Vary your training
Vary your training
Where you ride is largely dictated by where you live and the roads you have access to in your free time.
But it’s important not to just repeat the same routes until they are ingrained on your mind and become a chore rather than a pleasure. Instead, winter is a time to explore.
For Downing – whose training plan is designed to help him hit form, and hold it, from the spring – breathing life into his ride means mixing up the flat roads which allow him to ride at the low intensity required at this time of year, with a lap of the local hills.
He explains: “At this time of year I’ll be looking at the flat roads, but half-hour’s ride away is a loop with a few pretty steep climbs that I used to use when I was training for the Classics.
“I’ll do a few of them at the end of the day. I can do a four or five mile lap with a couple of good hills in it and then I’ve got half-an-hour riding back from there.
“It adds another lap to my ride and a bit of variation, just to keep things interesting.”