Training Tips for Cold Weather
“Chilly times folks,” says the man who recently returned from a training camp in Hawaii. Most of us are in the midst of winter, which means training in colder conditions. Today, I will advise managing these conditions so that they do not hamper your longer-term success and enjoyment in sport.
This blog will be split into two main sections: recommendations on how to train when it’s cold outside and how to optimize indoor training when you simply can’t brave the outdoors.
Both will be useful for fitness enthusiasts and more serious athletes alike. I hope this discussion on cold-weather coping warms your heart!
Let’s get into it:
Warm Winter Wear
First, let’s establish something reassuring: cold weather should be much less of a performance inhibitor than high heat and humidity. You absolutely can undertake high-quality training in cold climates. It just isn’t always ideal or pleasant.
Here is my short ‘dress for success’ hit list to consider when tackling frigid temperatures:
Performance Fabrics: With so many gimmicks in the performance world, it would be easy to assume that specifically designed fabrics for cold conditions are exaggerated in function, but, it turns out they do the job. Replacing cotton with performance wool or other synthetic fabrics can greatly impact temperate regulation and comfort.
Get Breathable: Unless you are operating in very wet conditions, a key consideration is ensuring your apparel options are breathable and can release heat. Trapped heat turns to sweat - which makes you wet – and causes your core temperature to drop. So, seek out some breathable and warm performance fabrics. I would add that a windbreaker is often a high-value addition to your breathable layers, but you should usually avoid fully water-proofed garments when actually training, except if in truly extreme conditions.
Embrace Layers: You don’t want to look like a sheep ready for sheering. Many layers provide control over temperature regulation, especially if you train through different temperatures dependent on cover, elevation, and wind.
The Extremities: There’s no point keeping your core temperature up if you have really cold fingers and toes. Ensure you’ve got some quality socks and gloves. Cold extremities can be a day-ender for many.
Your Noggin: Oft overlooked, but much heat loss occurs through your dome. It makes all the difference if you have coverage around your ears and head, equipping you to stay outside longer and apply better focus to the high-value work you want to get done.
Winter Cross-Training
Winter months are a perfect time to leverage some of the cross-pollination other sports offer. As a cyclist or runner, you have lots of options. It can be nice to mix it up sometimes, not to mention beneficial from a muscular and cardiovascular standpoint.
Below I have listed a few of the more common activities people like to embrace in the colder months:
Cross-Country/Alpine Skiing: The king of winter alternatives. Skiing provides excellent cardiovascular conditioning and muscular endurance stimulus. Many of the muscle groups used have a direct cross-over to cycling and running.
Hiking/Snow-Shoeing: Super options for low injury risk tissue resilience development. These activities are often dismissed as too easy, but the wonderful foundation they build should not be overlooked.
Mountain/Gravel Biking: For those out there who are predominantly triathletes or road cyclists, the winter is the best opportunity to get off-road. Even night riding is viable with the right lights. The slower speeds of these two riding modalities and the protection of the trees and environment often make them more enjoyable and viable. The good news is that both provide an environment that forces you to strengthen muscle resilience, hit high-end power, and hone your handling skills. So, yes, going off-road helps your on-road cycling.
Don’t shy away from cross-training, especially in the winter. It can be immensely beneficial, both physically and mentally.
Proper Fueling for Cold Weather Training
Fueling and hydration are critical in colder weather where your body doesn’t work quite as efficiently as it otherwise would.
First, you cool and warm from the inside out. Consider adding warmer liquids to your bottles to keep core temperature up in cold climate training. It is a welcome treat and helps you retain warmth. There is also a psychological component to this, but just know it works.
Secondly, remember to actually eat and drink. So many athletes forget hydration and fueling in the winter, as the signals of thirst and hunger are diminished in cold conditions. Sticking to a planned framework of fueling and hydration will ensure you are not compromising your performance or recovery and adaptations from the training.
And, finally, lean into real food rather than gels or gummies. Much of your outside exercise and training in the winter will be endurance-based and more touring in nature. Go and play and be willing to lose a little specificity of intervals in cold-weather training. I will come to the why of this in the next section, but for now, it’s enough to say that with this framework, your fueling needs demand less sugar focus and open up the wide world of real food. Sandwiches, dried fruit, trail mix, or other fuel sources are good options for much of your winter training.
Indoor Training
Now I will attempt to offer some insight into the world of indoor training, a very relevant topic during these few months. I will tackle the performance world of triathletes, runners, and fitness enthusiasts in this section, so bear with me.
We will discuss four primary modalities: strength training, the bike trainer, the treadmill (which we will convert from “dreadmill” to “treadmill,”) and the rowing ergometer. As you read, I invite you to join the dots on how a whole bunch of the work you do inside can be directly linked to fostering improvement in your performance outside. Our indoor training framework isn’t built in a vacuum. We create a performance program to promote overall development and gains.
Strength Training: There isn’t an endurance activity or sport, nor a human interested in high life performance, who doesn’t benefit from a year-round strength training program. But, when winter draws in, the natural timing of seasonality (and races, I should add) allow for a heightened focus on developing all aspects of proper strength training. Stability, core, strength, movement patterns, and mobility all can and should be a central focus for cold weather times. With a likely reduction in outside time, optimize inside training by making strength training a priority. As the weather warms, your time and focus on strength might diminish, but it won’t be eliminated from the schedule. Use the winter months to dive into proper movement patterns and focus on performing exercises correctly. Hammer-in habits around core and mobility work and tissue health. I promise you once the weather improves, you won’t feel like spending time in the gym, so do it now. You will reap the benefits of time in the gym for the rest of the year.
The Bike Trainer: If used correctly, the bike trainer is a powerful fitness and performance tool, but let’s ensure you know how to leverage this weapon.
For fitness enthusiasts, it’s a valuable modality as a part of a global program. It opens the doorway for critical high-intensity intervals as well as very safe muscular endurance development. Integrating it improves other sports including running and hiking. It also comes without the fear-inducing elements of outdoor bike handling, wind, and traffic.
For more seriously training cyclists and triathletes, the trainer provides a controlled environment for dedicated interval-based training and a massive opportunity to improve. Think pedaling mechanics, posture, and a wide range of stimuli that are tough to replicate outside, such as the valuable high torque low cadence pedaling.
Whether an enthusiast or a trained athlete, the bike trainer is essential to get the best yield from your sessions. This is why we are huge fans of video-based coaching. It isn’t just about getting a sweat on and working hard. It is about doing it right. Removing terrain, traffic, and other distractions opens a door of opportunity for you to improve habits around posture, pedal stroke, and developing a toolkit of riding training that you can apply to your outside riding.
Every single elite Purple Patch athlete utilizes trainer-based riding, and all of them use video-based coaching. These elites are side-by-side with folks who have never even ridden a bike outside. Even if your sport of choice is running, the bike trainer is massively beneficial from a strength and injury perspective.
The Treadmill: Speaking of running. Let’s convert the dreadmill to the treadmill. Many runners despise treadmill sessions, but this is because most lack imaginative training sessions or an understanding of how to extract the treadmill’s actual value.
Like the bike trainer, the treadmill is a great tool to improve form, posture, and natural foot speed without losing running timing and flow. It also strengthens specific running muscles that are hard for us regular folk to activate.
The key to unlocking the treadmill’s potential is the variance of grades. There is limited value in turning your treadmill life into Florida. Dead flat. Instead, embrace variance in speed and gradient for every session. Here are some tips:
Walk breaks. Great for breaking up sessions mentally and activating the desired muscle tissue. A management tool outside, walk-breaks become a form improver on the treadmill. I will often prescribe smooth running at a 1% grade but break up the running with hill-based walking intervals. Two, three, or four minutes of walking at 4-8% is a great tool to improve your running muscles. You can walk uphill with vigor, then drop the grade, ramp speed, and feel real flow in your run. This is hard to replicate outside.
Of course, you can also utilize run-based hill intervals. There’s an option of steep short intervals or more shallow longer intervals. You can then bridge between these with flatter and easier form-based running.
Finally, foot speed. The moving belt aspect of a treadmill is the ideal environment to promote the important form cue of fast cadence. Once again, form-based smooth running in between intervals is recommended to ensure the activation transfers into regular running.
The treadmill is a great tool, but not one I tend to love for extended running or walking. You can gain a massive amount from 10, 20, 30, and even up to 60 minutes of treadmill running and walking. This is enough to support cold-weather training yield without feeling like a hamster on a wheel.
The Rowing Ergometer: It isn’t for everyone but can be a great option. Short sessions of 10 to 30 minutes are a huge supplement. Like hill-based walking and running, the erg promotes the recruitment and conditioning of the posterior chain of muscles, which are essential for fast and efficient running and cycling. Rowing can be as challenging as you make it, but it is truly a leg-driven all-body activity that promotes massive conditioning and muscular endurance.
The colder winter months don’t have to mean an end to your outdoor training. You just have to go about it in a calculated way with attention to certain details like clothing, fueling, and intensity management. Additionally, the winter months provide an opportunity to dive head-first into indoor training and reap the benefits it offers for the rest of the year.
Cheers,
Matt