesn't allow you to do what is necessary to at least keep yourself familiarized with the location of your shifting or braking mechanisms. The subtleties of working with your bike in dealing with traffic or any of the other many obstructions that will find their way on to your path are skills that also fall into neglect. Nor is your sense of balance exercised or can you fully integrate your body to the machine by locking your feet into the pedals.
Wind trainers are a vast improvement over the stationary bike. Instead of just exercising your muscles, heart and lungs, they let you work with the machine you actually ride on the road in overcoming the resistance of hills and starts and stops (on the better trainers on the market today, you can use a lever to increase or decrease the machine's resistance). This is helpful because the way in which your bike's drive train responds to any of the work you may create with your simulated road conditions will still be a familiar feeling to you. In this way, when you actually hit the road the only variable that will remain is balance.
Rollers, the choice of serious racing cyclists for many decades will help you speak to this last unknown. A simple system of rolling pins held together by a rubber chain, you mount your back wheel between the two rear rollers, your front wheel on the front pin and off you go. But be prepared to sweat. Big Time.
Because of all the microadjustments your body must make to keep yourself balanced and upright on rollers, sweat will start dripping from your arms faster than any indoor training mechanism that I know of. So much so, in fact that I once corroded the bearings on one that I owned because I was too wasted to wipe it down after my daily workouts on it.
I only recommend rollers for those cyclists who are very serious about staying in top condition. While they are no substitute for the road, they are certainly the next best thing if your are locked indoors. Their disadvantage is that they take a while to learn and if your concentration lapses while doing so, you can actually cause damage to yourself, your bike or anything located close by.
This last concern, however, is somewhat minor as you can locate them near a wall which you can use for balance. And they are pretty easy for most to learn. I was even riding them with no hands within the matter of a few months time.
Be also prepared for noise. The faster you go, the accompanying hum will turn into a rumble which can wake sleeping housemates or unnerve those next door neighbors with whom you may share a building wall.
While you are safe from cars and indeed you can get a great cardiovascular workout with any of the three indoor cycling options above you will do well to consider the other areas in which you will lose. Shifting gears or applying brakes in real conditions, for example, are skills that one does not remain completely sharp for. The difference between keeping oneself familiar and the kind of keenness that actually riding on the road develops can mean the difference between danger and joyous ease of passage in difficult cycling conditions.
Nor are all your senses activated. You don't smell the world around you. You don't hear what it is telling you. The 6th sense one develops for any kind of trouble is deactivated; your actual sense of the road and any of those obstructions to your path that occur in real life cycling are not kept as sharp than if you had never left the streets with your two wheeler.
In addition, by actually mixing it up with the pavement, the road cyclist also keeps his muscles supple. Seasoned racers refer to such conditioning as having snap in one's muscles. He or she also breathes fresh air and not the recycled variety filled with positive ions that is found indoors.
Those cyclists bound to the indoors can, however, make their season away from the road a powerful time to gain overall body strength as well. Here of course, I am referring to working out with weights. Many cyclists grow much disproportionate bodies because they stay as far away from such resistance training as possible. Not good.
While healthy well exercised legs are very very important to one's state of health, if other areas of the body are neglected your overall conditioning will be much compromised. Translation: Your resistance to illness, especially as you age, will become less and less. This is so because besides toning and shaping muscles, weight training and stretching (never do one without the other, a Google search will bring up many good web sites for stretching) massage one's internal organs.
An example of what I mean is order here. After I completed my first bike ride across America in 1979, people would comment that I must be in great shape. In truth however, I knew that I really wasn't. My legs looked like tree trunks and while I could knock off a hundred miles with great power and relative speed, there was very little else I could do well without getting tired. I was like a machine that could only do one job.
The simple act of walking was uncomfortable and tiring for me. I could barely swim one lap in a swimming pool and shooting a few basketball hoops with friends greatly exhausted me. I knew I was a basket case when I could barely do one or two sit ups.
Finally overcoming my resistance to being indoors for exercise many months later when I started working out in a gym, I was actually able to see how far out of shape only riding a bike for my fitness had gotten me. So I began to look forward to my future winters as great times to round out my conditioning.
In the classic book, "Getting Stronger" by Bill Pearl, well known bike racer John Howard offers a strength conditioning program for cyclists. Howard's program is year round, yet as I am saying here, he does show weight training that is far more intensive during the off season.
Since the bike rider will want to be more focused on gains in strength rather than in muscle size, he will want to do more reps with slightly less weight. The areas he or she will want to place the greatest focus on are the back, gluteus and hamstring muscles. Here the king of all bodybuilding exercises, the squat, can do wonders. In fact, if there's any one exercise that is the most comprehensive in the gym it is the squat. What's amazing about this exercise, is that because it involves so much of the body, it actually causes the upper and lower body's to grow in both strength and size in proportion to one another. Note: With the squat, you will need to be doubly sure to protect your back by doing the abdominal work that is so crucial for any weight lifting routine (and really life in general).
For me, after a squat workout, I fell like I am pedaling air almost no matter what gear I may find myself in. I can't say enough good things about the squat but it is easy to get hurt doing so if your technique is incorrect and especially if you don't stretch before and after. If it is an exercise that interests you, ask questions, read what the experts such as Fred Hatfield, aka Dr. Squat, have to say about it and concentrate on getting your form right. Here it will be helpful to use light weights for a long enough period of time that your muscles won't let you do them any way but the proper way.
And don't think that any kind of lifting movement that makes the use of a machine to simulate the squat will get you all the benefits I am talking about here. Any time you practice this motion on a Smith Press, a Hack Squat or any other kind of similar apparatus, you are not bringing as much of your body into the exercise. Assisted such squats don't require you to make the microadjustments needed for the side to side or forward and backward directions your upper torso will want to move in when you are under such weight.
If your gym has a sauna, if you have a few extra minutes, sitting in one makes for a great way to end a work out. This is so because for health reasons it helps to more fully expurgate those toxins that exercise has begun to release from the pores of your skin. It also balances out one's blood sugar so if you have consumed too much alcohol or had to many sweets, such dry heat will help to reestablish homeostasis. In addition if you live in a cold home, the sauna offers a great way to warm up your body's core temperature so that you can be out in the cold for longer periods of time if done so before your riding begins.
Now that I've given you all the options, let's put them all together. Even in those more temperate climates we talked about at the beginning, during the winter the smaller window of daylight available to you will make it difficult to get in the miles you may desire; especially if you go to work in the dark and get home in the dark. If this describes you, you will want to become a weekend warrior.
I would suggest for such riders that they train three of their week days in the gym. And if you can't afford a whole year see if you can purchase a three month program. Most gyms offer this. If you don't know what to do (if you want to do more than just the squat) ask them to assign you a trainer who will outfit you with a program. You can even supplement the basic routine they will give you with observation, watching what the others in the gym are doing, as well as by asking questions and reading. Beyond all the hype, "Muscle and Fitness" magazine, available at most supermarkets, always has good articles on everything from technique to diet and the proper mental attitude one will need. Any of Bill Pearl or Arnold Schwarzeneggar's book's are also very good sources of weight training information.
Always begin your workouts with at least half an hour on the exercise bike. If you are working out three days a week, and can get in 20 or 30 mile days over the weekend, you will still be able to maintain a reasonable degree of fitness for the roads of spring. If you can not get out at all during the weekend because of rain, cold or road condition, at least make sure to get in an hour of indoor cycling on both your Saturday and your Sunday.
If you also use your exercycle time to catch up on your reading, make sure that you keep the intensity level up. In fact, if you can be honest with yourself here, I would suggest that you don't read until you know how hard you must push yourself to feel as though you've gotten a genuine workout. Since this will usually mean a high degree of perspiration, you will need to have a towel on hand so that you won't damage your reading material.
The bikes at most gyms have little holders for books and magazines but if you are doing so at home, you can station an ironing board next to your trainer on which you can even add a newspaper to those items you may want to read. Whether such sessions take place at the gym or where you live, if reading makes it possible for you to be inside while on a stationary bike, do plan to ride longer than half an hour; make 45 minutes your minimum time on the indoor saddle for this less focused kind of “library” cycling.
Hopefully the words above will make your upcoming winter a journey into a whole new way of looking at bicycle fitness. You can also use this time to read not only about weight training, if you choose to do so, but about nutrition as well. All in all, you can come away from your off season indoors a much more powerful cyclist if you implement some of the ideas I have just shared with you. And as they say: Just do it!!
