Navigating the Winter
The winter months can make training tough for a variety of reasons - there’s a lot of things going against us. It’s no surprise that lots of athletes are texting and emailing with concerns about feeling tired, struggling with recovery and generally not feeling great.
It’s easy to let everything get on top of us when the weather is crap, we’re always training in the dark and there’s lots of colds and viruses going around. Doing the little things right can make a big difference to staying fit and healthy and ensure that you have a great winter’s training. This is a guide and what to do and what not to do. These are all the tools I use to train effectively over the colder months and tips which I’ve learnt over many years of winter training.
Firstly, a lot of athletes finish the season and want to get straight back into hard training and pushing the limits. Someone once told me that you can be as fit as you want in January but it’s how you are in June that matters. This is so true because too many athletes push so hard over the winter that they end up broken and overly fatigued going into the season. Equally, you do need to do the work but finding the right balance is essential. My main piece of advice here is to listen to your body and give yourself a bit of a break at the end of your season before getting back into structured training. There is no textbook answer on how long this break should be. The time will be down to how you feel. I usually say that you should start your winter training when you have a strong desire to get back into it and motivation levels are high. Low levels of motivation and high levels of fatigue are red flags and suggest that some additional easier training is needed before picking the intensity up. This is when passing feedback to your coach is essential. Speaking about how you’re feeling and being honest about energy levels means they’ll know what’s going on and allows them to help. Athletes are usually very determined individuals and holding back or going easy isn’t in their vocabulary. Ploughing on and continuing to push can be a recipe for disaster.
The weather can make training more challenging at this time of year. Icy roads, high winds, rain and low temperatures aren’t conducive to high quality training but there are lots of ways around it. Indoor training has evolved so much over the past few years. Tools such as Zwift and better turbo trainers make bike training so much easier for us as we don’t have to stare at a brick wall in the garage while smelling the rear tyre burning away on the metal roller (trust me, I’ve been there). Training indoors can be just as effective as training outside and usually more effective in bad weather. Holding set paces and intensities in windy and cold conditions can be very difficult. It’s really frustrating as a coach to read feedback that states that paces couldn’t be hit because of the weather when they could’ve nailed the session indoors. On a more serious note, training in icy conditions is just crazy as you’re asking for a fall. I don’t care how much people hate the treadmill, it’s the perfect answer for roads that are simply too dangerous to run on. My advice is to focus on what you’re trying to achieve and then look at what is the best way to get there. Training indoors has lots of benefits and you should definitely incorporate it into your winter training. For example, running on a treadmill will help you improve your leg speed and that is something lots of athletes struggle with. So, indoor training provides us with an opportunity to work on weaknesses too.
When we are training outside, appropriate kit is key. Don’t be the person that says they don’t feel the cold and always run in shorts. I bet if you put your hands on the back of your lower legs at the end of your next run in cold weather they’ll be freezing. It’s a fact that we need our muscles to be warm to operate efficiently. Wearing tights and keeping warm in cold conditions is really important for training well over the winter. Being warm may also help reduce injuries and stop us from getting ill. There’s no excuse for getting cold on a training session and then getting ill after. Equally, don’t let yourself get cold after you’ve finished training. You will get cold quickly, even if you feel warm, after training in cold conditions. Get in the shower or bath and don’t let this happen. Invest in good kit and use it. Despite lots of debate, there are considerable differences in the fabrics that manufacturers use to make technical kit. Good kit is more comfortable to train in and will regulate body temperature better so it is worth the price. Keep your extremities warm too. Using hats, headbands and gloves will help us regulate our body temperature more effectively and prevent us getting cold. The main takeaway here is don’t let yourself get cold, being too warm is always better.
As many people know, low levels of day light and dark mornings and evenings can make us feel a bit down and reduce our motivation levels. We don’t get any vitamin D from the sun over these months so taking a vitamin D supplement at this time of year is highly recommended. This can improve our mood and just generally make us feel better. I also take vitamin B12 and magnesium for a variety of reasons but I find them very beneficial over these months in particular. I usually take these as tablets but I also use a vegan cacao powder from Naturya that is rich in magnesium, iron and zinc. I add this to things like porridge and smoothies.
Our diets play a key roll for training over winter. It’s very easy to eat convenience food and low quality meals that are quick to make when time feels short at this time of year. It’s no coincidence that we start to feel a bit run down when our diet isn’t as good as it could be. My advice is to take the time to prepare high quality nutritious meals that fuel you properly and help you recover from hard training. Overall training volume tends to drop over this time period but the intensity can sometimes get higher. The lower volume can lull us into a false sense of security and appropriate recovery protocols can get easily dismissed. By this I mean not having a recovery meal/drink after doing a hard VO2 bike session because there was ‘only’ 8mins of efforts and the session was ‘only’ 35 minutes long. Short intense efforts are extremely taxing on the body and we need to replace what we’ve lost. I always say a meal is best but a shake can work well when it isn’t possible to cook straight away. My go to shake includes the following: 1x banana, 300ml oat milk, 1 teaspoon cacao powder, 1 tea spoon honey, 1 dessert spoon peanut butter and 1 scoop protein powder (vegan). I always look to include the following foods in my daily diet: berries, dark leafy green vegetables, oranges, ginger, garlic and nuts. A lot of these foods have anti-inflammatory qualities and a large number of benefits for our bodies. If you’re not feeling 100% just now, look back at your diet and see if you’re getting these sorts of foods in on a regular (daily) basis. If you’re missing a lot of them, that could be an answer to helping you feel better in improving your performance. Aim to get as much variety in your diet as possible and be mindful of what you’re eating. There’s going to be times when you’re going to be eating chocolate and other sugary foods over Christmas. No one should feel guilty about this as foods like this in a bit of moderation won’t effect you.
As we’ve talked about, recovery is key. One of the most important elements of good recovery is getting enough sleep. This is something that we’re all guilty of not getting enough of. We are spending more and more time on computers and mobile phones and using them late into the evening. To sleep effectively, we need to let our mind and body wind down in the evening. It’s been well documented what effects looking at a screen has on your ability to fall asleep. I use a night time routine to help me wind down and get to sleep faster. I now put my phone on do not disturb at 7.30pm and will not look at it. We do not need to be on our phones at this time of night and I encourage everyone who reads this to start trying this. About 30-45mins before bed, I have a night time herbal tea. This is my signal to my brain that I’m getting read to go to bed. From there, it’s a case of going through the routine and winding down so that I get off to sleep faster. I sometimes have a light carb snack like toast with honey as sleeping is an active process and I find this can improve the quality of my recovery. I aim to go to bed at a time that will give me at least 8 hours of sleep. I could easily sleep for 10 hours per night but 8 is enough to feel recovered. If you’re getting less than this, you could be reducing your recovery and this could be contributing to lower levels of energy. So, put down your phones, drink some herbal tea, try and relax and get a bit more sleep. It doesn’t sound too bad does it?
I hope this article has given you some useful tips on how to get more from your training over the winter. There are going to be times when we’re out late and we’ll eat unhealthy food but that’s fine because it’s Christmas! It’s important to do all the little things right but don’t be too hard on yourself. I can guarantee that you’ll have a better race season if you look after yourself but also don’t go 110% over the winter. If you need to take a day off because you’ve been out at a Christmas drinks then do it. Never feel guilty about missing the odd session because you’ll probably feel better for it. Good luck with your training and please comment if you have any questions.