With the change from summer to fall upon us and winter quickly showing up to the party, it seemed like a good time to look at some tips that will help you complete your workouts now and through this winter. Below are ten suggestions to consider when the seasons throw you off track of your training plan.

In the early season of fall, as available daylight decreases, workouts can suffer during the week. So, overall training time on the bike ends up being crammed in on the weekend. While it’s good that you are getting out, it’s not as good that it’s only on the weekend. Here are some tips to even things out over the week while the fall weather is still desirable enough to be outside.

1. Plan for one day mid-week to leave work an hour early for a bike ride. Start and end your ride at work to allow for more saddle time. This can start to balance out the longer duration weekend rides and recovery days from week to week.

2. Plan for at least one high intensity/short duration ride during the week. This type of ride has a short warm-up phase and then gets right down to the high intensity, finishing with a cool down phase. This workout should be hard and rewarding when done over several weeks, can be as short as an hour.

3. Missed a couple of workouts due to work or traffic jams on the way home and it’s now dark? Then spend a few hard earned dollars on a good set of lights. A helmet mount or handlebar mount style lantern can bring a new meaning to cycling. The sun has set but you’re still able to safely navigate your workout to complete your day. If you’re going to be on the streets also invest in a rear mount safety beacon.

4. Lights can also allow for commuting on your trusty steed which not only allows for the workout to be completed, but you also reduce your consumption of gas. Just be sure to have a collection of warm cycling gear for the colder morning temps.

5. Sometimes it’s not about the bike and you should just go for a walk with your family after a nice dinner and look at the Halloween decorations. The recovery will do wonders for the epic ride planned on the weekend and your family will appreciate the time spent with you.

As winter takes hold with messy streets and cold temperatures, cycling moves to the stationary fashion. This is great for about an hour and then the monotony of the pedaling that goes nowhere kicks in. To stay on track it is necessary to find the strength to lift a leg over the bike and ride without the nice scenery, wind in the face and the dusty singletrack of the summer months. Below are the last five suggestions to help keep the workouts rolling while indoors.

6. Have a designated spot for your bike training, preferably in front of a television that you can play videos or DVD’s on. This way your bike is always ready to be ridden and you have the ability to watch cycling workouts, last year’s TdF or even a movie. The distraction works wonders in helping the time go by.

7. Since you’re not able to create wind across the body for evaporative cooling, be careful not to overheat and drink plenty of fluids. Place a fan in the immediate area to help keep the temperature desirable and a towel handy to capture perspiration.

8. While your bike is mounted in the trainer you can do several things to increase the intensity of the workout. Simulate hills by raising the front wheel up higher than the rear wheel so you engage the leg muscles differently. Increase the resistance on the wheel or shift to harder gears to simulate hills. Last but not least, riding rollers can help maintain balance and core strength.

9. Break a long ride into several parts. Much of the same benefit of continuous exercise happens even when we break it up into smaller parts in a day. So, your three hour ride got snowed out, try two one and a half hour rides with a few hours between them and come away still on track with your plan. Another thing to consider when riding a stationary bike is that not much coasting or resting occurs. This means your duration can be reduced up to 20% and still get the same adaptations as an outdoor ride.

10. Once again it’s not all about the bike and the winter season is a great time to be inside strength training, doing Pilates or Yoga and any other form of exercise you can think of. Break up the routine and you will find that the movement to improvement happens whether you’re on the bike or a mat stretching after a group exercise class.

Hopefully these tips help you to find some balance with the change of seasons and allow for the transition from fun in the sun to making the most of the winter. Stick to a plan that has some alternative choices to mix up the routine and next spring will be full of promising new possibilities on the bike.

Get a training plan and keep track of your workouts in a TrainingPeaks account!

About the author:

Rob Lockey, CSCS, ACSM/HFS and a USA Cycling LII Certified Coach, provides testing and coaching through Optimize Endurance Services. Contact him at 303-356-9893 or rob@optimizeendurance.com

This article is based on presentations given at the US Olympic Committee’s recent Altitude Symposium as well as my own experiences coaching endurance athletes over the last decade.

Is altitude right for you, or your athletes?
Far more important than your elevation is the quality of training that you achieve at your training camp. My #1 piece of advice would be to go to the location where the training is best.

Endurance athletes that struggle to pace themselves in a group situation, or who rely heavily on their anaerobic fitness, will have a difficult time at altitude. For this reason, I think that mature athletes will tend to do better than young athletes.

You may have heard of “non-responders” to altitude. In my experience, it is far more likely that you are dealing with a slow responder; a poor pacer; or a lack of basic endurance for the workload of the training camp.

If you place yourself in a hole at altitude then you are likely to be staying in that hole until you get home. So if you get sick then best to pack it in, head home and learn for next time.

However… don’t give up on altitude! It is often reported that athletes gain strength with each altitude exposure. Learning how to adjust to the stress altitude will make you a better athlete at all elevations.

Read more in the full article on why to go to altitude, how to use altitude, and what an altitude training camp might look like. Track your own altitude training in a TrainingPeaks account to see what effect it has on your performance!

Gordo can be found over at www.EnduranceCorner.com where he coaches endurance athletes and leads cycling-focused training camps. His triathlon training plans are also available on TrainingPeaks.

Ross Tucker earned his Ph. D. in the Exercise Science and Sports Medicine Research unit at the University of Cape Town in 2006. Since then he has been consulting for South Africa Rugby, Swimming, Canoeing and other sports institutes. He is currently traveling around the United States where he is enjoying attending events such as the recent Chicago Marathon and a symposium on ‘Training at Altitude” in Colorado Springs.

Ross stopped by the TrainingPeaks offices to see the newest developments and to conduct a short interview with Dirk Friel. Ross discusses the purpose of his popular “Science of Sport” blog (located at www.sportsscientists.com) where his main focus is to take science out of the laboratory and bring in to the general population of athletes. However, he admits most often it is the athlete and coach who are ahead of the science.

In listening to the interview you’ll get a new appreciation for the theory of science as applied to managing fitness programs. Ross also shares his thoughts on how coaches can leverage the TrainingPeaks system to evaluate how things are progressing with their athletes.

Science is a process and starts with a question, then a hypothesis and then an intervention. The coach creates the intervention and evaluates how things are going against is original hypothesis. TrainingPeaks is a management tool that allows the coach to manage the data and helps bridge the gap between science and the coach,” Tucker explains.

Be sure to visit and sign-up for Ross’s blog and e-mail updates at The Science of Sport blog.

Ross has also co-authored a book called “The Runner’s Body”. Click here to read about the book or purchase a copy on Amazon: Runner’s World The Runner’s Body: How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help You Run Stronger, Longer, and Faster (Runners World)

Army Combat Engineer Lee Highsmith is trying to keep his weight under 185 pounds, not only because of a family history of heart disease, but also because 3 roadside bombings have left his lower back too unstable to comfortably support a heavier frame. “One of the things I have to do is watch my weight. During my deployment to Afghanistan from 2006-2007, my vehicle was hit by a road side bomb on 3 separate occasions. Luckily, nobody ever got seriously hurt, just concussions and blurred vision and deafness for a short period of time. Before this happened, I was able to keep my weight around 190-195. Now if my weight gets to 187 or higher, my lower back starts giving me issues, especially when I’m running. My wife (who’s a medic) and a doctor have both said that the concussion from the 3 blasts have contributed to my lower back not being able to support the weight. Therefore I try to keep my weight to 185lbs or lower.”

In addition to his lower back, Lee has to take care of his heart. “I pay attention to my nourishment because I am not trying to end up like my father and have 2 heart attacks before 60 or like my uncle who had 2 heart attacks before he turned 45, not to mention the other heart issues throughout both sides of my family. I also want to set an example for my kids so that they don’t fill their bodies with junk and end up like a lot of kids these days, sitting around playing video games, watching movies, and eating junk food while getting fat.”

Aside from managing his weight, Lee also uses TrainingPeaks to quickly and easily record his runs, which include road marches involving approximately 100lbs of gear and lasting for no shorter than 6 miles but possibly as long as 25 miles. “I use TrainingPeaks to help track my progress in workouts as well as what I eat. With it, I am able plan what I want to do easier and it doesn’t take long to add the results of my workout to the calendar. I started using TrainingPeaks because it is easier than inputting everything into an excel spreadsheet, especially when it comes to comparing your progress. I can also use it to help with the physical training program that we use to develop our soldiers’ physical fitness.”

Lee originally discovered TrainingPeaks when he got his first training device. “I didn’t even know about TrainingPeaks until I got my Garmin Forerunner 305. I decided to check out the site and see what it was about. I was a little wary at first with having to pay for a site I didn’t know anything about, so I decided to try it for a month, before I committed to using it completely. Glad I did, because this site is really convenient and has loads of information.”

Lee’s training goals are a little different from those of other TrainingPeaks members, but the program still works well for him. “What am I training for? Best Sapper Competition. It is an annual competition for the Engineer Regiment, very similar to the famed Best Ranger Competition. The difference is that for Best Sapper, you have to be an Engineer or a Sapper School graduate in order to participate. At Best Ranger, you have to be Ranger qualified, period. It is an extremely physical, very grueling competition that not only tests your physical fitness, but also your knowledge in every aspect of your military occupational specialty (MOS). Teams spend months training for this competition.”

Lee’s job is also quite different from how many other TrainingPeaks members spend their days. “What is my job? I’m a combat engineer. Right now, with the current mission, we conduct road side bomb clearance. You can say we are the subject matter experts of Improvised Explosive Devices (second only to EOD, Explosive Ordnance Disposal who we work with). Other parts of our job range from fighting as infantrymen, to emplacing minefields and wire obstacles to deter the enemy or slow him down, and that’s not even scratching the surface. Our mission depends on what type of unit we’re in. We have the most diversified MOS (military occupational specialty) because we have to know A LOT more than the average combat arms soldier.”

Lee has been in the Army for 11 and a half years, leaving him 8 and a half more until retirement. He is currently on his 3rd deployment, with just a couple of months left in his rotation. “We’re on a 12 month rotation. We’re currently in our 10th month. This is my 3rd deployment with my first 2 being deployments to Afghanistan from 2001-2002 and then again from 2006-2007.”

Best wishes for a safe return, Lee.

You have all new ski equipment — shaped skis, bindings with riser plates, and the latest boots.  You feel totally ready to hit the slopes.  But are you?  Make sure you aren’t forgetting about the most important piece in preventing ski injuries and increasing your skiing enjoyment:  your physical condition.  Being physically ready for the demands of skiing will decrease your risk of being injured and improve your skiing ability and enjoyment.  By engaging in a pre-season ski conditioning program, you can take your skiing to new heights while avoiding the injury pitfalls.

Fortunately, alpine skiing injuries have decreased about fifty percent since the 1970’s thanks to advances in equipment and improvements in ski area management.  If you are injured, you are two times more likely to injure a lower extremity than an upper extremity.  In fact, one third of all ski injuries occur to the knee joint, and a sprain of the  medial collateral ligament on the inside of the knee is the most common ski injury.  Other areas commonly injured are the shoulders, thumbs and head.

What’s the best way to prepare your body for the rigors of skiing so that you don’t become an injury statistic?  How do you know if the program outlined in your favorite ski magazine covers all the important aspects of ski conditioning to take your skiing to the next level?  A comprehensive pre-season ski conditioning program should contain the following components: development of the cardiovascular system, strength training, flexibility work, balance and agility exercises, and explosive/coordination training.

Read more in the full article by Jason Amrich about each of these components, and get in shape for your best ski season ever!

About the author:

Jason Amrich is a physical therapist and the Administrative Director at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine (BCSM).  BCSM is offering inexpensive ski conditioning classes and a 6-week Friday afternoon ski clinic series this winter at Eldora Mountain Resort for advanced to expert level alpine and telemark skiers wishing to improve their skills in powder, crud, steeps and bumps.  Call 303-544-5700 for more information.