Two 1 hour trainer rides during the week.  I use a Spinervals DVD "Ultra-Conditioning"   
Two 30min-1hr non-bike workouts.  Usually a video like P90x or just doing push ups, pull ups, squats and stretches on my own.   
Two road rides on the weekend for 2-3 hours a piece.

The trainer rides seem particularly helpful because they have a bunch of intervals built in.

It's not as much fun, but it keeps me occupied.

Banjopickin wrote on 02/18/14 at 2:07pm:

Went to Santos in sunny FL last weekend. Got a great ride in and plenty of sun. Can't do that very often. Guess it's back to the gym and a spin class or an elliptical. Keep thinking the whole time "Are we there yet?"

The video that I mentioned above is pretty old, but I think this is key to getting a good trainer work out.  The video above also gets you off the bike to work on core strengthening excercises with an excercise ball about 5 times during the hour.  I find this helps break up the monotony.

I was hoping to find something that didnt require buying a couple hundred dollar piece of equipment that wont be used often. Once daylight savings kicks in I'll be on the road after work when the trails are closed. Might go back to trail running. Wont help my riding at all but would keep my cardio from tanking. Plus it gets me outside in the forest, that alone trumps indoor trainer rides in my book.

I tend to stick to basic stuff, push- ups ( not the orange flavor) weighted jump rope, chin-ups and trainer. I gave up on trying to stay fit during winter, just want to minimize the damage and keep from going nuts.

The only real way to beat the winter blues is to make plenty of drunken parts purchases, wait in anticipation for your alcohol influenced bad decisions, and snuggle with your new swag in a warm bed while dreaming of green lined springtime loamy single track. Sorry,  I do interval training and core work 4-5 times a week and it just doesn't replace the joy of a righteous rip through the woods.

Play lots of 5 on1.

CrossFit here as well

Got my CX bike on the trainer with a slick tire.  My workouts look something like this...

• 15min Warm up on the bike
• 1 hour of kettlebell movements with a 36lb bell.  Swings, snatches, bottoms up presses, pass thru rearward lunges, windmills, overhead hindu squats, burpee deadlifts, etc etc.  Sometimes I'll use a video, sometimes I'll follow a kettlebell progression from breakingmuscle.com, sometimes I'll just do long combo drills.
• 30 min back on the bike to relearn the muscle movement of cycling after weight training
• Yoga/ninja/bjj stuff to cool down

If you follow me on Strava, I get pretty detailed in my notes.

THE MOUNTAIN BIKE ALWAYS TAKES PRIORITY!!!!! I still look for the mornings that are below freezing to get out and ride.

After 4 years of biking steady, I finally felt like I needed a trainer last week.  Any other time I have been able to sneak a road ride in everyday or do when the weather was bad and I think of only 2 times I couldn't ride at least once a week.  This year has been brutal.

A couple of observations.

The trainer is BORING!

I signed up with trainer road.  It is a pretty cool program that allows you to use a ANT+ stick in your computer that will link your bike with your computer in you have a ANT+ speed and cadence sensor.  If the trainer you have is in their database, they can figure your power using the speed of the wheel and the known power curve of the trainer.  This basically turns the the program into a computrainer.  I don't know if the power is accurate or not but as long as it is repeatable, it won't matter what numbers it is putting up.  The program also lets you import certain movies like from sufferfest.  After you do a baseline for threshold power numbers, the program will aid you as you ride with the video to do the correct effort at the correct time.  Pretty good workout.

Trainer still sucks.

So glad I have a road bike to ride when the weather breaks for a day or so.

just started doing interval workouts using the Johson and Johson 7 minute workout app.  It's great! Workouts from 7 minutes to 30 minutes or more and you can personalize the workouts based on your fitness and goals.

still early on using it, but it's been great so far and put a hurtin on me.

free app and is like having a personal trainer... almost.

I have a spin bike in the garage and I also do crossfit. When I ride the spin bike, I grab the Ipad and watch Blue Ridge Adventures videos of their races. They have a bunch of them and each of them are about roughly 5 minutes long. So I am spinning my legs and watching mountain biking....makes the time go by much faster....

You need gears. That's how you simulate climbs and vary intensity.  A cadence sensor helps.  Many workouts require a certain cadence. Videos are a key for me. I need constant coaching. Regular tv doesn't work for me.  A front wheel riser helps if your workouts have you standing up and pedaling. It keeps the wheel from turning or the bike from leaning.  A sweat bib for the bike helps keep the massive amounts of sweat from corroding your bike.

If darkness is your only barrier then that's an easy one to overcome...I use my lights during the day when i commute as well. definitely recommend at least 1000 lumens for a headlight though. You definitely want to see and be seen.

I like the commute idea also but I live 8 miles out in the sticks.  It makes for good riding in the daylight.  Not much traffic, good roads, etc but there is only 2 roads to my house from town.  One is a Hwy that I don't ride in the daytime, and the other one is a 55 mile and hour 2 lane road.  Anyone that lives that way takes that road home from work so it get very heavy traveled.  No way I'm riding that road at night.

I usually take a bike to work in the winter.  I have a loop I ride at night that only puts me a sketchy roads for a minute or so.  The rest of the time I'm on roads that aren't traveled much, bike lanes, and  side streets.  All with street lights.  It gets boring riding the same loop over and over (and it doesn't help that my office is in a hole a the bottom of a hill so I have to start out with a big climb) but still way better than riding the trainer or doing nothing.

Yellowduck wrote on 02/20/14 at 1:58pm:


I rode part of my commute this morning with a guy from Waxhaw; he drives to the Lowe's in Pineville/Charlotte and then rides the other half of his commute.  Still getting in some miles but not having to worry about the very long distance.

isitwinteryet wrote on 02/25/14 at 3:09pm:

Hahahaha Isitwinteryet returns!