Cycling Workouts During Christmas Holidays: Helpful Tips

Here are some useful tips for organizing your Christmas training sessions.

Building the Base: The Importance of Volume

The holiday season is ideal for increasing training volume, meaning the time spent in the saddle. This phase helps create the foundation for your cycling season, improving aerobic endurance and preparing your body to handle more intense workloads in the following months.

• Goal: Plan a few rides longer than usual, maintaining a moderate pace.
• Duration: Aim for sessions lasting 3-5 hours, depending on your fitness level and available time.

Work Cycles: 3 Days of Load and 1 of Recovery

To maximize benefits, you can adopt a training cycle approach: 3 days of load followed by 1 day of recovery. This structure allows you to stimulate all major training zones without accumulating excessive fatigue.

• Load Days:

  • Focus on long endurance rides at a moderate pace to solidify your aerobic base.
  • Include sustained-paced efforts, such as interval training or medium-paced climbs.
  • Add short high-intensity sessions, like full-throttle intervals.

• Recovery Day:

  • Do a light ride (zone 1) of 1-1.5 hours max or take a full rest day. This helps your body recover and absorb the training from the previous days.

Practical Tips for Holiday Training

• Use your free time: Take advantage of the holidays to ride during the warmest hours of the day, avoiding the coldest temperatures.
• Adapt to the weather: If using your bike isn’t possible, incorporate trainer sessions or indoor workouts.
• Nutrition and hydration: Indulge in some holiday treats but maintain a balanced diet, especially on intense training days.

Conclusion

The Christmas holidays present a unique opportunity to focus on cycling and lay the groundwork for a successful season. A balanced mix of volume, intensity, and recovery will allow you to improve your fitness while having fun.

Follow these tips and get ready to start the new season in the best way possible!

Happy cycling and joyful holidays!