Get the miles in
Get the miles in
Structure doesn’t have to involve planning every tiny detail of your ride, however – far from it according to Russell Downing.
The veteran Yorkshireman uses his winters to recapture his love of cycling and build towards short-term goals which, at this time of year, mean fitness for his training camps.
“Most of my training in winter is base miles,” he explains. “I will try to get a bit of recovery from the previous year in by getting a holiday at the end of the year but as soon as training starts I don’t work on heart rate, power or anything like that – I just work on hours.
“I probably do that for the first month or so really. At the moment I’m up to about 15-18 hours a week.
“The start of the winter, for me, is all about enjoying riding your bike again and getting back used to your setup.
“Usually as a pro you have training camps planned for December and January, so you know that training camp is going to contain some long hours.
“Riding before then is to make sure you can get to that camp and do the training without getting ill, and make the most of it. I’ll always have that in the back of my head. I want to have a good bit of fitness so I can ride five to six hours at a time when I’m out there.
“Three to four hours in the UK, in the conditions at this time of year, is the equivalent of five hours on a sunny day over there.”