- Welcome to Ask GCN Anything.
This week coming to you from the NaturHotel Miraval
in Alta Badia in the Dolomites.
This week's show is a winter training special,
so let's get started with this question from Angie Munoz,
who is asking about ways to stay motivated and conditioned
through the long, and I'm guessing pretty cold,
Canadian winter.
- Yeah, I'm guessing that must've been very tough
in the past, even to this day for some people out there.
When you can't even get out on the road at all
for those long winter months.
But thankfully, with modern technology,
things are far more entertaining.
That is what you need to do, is try and make your indoor
training as exciting and visually stimulating as it is
when you're riding outdoors, or at least close to it.
Now, you've got GCN's indoor training players,
and I know you know all about it,
because you have said that you've already done Matt's
20-minute fat burning session and Simon's is next.
I have a couple of sessions you can train along to as well,
just to let you know.
There's also things like Zwift, which make things very
entertaining, because not only are you racing against
other people or riding with them,
you've also got the different gradients simulators,
if you've got a smart trainer as well,
and I recommend one of those if you're gonna spend a long
time in the winter months on your bike.
- Certainly.
Next up is from Steven Anderson who is asking about
the best non-cycling winter sport for training.
Again, Steven's from Canada, so he's got a long and cold
winter ahead of him.
Carlos Pascual is asking a similar question,
and he actually asks, "Is mountain bike an option for
winter training?"
What would you reckon, Dan?
- Well you'd know all about the mountain bike option,
wouldn't you?
Off-road specialist.
- I guess so, yeah.
Well true, maybe I should've answered my own question.
It's really, really fun to train on a mountain bike
as it's often warmer in the woods, it's not just your legs
that are getting the workout, it's your arms and the rest
of your body as well.
- I think that you're right.
Mountain biking is fantastic for a whole host of different
points of view, isn't it?
In terms of technique et cetera as well.
In terms of other sports, you've mentioned cross country
skiing, Steven, weight lifting and hockey.
I think cross country skiing is probably the closest thing
that you can get to stimulating the same kind
of cardiovascular things, the muscles that you would do
when you're on the bike as well.
So that is a fantastic option if that is something
that you can do close to your home.
Similarly, with inline skating as well, there's been quite
a few that have gone over from a very high level in that
to being top track sprinters as well,
so there's obviously a crossover in that.
But if you want to see what pro riders do in the off season,
we actually did a questionnaire at the Tour of Britain
a couple of years ago, and their answers
were quite interesting.
- Ahh. - Ahh.
- Ahh.
- I've been known to do some dancing,
but that's more of a late-night activity.
- Yeah, I do some, ah, training in gym,
ah, two, three times a week.
- Now I don't do a lot in the off season,
only riding my bike.
- Next up, a question which came in from Adam McConnell.
"What is the best single piece of winter kit I can buy,
that will make the biggest difference to my comfort
on the road?"
- [Tom] Gloves; a good pair of gloves, 100%.
Cold hands are awful.
- Well it's the extremities, isn't it,
so cold hands and feet are so uncomfortable
and it happens to all of us at some point when we're out
cycling in winter, so I would agree with you, gloves.
If you're talking about kit on the bike itself, mudguards.
They're quite controversial, mudguards, aren't they?
If you don't use them on group rides, you can get scorn
poured on you, but also, if you put them on a real top-end
road bike, people don't like that either.
But it does make a huge difference to your comfort,
that you don't have spray going up your backside,
onto your feet et cetera, especially on days when it's wet
on the road but not actually raining,
it makes a huge difference.
- Definitely.
And it prolongs the life of your bike and your components
as well, potentially.
- Good point.
Which links to Christian's question.
Christian asks, "Does a heavy winter bike make a difference
compared to your normal bike?
Is it better to train on a heavier bike?"
- Well we've been asked this before, haven't we,
and I know people haven't necessarily agreed with my answer,
but my opinion is that if you're training on your own,
yes, a heavier bike will mean that your local climbs
take longer to get up.
If you are training to power, for example,
the power that you can do, is the power that you can do.
'Cause you're just going to be going slower everywhere.
However, on the flip side, if you're going out on group
rides, you want to make things slightly harder for yourself
in terms of keeping up, then yes, a heavier bike will lead
to producing more power to keep up with the group ride.
So it depends what your aims are and what sort of riding
you are doing.
Next up, Oscar Wimms is desperate to start using Zwift
and wants to know the cheapest way to do it
and if it's worth using it with a lower-end road bike.
He's got a five-year old Specialized Secteur.
- I'd say it definitely is, it's a great way to kind of
revamp your approach to indoor training.
And at the very basic level,
you just need three bits to kit, don't you?
You need a speed sensor, an ANT+ speed sensor,
an IOS device and a turbo trainer.
- Yep, and that's all you need.
And you can pick up turbo trainers very cheap second hand
these days.
So get on with it, and if you want some more information
on exactly how to do that, a very recent video here from Si
on Zwift for beginners.
(upbeat electronic music)
- Now there are three different worlds that you can ride in
on Zwift all containing a variation of different routes.
I'm in, first time.
How about jumping in with a group ride or even a race?
Loads of events going on at different times
all around the world and for all ability levels as well.
- Dave asks, "Do you have to go base training every winter
or can you just begin building from where you finished
the season?"
- Good question.
I always like to try and start the winter months at a slightly
higher level than I had started the winter
the previous year.
So, from that point of view, you want to try to keep
as much of your fitness from the summer months
when you start training for the winter.
In terms of your base, well as the years go on,
your endurance naturally gets better as you've been doing it
for so many years anyway.
But I think long rides will always have their place
over the winter months.
Next up, Nicholas Danca.
Real name or just what you're good at?
Not sure.
Anyway, "I've just regained the ability to ride my bike
after five weeks.
Are there any exercises to bring back strength in the ankle
and what's the best method to avoid ice?"
- I think there's two answers to your--
Well, two questions, two answers, Nicholas.
First one, we'll just have to leave that to your physio,
we're not professionals in that regard,
so we wouldn't want to advise you on that.
But best way to avoid ice is to train indoors if possible,
if it's going to be really icy.
I think Dan and I have probably seen enough people,
hurt themselves on ice, it's not recommended.
- It's just not worth the risk of going out if there's any
chance of ice on the road, is it?
- No, you can't make a save if you hit a patch of black ice.
- No.
Next up, Robert Tracey: "Is it better to build fitness
in the winter, because there's no races, or to build
on your bike skills, ie cornering?"
Well it depends where you're at as a cyclist, I guess.
If your skills really need developing,
and that's a great chance over the winter 'cause you've got
plenty of time.
But the same really goes for your fitness.
I think we personally used to find the winter months
really good for developing your overall fitness,
because you've got no race to go to, which means you've got
less traveling to do et cetera.
So you've got a very concentrated block where all you need
to do is head out on your bike and train week after week.
- Simon Taylor says that his "perceived effort for the same
power is different when training indoors on a turbo
compared to riding outdoors on the road,"
and finds it easier to sustain higher power outdoors.
So does it make sense to track two functional threshold
powers, one for indoors and one for outdoors?
- Well firstly, that's very normal.
Lots of people do struggle to produce the same power
on an indoor trainer that they do on climbs,
particularly outdoors.
That's partly due to the inertia of the trainers,
which are getting better as the years go on,
but also in terms of your own core heat,
because it's much more difficult to dissipate that heat
and sweat when you're indoors.
- Next up, we've got this one from Richie Hawkes,
who says, "Like many, I'm approaching two years of power
data since Zwift first came along,"
and the first year I had no clue, second year I had a plan.
I've compared a few metrics, average power, TSS,
even the frequency of various range of efforts,
but what is the best stack to focus on?
Efficiency, normalized power, heart rate?
- Ah, well, you want to, Matt, have a varied training
program, just as you would do with any outdoor riding.
But if you've watched Si do any racing on Zwift,
you will realize that he has to produce an enormous amount
of power to be up there at some of those Zwift races.
I mean, the standard is quite incredible on some of them.
So from that point of view, you really do need to raise
your functional threshold power,
because without a decent level from that point of view,
you're just not going to be able to keep up.
So variation is the key when you're riding on Zwift
just as it is outdoors as well, really.
And actually, if this is all gobbledygook to you,
or the TSS and CETL, ATL and overall chronic training load
et cetera, the next video might help you,
because it's five key metrics when analyzing
your power data.
So let's go through a few of those key metrics now,
the ones that we look at after each of our rides.
- [Matt] It takes into account power variants
through your ride, so the difference between a hill interval
session and a longer, steadier ride.
Now, what it does, is it gives you the most accurate
indication of the true physiological cost of your workout.
- [Dan] Yeah, it's much more representative of the real
effort that you've put into ride, versus average power
which is simply a numerical average.
Next one is from Victor Wheeler.
- Good name for a cyclist.
- It's very good, yeah.
What tips do you have for keeping your lenses clear
in the winter, either from misting up or covered
by rain water?
- Ahh, I thought about this one for awhile, Victor,
and the only one I could really come up with
was just if you are using a neck warmer,
is to make sure that you don't have it covering your mouth
or your nose, because I always found when I had that,
it would channel my breath upwards,
which would then mist my glasses up a little bit.
Otherwise, you see even the pros in super-wet races,
will kind of sometimes nudge their glasses just down
their nose a little bit so that they're not steaming up
and they can see over the top of them if needs be.
- You can get some of those sprays, can't you, for lenses,
which is supposed to encourage the water to drip off
quicker, thus giving you better vision
through the lenses themselves.
And also, actually, a good old-fashioned cycling cap
with peak down, of course, will help to keep some
of the spray off your lenses, so that could help you too.
Tristan Matthews is asking:
Conventional long steady base miles versus reverse
periodization, so fast before far for winter training.
What's your opinion on this?
Gonna get some dialogue in the comments box here,
he's expecting.
Ah, I've never done completely fast before far,
I've always sort of mixed the two.
And when I did do some intensity over the winter,
it did work for me quite incredibly actually,
in terms of the gains that I made.
Probably one for us to try at some point, I guess.
- Yeah, I guess I kind of did it, 'cause I used to
have a couple of weeks off after the road season
in September, race cyclocross up until the end of January,
and then switch towards road training.
So I didn't have too many issues with it really.
I found that if you were training kind of short, fast
training sessions on the turbo trainer or out on the road
through November, December, January, doesn't really feel
like you lose much, 'cause you're not riding for five
or six hours in freezing weather.
- No, and I think if you look at some of the most
successful stage race riders over the last few years,
you will see that they've been winning races
right from the very start of the season.
So less so with Froome this year, but last year he won
the Herald Sun Tour in late January, early February,
Richie Porte this year, won the Tour Down Under in January
and kept that form going all the way through
to the Tour de France, where unfortunately he crashed out.
But there's so many examples of that.
Certainly does you no harm to do some intense riding
over the winter months.
Finally for this week's Ask GCN Anything,
and don't forget you can leave your questions below
using the #TORQUEBACK across social media.
But the last question comes in from Mike McCartan.
"Will you be doing some more cyclocross content this year?"
- We certainly will, Mike, can't wait.
Watch this space.
And while you wait and watch this space,
don't forget to hit the GCN logo to subscribe.
On the screen right now is a masterclass in cycling skills,
from Sven Nys which is right there.
- Yeah, or if you would like to see Matt's first effort
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