winter training

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BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 20th January, 2011

Through December I got a bit lost training wise, beaten by the weather, the icy roads, snow and the cold temperatures. I jumped on the turbo quite a few times and adventured out a few times but never for long enough to feel as though I was accumulating valuable base miles.



January however has so far been a great month for training. I have finally bucked up my ideas and am enjoying some longer rides, averaging 3 rides of 3-5 hours a week. We have not been mountain biking for quite a few weeks now and at the weekends I have mainly been glued to Mark’s rear wheel on the road bike. It’s been good but damn he has got fast compared to this time last year and he is pushing me hard.  I blew up last weekend and had to crawl home, legs didn’t want to spin anymore â€" it’s a long time since that happened. I don’t even get to see much of the scenery as I am so close to his rear wheel but for some reason I really like training on the road bike, mainly I guess because of its simplicity, low cost and the ability to keep spinning and hold your heart rate in a specific zone. At the end of the ride you feel like you have worked hard but also that you are working towards getting stronger.



Having said all that, I am looking forward to getting out on the mountain bike this weekend. By the time of the first BMBS if I carry on this way, I may be fit but I will not be able to ride a mountain bike. I’ve bought a new drive train for my old race bike, now my winter mountain bike  so hopefully I can get some mountain bike miles in without putting  wear on my 2011 race bike, a Giant Anthem X which I will be picking up this week.

Starting to look forward to racing again with the welsh cross country series as a good warm up for the year.

Thanks to Xcracer.com, Accelerade and exposure lights.