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5 CRUCIAL WINTER TRAINING TIPS I WISH I KNEW SOONER | RIDER SUPPORT

with Rider Support

37:39·18 November 2024

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Take 2–4 weeks fully off the bike before structured winter training. Marker: you should be yearning to ride again. Don't force a return on an arbitrary date.
Don't sandbag the structured plan by adding extra duration. CTL is a 42-day rolling total — silent over-additions ramp it past what your coach planned and tip you into illness/injury risk.
Run "training to train" first. Unstructured movement, cross-training, hike/swim/gym before intervals come back. Bridge the rest-to-structure gap.
Book the yearly medical, dental and blood-work appointments in the off-season. Mark Cavendish missed an entire spring classics campaign because of an undiagnosed wisdom tooth — this is the cost of skipping it.
Map the full annual plan around your A-races now, when you have time. Reactive periodisation in March is what causes broken seasons.

TOPICS

Winter training success starts long before you clip in—it's about proper planning, recovery, and understanding the data that guides your progress. We break down five essential steps to set yourself up for a solid winter season, dive deep into chronic training load and how extra miles sabotage your plan, and tackle the real mechanics of winning group ride sprints.

Key Takeaways

Take a full 2-4 weeks completely off the bike in the offseason to build physical and mental recovery capital—you should be yearning to get back on by the end
Adding extra duration to prescribed sessions silently increases your chronic training load and fatigue, disrupting your coach's periodization and risking overtraining, illness, or injury
CTL Ramp Rate matters: how quickly your chronic training load increases week-to-week is based on science that shows athletes going too fast get sick and injured
Sprint positioning is everything—constantly surf wheels forward, plan your launch point based on wind conditions (headwind = shorter sprint, tailwind = longer), and visualize explosive violence before you go
Power meter readings vary between indoor and outdoor setups due to calibration temperature differences and device variance—zero offset before every ride and set zones per device rather than chasing identical numbers
Training Stress Balance (form) is the sweet spot between fitness and fatigue—use Whoop data, subjective feel, and Training Peaks together to understand how deep into negative TSB you can safely go

Expert Quotes

"The poison is in the dose—occasionally going over on rides is fine, but if you're doing it all the time it's not a good idea."

"Sprints are about violence. Sprints are about like trying to pull the handlebars off the bike trying to smash the pedals and the crank off—they're like absolutely ferocious."

"You want to make that surface area as small as possible—positioning becomes this game of surfing from wheel to wheel where you're constantly moving up because if you're not moving up someone else is moving up and that's pushing you back."

CLAIMS FROM THIS EPISODE

Each tagged with the strength of evidence behind it.

STUDY
Mark Cavendish missed an entire spring classics campaign — including Milan-San Remo — after an unaddressed wisdom tooth required emergency extraction; cited by Anthony as the canonical case for off-season medical checks.
Source: Public reporting on Cavendish's spring campaign, summarised on the Roadman Cycling podcast
PRO PRACTICE
Chronic Training Load (CTL) is a 42-day running total of training stress scores, while Acute Training Load (ATL) is a 7-day running total. Adding unprescribed extra duration silently raises CTL beyond planned levels.
Source: TrainingPeaks methodology, summarised on the Roadman Cycling podcast
PRO PRACTICE
Anthony's coaching observation: athletes who ramp CTL too fast are at materially elevated risk of illness, injury and overtraining — making adherence to the prescribed plan more important than logging extra hours.
Source: Anthony Walsh, Roadman Cycling podcast
PRO PRACTICE
Anthony recommends a "training to train" phase built around unstructured movement and cross-training (hike, swim, gym) between the complete-rest break and the start of structured cycling intervals — the bridge most amateurs skip.
Source: Anthony Walsh, Roadman Cycling podcast

KEY QUOTES

“your chronic training loads a 42-day running total of those training stress scores it's also going to have a knock onto your fatigue which is your ATL which is a 7-Day running total of those training stress scores so if you're consistently adding extra time to your rids you're going to be accumulating more fatigue than your coach has planned this can affect your performance negatively instead of improving it”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host and coach

“when you ramp CTL too fast you're starting to see athletes getting sick you're starting to see athletes get injured so when you add in a bunch of extra duration yourself it's affecting CTL Ramp rates so it's putting you into that risk of overt Trin and injury Illness”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host and coach

“Cavendish was like Unstoppable he was like a force of nature at the time and he missed the entire spring classic season because he didn't go to the dentist in the off season and figure out that he had a wisdom tooth problem and he had to get it out near Milan Sano and missed Sano and the entire spring because of that”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host and coach

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT2 SECTIONS

Essential Winter Training Prep Steps

Welcome to this week's ryer support this week we're going to talk about chronic training load Ramp rates if that sounds confusing it won't be once we explain it the accuracy of parameters but first five things you absolutely need to be doing before you get started with your winter training Sarah Anthony okay first question hi Anthony every year I dive head first into winter training only to burn out or get sidelined halfway through the season this this time I want to start smart and actually make it to Spring in one piece are there any key steps that I should never skip before kicking off winter training what's actually essential to set myself up for a solid winter season actually love that question very few people think about the offseason period everyone's always geeking out on you know the latest session or you know the latest supplement they kind of looking for a quick fix yeah and it's the opposite of that this is like rooted in good planning and I really like that pel of that inner nerd I think the first one is take a proper break a lot of people it's a long long summer and now we've events from even someone that's a hardcore only ever rides the road that's starting to get a little bit gray now and most people ride a little bit of mountain bike a little bit of gravel the odd sportif a gravel event a road race a time trial it's a busy busy summer for anyone and that carries a lot of like physical fatigue mental fatigue cost on relationship fatigue opportunity cost of what you could be doing with your significant order or family so taking two to four weeks depending on your level four weeks if you're not a serious totally off the bike I think is a great idea win some Capital which your significant order by going away on holidays going out to movies walks to farmers markets at the weekend and also stay off the bike until you're dying to get back onto it you should be really like yearn this especially the last few days you oh I wish I was back trained and I think that's the first one then I would get back into a training to train phase instead of training straight away and let me draw a line in that a training to train phases you're riding the bike you're climbing you're running you're rowing you're going to the gym diving into a CrossFit class but you're not straight back into structured sessions but you are straight back into moving every day whereas in your time off you're going to be eating the food you never eat you're going to be indulging like you never indulge but now you're getting back into movement cross training is ideal but don't like go from never running all year to doing 10 kilometers on like week one that's just like a recipe for injury then a yearly checkup now this sounds a little bit weird but I think almost every pro cyclist is now doing a yearly checkup and a lot of amateurs I can't remember remember the year but Cavendish was like Unstoppable he was like a force of nature at the time and he missed the entire spring classic season because he didn't go to the dentist in the off season oh wow and figure out that he had a wisdom tooth problem and he had to get it out near Milan Sano and missed Sano and the entire spring because of that that's something that could have easily been picked up if he had went to the dentist in November had that work done then and then you know you can take the chill time to recuperate so I would add into that yearly checkup like a blood work is there any underlying problems you have that you can fix now yeah that's that's really really good advice I never would have thought about that at all because you do tend to just completely ignore that a lot of writers are time crunch they're just about squeezing everything in that they're currently doing and don't have that time to go okay let's pause for a minute let's go and get the old mot done check check check the chassis hasn't got any Ro on Loos your hair looks yeah straight over to Turkey get Turkish teeth H what are we on that's that's Tre number four I think admin I'd call it I rubb this phrase from a military guy I had on the podcast Navy SEAL and he loves this idea of admin admin is all the stuff that goes into preparing for battle so I've robbed it for cycling admin is all the stuff that goes into riding your bike that isn't right in your bike offseason's a great time to get ahead of admin like are your bikes mechanically sound are you going to is this the fleet of bikes you're going to ride for the entire year you going to upgrade a group set are you going to upgrade your wheels is there like you know discs that are slightly warp that need to be changed do that in the offseason get all the repairs and upgrades out of the way in the offseason because you have a little bit of extra time and when you do get back training time is at a premium and it's hard to even get the head space between work family and training to think about what problems need to be solved so step back and solve those problems and plan ahead look at what events you have for the next you know 12 month period even batching stuff like tires like Tire technology is not going to change that much over the course of the next seven or eight months like you can you be buying your tires can you be buying your spares that you need for the entire year right now especially as it's coming up to like Black Friday sales and stuff and it's a good time to start tinkering around with your bike and getting to know it a little bit better if you haven't been working on your bike at all because you're not going to need it you know for the usual five days a week that you're normally spend on it so have a little play around you thinking starting a mechanics course which kind of falls into that L of foundation yeah I'm signed up for a mechanics course starting in December so cuz I just there's been huge gaps in me feeling comfortable going out on the gravel roads on my own or even on the roads if something happened I'm completely at a loss as to how I get myself out of trouble it's literally called a cab kind of stuff I'm could just by change a tube so yeah I'm going to do mechanics course and sure I won't even need you then and then the last one is for me it's taken time to envisage what a successful year looks like I remember meeting my coaching time he was riding for Sky Michael bar been down in his house and meeting for a coffee and he's like if we met for a coffee this time next year what's the perfect year look like and then let's start optimizing towards that and the perfect year it's like what do the training blocks look like are we going away when are we going away it's planning out that kind of macro overview again to steal the seal who's front of mind after my last reference to him he had this idea of the General's tense the general doesn't concern himself with the minutia of individual little brawls he's a more a big strategy guy he wants to float above and move the pieces around the board so like when are you going away what's are you doing altitude big events all of that like and what's your goals for the season all rolled into that kind of annual training plan I think those five things would be a really good spot to start your offseason in I like that you said realistic goals as well because you do always talk about winter dreamers and winter dreaming and then you do you do see people who train really hard in the lead up for the Christmas World Champs which are World Champs are real fictitious but you know you're training so hard for basically nothing that's basically me at most that's basically you're going to peek on New Year's Eve and then that's going to be it so kind of plan it out quite carefully but yeah it is It's tricky to get it all right is it do you think that you would take a two to four week totally off the bike Anthony I've never known you to take two week never know me to actually train though so yeah if I when I was training I would have taken two to four weeks totally off the bike so and most of the pros would as well right okay you're riding the bike every day for 11 months of the year and as you said you come back absolutely chomping at the bit to get back out there get back on the bike like you've missed it yeah yeah okay fantastic right next question I have a training plan but sometimes I ride longer than is prescribed if I'm feeling good or really loving the spin should I tell my coach sometimes I stop my garment at the allocated training time for example if I'm supposed to do a three-hour ride I'll stop the recording and then do another 60 to 90 minutes after that but I don't tell my coach is this detrimental to my training that's a really good question it's a question I think a lot of athletes don't understand the implication of riding a little bit longer because we're in the more is better and we talked about last week that you're better off being 5% or 10% undercooked and 1% overcooked I think this is kind of an extension of that so if you think about the impact on training load and fatigue going beyond your prescribed training time you're down for a 4-Hour ride and you decide to do a six-hour ride it can significantly alter the the training load for that session like the training stress score so that's going to have a knock on effect to your chronic training load which to get geeky here your chronic training loads a 42-day running total of those training stress scores it's also going to have a knock onto your fatigue which is your ATL which is a 7-Day running total of those training stress scores so if you're consistently adding extra time to your rids you're going to be accumulating more fatigue than your coach has planned this can affect your performance negatively instead of improving it as that excessive training load it can start to manifest as overtraining symptoms cuz your coach isn't aware he's aware yeah I think progression is and periodization in area we talk about a loss and the Steven Syer interview we put out a few weeks ago that went really well we talked about this idea of periodization and building out that macro structure training plans they often designed based on principles of periodization that's a gradual overload so I give you 10 hours this week I give you 11 hours next week I give you 12 hours the week after and then I have a decompression week but when we start deviating from the prescription the O principles of overload are kind of they're halfhazard now and you know we could be gone 15 hour week 11h hour week and the science doesn't tell us that's the best way long term to progress an athlete CTL Ramp rates so we talked about what CTL is and sorry this is quite a geeky answer CTL again just to recap it it's that 42-day running total of your training stress scores so CTL Ramp rates is how much your CTL can change from Monday to the end of the week so over seven days how much should we change your CTL if you're starting now I think your goal is to get to like 80 CTL or something we'd map out for you but if you started out on like a 60 CTL this week we don't want you finishing the week on an 80 CTL so just parameters that you want to ramp CTL within and those parameters exist based off observations of athletes and the hundreds of thousands of files the train and Peaks have seen that when you ramp CTL too fast you're starting to see athletes getting sick you're starting to see athletes get injured so when you add in a bunch of extra duration yourself it's affecting CTL Ramp rates so it's putting you into that risk of overt Trin and injury Illness but also if this listener is feeling really good and you know occasionally he's says to himself oh I'm in I'm in a flow State here I'm definitely not going to I'm not going to call this session short because I'm really enjoying it I'm having a laugh with the group or you know I'm out with a great Bunch today it's okay to do that occasionally obviously isn't it but it sounds like this is this is happening quite regularly so would you recommend that if he is doing this quite regularly that he doesn't stop His Garment and is quite is honest with his coach because that will then have a knock on effect with his following week's oh he definitely your that's what he's doing what's the point that yeah that's what he's doing here so if he is going to go over on his rides at the very least record it and communicate I think athletes overemphasize or I think they think the usability of this data it takes a long time to go through someone's training for and no coach unless you're paying a world tour coach is spending an hour TR trolling through data so he's not looking on the map where that you didn't stop your file at home he's actually not going to notice that probably yeah so communicate to them as well because I think if you communicated and you have done a longer ride there's still now you can use where you can start to adjust recovery periods to you know account for this but yeah it's just it's not gradual or genuinely a good idea but like you say occasionally it's fine the poison is in the dose if you do it all the time yeah not a good idea okay next question hey Anthony so in our group rides there's this ongoing battle to be first to each Town sign and I'm determined to finally leave my buddy Tom in the dust last week I thought I had him but he flew by me like I was standing still I know power is important but I'm guessing there's more to it than just hammering the pedals R man are you ready for the world's greatest cycling show roller Al is back and it is bigger than ever it's taken place in the iconic Truman Brewery in London from November 14th to November 16th roller alive brings cycling culture to life like never before with over 80 of top cycling brands in the world and a star studed lineup it's the ultimate event for cycling fans cyclists and anyone who just lives and breeds life on two wheels the guest lineup it's insane cycling royalty like Tom pockock casan Numa Luke 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Sprinting for Town Signs

Ccclive for all the details and to book your ticket now don't miss out on the cycling event of the Year I'll be there so make sure you come and say hello any tips on when to launch the Sprint positioning or technique should I always be in the drops or are there any other tricks to make sure that I come out on top we actually had a similar question to this about a year ago I think sprinting for a town signs is classic cycling cyclist Behavior yeah it's a kind of a weird question it's probably just me being pedantic and he's uh just typed it in haste but like I'm assuming on group R they're not sprinting for every town sign that just sounds like absolute chaos you just say each Town sign but I don't know how do you know which signs are is it just whoever kicks off first well no's say you're think about our group ride on a Saturday we go through probably seven towns we don't Sprint for every single Town sign it' just be men all over the road bodies everywhere you normally have like one assigned Sprint point an assigned Sprint like we Sprint down the side of the airport and it's like a nice Road good surface so everyone knows it's going to be a Sprint and a regroup but if you sprint for every single Town sign like towns could be like two kilometers apart it's just like a full gas he needs to go back and listen to the group Ro episode okay well let's say let's say assume it's one or two yeah how can he improve I'm listening very intently here because I always like this listener get completely left back in the dust on occasion I can hang on the wheel Anthony will turn around he'll he'll notice that I'm behind him and he'll kind of be like what are you still doing here so yeah give us some good tips here for this so I think mostly your like your problem mostly is and this is Maybe good place to start cuz if you work backwards from the beginning of the Sprint kind of start to ramp up so if you think of the equivalent of in a pro race it's like 5K out it's starting to ramp up that's kind of what's Happening coming into the town sign Sprint it's getting faster and faster positioning is just the key thing there if you're on the wrong wheel and somebody isn't motivated to Sprint people have different goals during a group right not everyone wants to Sprint full gas so if you're positioned behind someone who isn't too keen on sprinting and then as soon as the speed ramps up they let a Gap open now you have to come out in the wind to close the gap to back in to get shelter that's taking a good bit of juice out of your Sprint already exact thing happened to me on Saturday where I just had a really bad position everything was lined out in single file because it was a headwind tried to move up the group and then just you know was sapping getting energy sapped because my nose is out in the wind and it just kicked off and I had nothing left yeah position is so important isn't it so position and you're hitting wind so you're definitely in the drops like you're not in the hes for any of this Sprint you ride the holds quite a bit still you haven't got into the no I haven't had the confidence yet really to particularly riding a group ride on the drops so yeah something to that's minimizing your surface area like we all talk like the gibli we used uh it's all calculating coefficient of frontal drag you want to make that surface area as small as possible that's very applicable to Sprints so so it's positioning is the main thing I would say so the positioning becomes this game of Surfing from Wheel to wheel where you're trying to see who's you know on the Ascend andc see you only to be caught behind somebody who's going to on the way back because if you're not moving up in this little Dynamic group you're moving back so there's no hold in your place you're constantly moving up because if you're not moving up someone else is moving up and that's de facto pushing you back so you need to be surfing up and then I think it's reverse Eng engering where you want to launch your Sprint so it's understanding the conditions where are you sprinting to are you sprinting into a headwind a crosswind a Tailwind if it's a headwind I don't really want to be going for me much more than 150 M so I don't want to be hitting wind before 150 M so I'll try and surf Wheels surf wheels and then with 150 MERS to go find a gap I'll try and understand if it's a regular route like we do where's the clean line like where's the road the road surface doesn't have potholes that are can Sprint in without having to worry about you know my chain getting bopped or me hitting something going over the bars but if it's a Tailwind you're going to open up that Sprint in a totally different place because it's a Tailwind you'll know okay I can hold 10 15 seconds it's going to take me maybe 250 meters in the Tailwind so that's affecting your position into like so you're trying to work it backwards you're like okay if I want to be on the front of the group or launching my Sprint at 250 M to go where do I want to be at 500 M to go if I need to be there at 500 M to go where do I I need to be at 1 kilometer to go so you don't want to be too far forward too early because then you find yourself in a position like you're on the front of the group with you know 400 to go and then people are running at you from behind at to be a 250 to go and that's another really good point about positioning and kind of tactics like you will always we take a leftand turn into this road and it's kind of determined by the group and who's feeling kind of lively when the Sprint really kicks off and you're always quite cute you'll always stay behind find a good wheel and let the guys kind of do a lot of work up the front for the first couple of hundred meters and then you'll suddenly shoot off so there's tactics and holding your nerve a little bit that's involved also and I also think I sent a client this message during the week during a Sprint session because went out the door and yeah everyone's tired everyone's balancing a lot of conflicting demands you go out the door you look oh what's my session today I have four 10c Sprints the Temptation is just to go out and go at 410 okay time to Sprint like Sprint yeah do my Sprint on do my next Sprint on Sprints are about violence Sprints are about like trying to pull the handlebars off the bike trying to smash the pedals and the crank off they're like absolutely ferocious so I find visualization quite helpful I'm doing a Sprint so I think about a stick of dynamite and the 10 seconds before I visualized like the fuse ticking down to the dynamite then when it's time to Sprint it's like P and you're explod through the pedals trying to cause maximum damage to the pedals that's been really helpful for me yeah it's kind of hard to I find it quite hard to mimic the Sprint feeling when you're training because you know again talking about our group riding we know that that Sprint is coming up kind of in the last quarter of the ride every Saturday and it's something that you can feel is really palpable in the group we turn that corner onto that straight stretch people are ditching water out of their bottles they're tightening their boas like everyone's kind of getting a little bit ansy as to when it's going to kick off and it's a really exciting part of the group spin but yeah I think your tip for training and trying to mimic with that intensity is really good because it's something I certainly don't do and I'm also your experience is very common to most people's experience in these Club roid Sprints they don't get to Sprint you've never had had the chance to Sprint no because the Sprint for you it's not rolling into the Sprint at 25 30 kilm an hour where you're comfortable and you get to Sprint it's ramping from 30 to 35 to 40 to 45 to 50 I'm surviving and so you never get a Sprint so it's a totally different effort so I think if you are trying to get better at these as well it's important to replicate the effort and so look at your power meter look at your heart rate file and go what's actually happening there how long is the run into this and now can I replicate that in training because if you can't get through that period you know you'll never get to actually launch that final Sprint yeah it's great fun for anyone who doesn't incorporate these into your spins or group rides or rides with your buddies it is a very fun way to throw in a little bit of little bit of crack and a bit of competition into the group Ro man I know how serious you take your goal setting whether they're Fitness or life related goals if you're looking for a powerful alloy to support you on this journey look now further than heu hu has become my secret weapon for when I don't have time to prepare a balanced meal ensures I get the nutrition I need without sacrificing time or taste plus it stops me from reaching for that takeaway menu I always throw a bottle into my backpack when I'm heading into the city to work and it stops me eating junk venience food snacking on crossons and bars of chocolate because I know they don't support my training goals it's a handy nutritious meal on the go and it's got over 22 gram of protein hule is perfect for athletes that don't have time to cook or prepare food before a training session it's convenient nutritious fuel at your fingertips ensuring you hit your daily fueling needs for that session hu ready to drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals in every single bottle you're getting a whopping 175 health benefit plus it's made from natural ingredients like Topeka Sunfire seed coconut and more the best part it's the flavors there's eight crazy beautiful flavors iced coffee is what's in my backpack right at the moment you can get youu directly to your home all you got to do is head on over to the hu website hu.com Roan okay next question Anthony what is possible or common in terms of TSB B training stress balance recently I've been building Fitness and would like to know how deep you can go before a rest that's another great question this is a really interesting question so training stress balance we call that form so training stress balance it's a critical metric on the training Peaks management chart especially for athletes who are looking to optimize performance without overtraining and don't want to push past that edge so tsp is calculated by subtracting your acute training load which we talked about that's your fatigue score over seven days from your chronic training lot so you're taking one from the other so it essentially measures the balance between fatigue and fitness so that's what we call form is that balance between fatigue and fitness a nice way to illustrate that is like someone just finishes the T of France we're going to have a bet on who's going to win a bike race a one day race so we're going to have like we'll say Milan and rmo is the day after Tour of France I mean you're going to have a bet on who's going to win it Pacha is just absolutely dominated the Tour of France and now he's going into Milan Sano he's obviously very fit he's just ridden the entire Tour of France he's very fit that's no doubt but his fatigue is very high we take someone else who doesn't ride the tour we say w vanart who doesn't ride the tour to France and he's been on the beach for two weeks he's done absolutely nothing his Fitness is super low but his fatigue is also super low the person we're really probably looking for is the person who rode the first week at a tour of France and then took it easy because he has form he has Fitness and he has low fatigue and we call Fitness and low fatigue form and that's what we're looking to achieve with training stress balance so when you have someone going into an event and they taper we try and build Fitness build Fitness build Fitness shed fatigue so form comes up wow so that's that's kind of what that is so to understand TSB it's a positive TSB indicates that you're well rested but potentially overtrained a negative TSB indicates your possibly overreaching and that could lead to you know overreaching injuries illness if it's there for too long so it's a numeric number so he's looking to understand and interpret his number at the moment if your negative TSB of 30 or lower than that this suggests a very high level of fatigue relative to your Fitness now this is common dur Peak phase as a training if you're way a training camp or something like that super compensation period where you can only sustain that for short periods of time for your risk injury illness burnout moderately negative TSB it' be minus 10 to minus 30 and this indicates you're in a loading phase fatigue is acceptable because there's no Fitness without fatigue athletes will often dip into that range during building training blocks neutral slightly negative TSB be like minus 10 to plus five this is often what we target during a taper phase to get ready for a race and then a positive TSB it's ideal for like key events for your your main one for the entire our year so how deep can you go is his question with your TSB I think that's going to be very individual and that's going to be like some athletes are just going to recover faster than others du due to like genetics age training history lifestyle factors like sleep nutrition Stress Management we talk about this kind of Trifecta of looking at the data from training Peaks marrying your own subjective feelings and looking at the data from your whoop and I think that's super important for understanding if you're at a -20 and you're thinking actually feel really good here and then you're looking at Trends on your whoop data and you're saying okay last time I was at ative -20 I actually was really good sleep was good heart rate variability was good so it's all lining up to say actually I'm not too bad I can go a little bit deeper here so if you look back at whoop Trends and you look and you see last time I was asked negative3 everything went to bits my sleep was terrible my heart rate variability was terrible I think that's an indication to not start pushing past that so it's really a case of listening to your body and looking at that trifect of data between training Peaks subjective feelings and whoop a wearable data to see how deep you can push yeah so you're you're going to go through all of those phases aren't you where where your form is going to e and flow when you're as you're going through a training cycle towards your your main event yeah but as was his question is how deep can he go like it's not a it's not an exercise and trying to get as deep as you can okay so it's cuz your fatigue if you think about what it is it's one subtracted from the other so if you're going that deep it's a case of maybe your Fitness isn't high enough relative to your fatigue that a good example of this would be someone who's on like 10 hours a week but then they get December off work and they're like what can I do 35 hours a week for all of December and you're trying to see how low you can go with TSB it's it's a game that's really fraught in danger because you could just totally blow and undo all your good work yeah oh my God okay okay next question hey Anthony I've been training on my w bike indoor and have a new parameter on my road bike but here's the problem my numbers never match up up indoors I'm putting out solid power but outside it always seems lower last week I thought I was crushing it until I saw my outdoor numbers and felt like I lost half my strength overnight is there a reason my power readings differ so W between indoor and outdoor setups and is one more reliable than the other go podcast with Julie schober who's the founder the power meter the like actual Creator not the founder of a brand he found but he created the technology that is par meters which is just wild Story how we thought we needed to solve that problem I'm just fascinating about those minds but there's huge variance from power meter parameter you can have parameter a with you know say it's to stages brand you know notoriously weren't too reliable now we have Brands like four I which are four I which are like good reliability and quite affordable versus a quark or an SRM they're going to read different the important thing is that it's reading consistently so you want a parameter that's reading consistent when you're going from bike to bike that's when you know you're playing this comparison game because you probably don't have Zone set differently from bike to bike and if you have two parameters that are you know differ it's almost like you need to set different zones for the two kind it's a bit Soul crushing isn't it because our W bike reads Low in comparison to my four eye my four eyes par meter on my Servall so when I'm trying to hit those numbers that I would be hitting Outside Inside it can be a little bit there can be user error as well for people because strain gauges calibrate to temperature so if you're calibrating your you need to zero offset your parameter before every ride which is something a lot of people know nothing about and I only occasionally remember to do it but that's a really important point and I don't think enough people know know some parameters I think do auto zero offset but I like to zero offset myself because it's based on temperature so if your bike's been in the house like ours is and you know W was hanging on to work this morning it was six degrees when he was leaving for work like your house is probably going to be 21° and you're going out to 6° you need to leave the bike sitting outside for a while and then calibrate I remember my SRM at the start first few years I was using it was super sensitive to this I used to have to leave it outside for like a half an hour so I put the bike outside my mom's front door and then i' go and get kitted and then it come back and zero offset it yeah because when I'm zero offsetting I will roll about down the road about 10 minutes and then I'll do it just so the bike or so the tech can kind of get to that ambient level but yeah it is something that everyone should be doing I feel the opposite is a problem for a lot of people where they see they're producing lower power inside but that's just a question of heat buildup that a few years ago we didn't really realize how important heat dissipation is now it like it's absolutely Central to power production so if you listen to the podcast I had with the founder of core or you look at what guys like Dan Binger or phip oana were doing for the error record they taking a huge amount of crushed ice and slushies and a lot of Advanced cooling strategies because there now is a recognition industrywide that once our core temperature goes up our performance goes down but that's not the issue he's having here no I think it's just a case of slightly different readings on different parameters or not calibrating not calibrating and I think as you said if you're going to test just stay or set your zones based on each device that you're using and just be careful that you're not overtraining on the one that's showing you lower Watts yeah I don't know I've never tested on two different devices yeah I I definitely have I mean I did an FTP indoors before I think it was like 235 and then I went and did a outdoor one remember in Sac labra or it was in New York or somewhere it was like 265 and you were like oh I think that's probably the pet you know that's a massive big gap and like I don't think people should have two different sets of zones cuz like it WS havoc on your data and your China Peaks like what two China Peaks accounts like it's I don't think it's a good idea it's like just calibrate your parameter a little bit better and if you do have also the zones are quite big buckets so it's like if it's off by 100 Watts like you don't have a calibration problem You' have a problem that your parameter is broke like it should be off by five Watts or it should be off by seven Watts like a good par meter like the SRM like scientific one I think it's like plus or minus 0.5% when you move up to four eyes like they're plus or minus like 1.5% so it's tiny variation between those two so if you're having like a wild variance and you're seven or eight% off you have a problem with your parameter yeah yeah Roan whether you're a weekend warrior or a world hor Rider the right tools can make all the difference enter four eyes Precision tree plus parameter the latest Innovation from 4i designed to help you reach Peak Performance the Precision tree plus parameter is a compact yet powerful unit it weighs just nine G and it's packed with features that set it apart including integration with Apple's fine mind Network giving you the Peace of Mind by letting you track your par meter wherever it is plus you've got up to 800 hours of battery life we all know that accuracy is key and for oids delivers a groundbreaking plus or minus 1% accuracy thanks to their unique 3D strain gauge technology for those seeking even more data the Precision 3+ Pro parameter offers dual-sided power meter metric giving you detailed insights into pedaling efficiency torque Effectiveness and left right balance for eyes offers versatile product options to suit your needs choose from ride ready parameters with pre-installed units on Shimano cranks or up for factory install parameter where you send in your crank set for custom installation ready to elevate your cycling game trust 4 eyes Precision Tre plus parameter Precision performance and peace of mind all inone learn more by visiting for iii.com that's for iii.com I'm going to put that in the description down below okay last question hi Anthony so here's a question I might regret asking I've been eyeing up some custom paint jobs for my cycling shoes bright colors a bit of a flare you know the drill but my mates say it's a pro only look and I'll just look ridiculous trying to pull it off on the weekend rights what do you think our Custom Care picks cool for us regular riders or should I stick to the basics and leave the flashy Footwear to the pros I'm going to sit on fence I have no hard feelings on this at all a nice paint job on the bike though okay whatever let's park the shoes for a minute on the bike I think it look kind of Co like if you feel good yeah you're going to ride good yeah I think so if you have something that is motivating you to go out on the bike and uh motivating you to go training and you feel that you look good and that gives you that bit of a placebo effect come on our training camps well he still does come in our training camps haven't run one in a long time H shout out dazzler uh he has some amazing custom shoe design and yeah I think they were pretty cool you could do it bad and you can do it well it just depends how stylish are yeah so you're you don't have any I wouldn't do it I'm styish pull it off I don't know I personally I wouldn't do it either I think that nice and simple clean look is something that I would go for but a custom spray paint on your bike I think is kind of cool helmets can look kind of cool we've seen some really cool custom paint jobs on hel the shoe doctor do really good job and he's done some custom stuff for like Riders like Ben Healey and things like that so yeah if you get someone good to do definitely it's a winner okay I think we're at the end of the road Roan thanks for tuning in to another episode of rer support there's another episode up here here if you haven't had enough of us you're going to really enjoy that one and please don't forget to click down here and subscribe to the channel because the more subscribers we get the bigger guests we can attract so it's win-win for everyone I'll see you next week

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How long should cyclists rest before starting winter training?+

Anthony Walsh recommends a full two to four weeks completely off the bike before beginning any structured winter training. The key marker is waiting until you genuinely feel eager to ride again, rather than forcing a return on an arbitrary date.

What should cyclists do instead of training in the early off-season?+

Walsh advises entering a "training to train" phase built around unstructured movement and cross-training activities such as hiking, swimming, or gym work. This maintains general fitness and mobility without the physical or mental demands of structured cycling sessions.

Why do cyclists need a medical checkup before winter training?+

Unresolved health issues, including something as routine as a dental problem, can derail an entire season. Walsh cites Mark Cavendish missing a spring classics campaign due to an untreated wisdom tooth as a direct example of why booking a yearly medical, dental, and blood work appointment during the off-season is essential.

How do you plan a cycling training programme around target events?+

Walsh recommends mapping your full annual plan during the off-season, working backwards from your key target events to establish realistic training blocks and recovery periods. Doing this while time is available allows you to build a properly periodised programme rather than making reactive decisions once the season is underway.

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Winter Cycling Training: The Right Dose, Frequency, and Duration

Winter training isn't about surviving until spring. It's the period where the biggest fitness gains happen — if you get the dose right.

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