Winter Training for Cyclists

A tip of the hat to my cycling buddy Jason for this report from a professional cyclist on the off-season training habits of his species. Granted, a weekend warrior like myself, whose main goal is to survive fast-paced group rides, has no need to go to the extremes of the freakish wonders who race the grand tours. But as I invest a good deal of effort to keep fit, I've been able to combine reading, research, and empirical testing to form my own opinions about training. I certainly concur with this:

The curse of the athlete is that conditioning is lost much more quickly than it is achieved. To get our bodies back to the peaks we reached while we were racing, we need months of long, steady riding combined with hours in the gym and cross-training. In the off-season, we don’t rest as much as we build a foundation.

Riders who train meticulously through the winter not only perform better but also set themselves up for a consistent year with fewer injuries.