As long as I can remember I’ve kept my training ticking through the winter months, forcing myself out the door a couple of times in the week and then once at the weekend for a longer ride, keeping the line on my weekly Strava totals pleasingly consistent through the darkest, coldest months. Oh, and to the seasonal pedants pointing out it’s still autumn (who, in fairness, definitely have a point), for the purposes of this I’m using ‘winter’ to very loosely refer to the dark months from once the clocks have gone back until the end of ‘proper’ winter…
Equipped with mantras such as ‘winter miles, summer smiles’ there was stubborn discipline in hitting a weekly time goal and enjoying the sense of achievement at not letting things slide just because it was pissing down and only a couple of degrees above zero.
This year, having dabbled with (and quite enjoyed) running during the summer, I’m calling time on my trusty winter roadmap of forced miles. In fact, I’ve barely touched my bike all month, to the point where I had to explain to a concerned family member over for dinner last weekend that, no, I don’t have a double puncture, I just haven’t ridden it in so long that there’s long-been no pressure left in either tyre.
Don’t get me wrong, come March I’ll be back out there, maybe even just the other side of Christmas, or perhaps the relentless festivities will signal enough of a sabbatical for me. I’m still making plans for next summer’s riding, but should be able to manage the goals of some long days out, the odd sportive and multi-day bikepacking trips even if I don’t touch the bike again until the daffodils are out.
For now, I’m happy running a few times a week and when I do feel the desire to go for a ride it doesn’t feel like I’ve lost much, if any, fitness. More important perhaps is the refreshing mental enjoyment of seeing myself make progress at a new pursuit, making winter exercise genuinely enjoyable again, not just a character-building chore to be dreaded but ticked off.
I guess the point of this isn’t purely self-indulgent midweek rambling, but to share the idea of just doing whatever you want to, or enjoy doing, in winter. If that’s keeping up the club rides, racking up the miles for a big goal next summer, the Festive 500 or thrashing yourself on the turbo, great! Equally, you could try other sports if you want, or take a break from cycling completely to return refreshed in the new year.
Winter’s hard enough for getting out there, and finding an approach you enjoy is a decent tactic for making sure you at least do something.
For me, as much as anything, it’s probably just novelty and I’m sure the running enthusiasm will go stale in time too. But for now, not having to clean a bike a couple of times a week and losing 15 minutes to putting on winter kit feels great…
28 thoughts on “The best thing I’ve done this winter is not riding my bike”
Surely you mean ‘this autumn’
Surely you mean ‘this autumn’. Winter hasn’t even started yet.
Yeah, Winter in the UK runs
Yeah, Winter in the UK runs from Sun 21 Dec 2025 to Fri, 20 Mar 2026. Other seasons are available.
Meteorologically speaking,
Meteorologically speaking, winter starts on 1st Dec.
However, Dan may subscribe to the view that it runs from Samhain, which has just as much tradition behind it as the one that it runs from the solstice (and, personally, makes a lot more sense to me).
Bet you’re fun at parties
Bet you’re fun at parties
Heavy sleet today. That’s
Heavy sleet today. That’s winter enough for me.
We had massive lumps of
We had massive lumps of flakes here in the Guildford area, bit of a high plateau. At the end of this mornings rain. Didn’t get as wet as I’d expected, but glad I prepared for the wet and cold. Didnt have to change pants, nice.
Bitter wind from the north.
ktache wrote:
Sorry about that, it’s probably because we laughed at it.
Blimey – most of winter is
Blimey – most of winter is still ahead. That headline is all wrong.
The headline might be wrong,
The headline might be wrong, but if the point of this article is “to share the idea of just doing whatever you want to, or enjoy doing, in winter”, then now’s the time to publish it. If Dan waited until the end of winter to publish, it would be too late for the people that need to hear it!
That’s just what I was
That’s just what I was thinking, its been gloriosly mild until a few days ago :-/
Great point and nice timing
Great point and nice timing too. Now I can run and do some gym indoors all winter guilt free while my bike stays warm and clean in the garage waiting for Spring 🙂
It’s been positively balmy
It’s been positively balmy until this Monday, and I expect it’s going up warm up again fairly soon. Around here on the South coast winter just means it’s a bit wetter. Getting out there and riding when it’s a bit unpleasant just gets you acclimatised until you barely notice it.
I have noted that there are far fewer people out on the roads this month, so there do seem to be a considerable number of fair weather cyclists.
Yes, pesky fair weather
Yes, pesky fair weather cyclists who suffer with chest problems, asthma, etc that’s made worse by poor weather. What a bunch of wimps. We need more ‘real men’ like you.
Didn’t see one picture of a
Didn’t see one picture of a cyclist defying the floods from Claudia.
I live in Spain now so cycle
I live in Spain now so cycle all year round in shorts, but I do hark back to my younger days and the club runs in the snow. Your best mates riding out in full kit. No focus on KOMs or segments, just having a laugh. Sliding around, falling off, taking the mick. Still getting home exhausted, cold and very happy.
Hey Dan, sorry to hear about
Hey Dan, sorry to hear about your depression or whatever sever psychosis you’re having to endure at the moment. I’d like to say that we’ve all been there and that it’ll only take a few cycling vids and a sniff from your favourite chain lube to get you back on track. But your state seems to go beyond the “I need a rest day” delusion some of us sometimes suffer.
Rescue may be just around the corner though as you’ve masterd shame and have opend up about your condition. That takes a lot of courage and I applaud that! Even after 33 winters on the bike and a degree in sports science I am absolutely clueless about how to save you as this is far and away the strangest and most sever mental condition I have ever heard of. But I’ll keep my fingers crossed that some high profile psychiatrist will pick up on your drama and develop a treatment so you can be healthy and happy again.
Hang in there Dan, our thoughts are with you! Get well soon!
Depression and mental illness
Depression/mental illness and suitable subjects to make jokes about, two different things. Particularly, though not exclusively, when the “jokes” are as laboured and unfunny as this.
I did not mean to make jokes
I did not mean to make jokes about mental illnesses. I ment to make fun about overobsessed cyclists like me. My apologies for failing to do so in a proper way.
As someone who really suffers
As someone who really suffers from depression, this is pretty bloody tasteless and crass. Grow up.
I grew up with a violent
I grew up with a violent father. I’ve been through years of depression, drugs and psychotherapy. One thing that helped me to get better was not always taking my self too seriously. My apologies If my ironic comment on Dan not being a Strava slave was offensive to you.
I’ve been off the bike due to
I’ve been off the bike due to illness, I suffer with asthma and respiratory problems, and cold air makes it worse.
Cycling for me is however as much a mental as physical therapy, so not being able to ride is really heartbreaking, and hard to bear. I briefly went out on the MTB at the weekend, and it was agonising – zero fitness – but joyous.
Once I recovery, indoor training it is. Zwift or Rouvy?
Never tried Rouvy. But I have
Never tried Rouvy. But I have had Zwift for nearly 7 years and think it’s brilliant. I have probably done around 33% of my mileage on it.
You can take part in various races, group rides or training sessions, just ride alone, or arrange meet ups with others. I even joined a group that did weekly TTs during COVID lockdown.
There are lots of different routes to try. The flatter courses are better for interval training than outside on the road because you don’t have to stop at junctions etc.
Cost is £17.99 l month, but I don’t have sky sports or Netflix. My Wahoo turbo was just over £500. Overall, not a cheap investment, but a valuable one in my case.
I manged to avoid the indoor
I manged to avoid the indoor trainer all Winter last year, what with the local Spin classes being included in my leisure centre subs, and actually getting out on the bike to commute and the odd Sunday club run – but I think if I were to brush the dust of my Kickr Core then I would probably give MyWhoosh a go, given it’s free (is it?) – the one that Peter Sagan keeps flogging?
I stopped the Zwift subs after the price went up by about a third.
Yes, MyWhoosh is free. I’m on
Yes, MyWhoosh is free. I’m on my third winter of using it as my mid-week training ride and haven’t had any problems with it. I have only used the free rides (and a ramp test once!!!) but there appears to be group rides and meet-up facility.
SecretSam wrote:
I’ve been on Zwift now since 2015, when it was one of the first platforms of its type to support the then new-ish ANT+ FE-C controllable equipment standard with a bike trainer. It hooked me in due to it being an alternative to watching a video or wall while simulating gradients, and I liked the gamification features, such as power-ups, the virtual currency to spend in the virtual shop, kit unlocks and so on (although Rouvy has started with XP and coins now). Since those days of Jarvis Island then just a couple of routes in Watopia, the virtual world expansions have been very welcome, it’s easy to forget just how far the platform has come. There are myriad structured workouts, free ride routes, badge collecting, challenges, races, group events, something for most people, plus whatever time on whatever world you ride on, there are always others to draft behind, virtually wave (“ride on!”) sprint with, etc
I’ve had a few rides on Rouvy, partly to see what some fellow clubmates had switched too, partly to ride a couple of real-life simulated routes before actually going there. It’s not bad, although I couldn’t really get past the augmented reality “it’s just digital avatars superimposed over real video” where riders look like they’re floating on the road, and you end up riding through cars and other obstacles. It seems like it’s trying too hard to be a realistic ride experience, when ultimately, you’re pedalling an indoor trainer in your garage looking at a big TV. Conversely, clubmate Rouvy riders criticise Zwift because it’s “too game-like, too cartoony”, well, yes that’s because it’s a game, and it’s that that I find immersive enough to while away the exercise until I go outside again.
So both have their pros and cons, but in my opinion I prefer Zwift because it’s gamifying the experience and not trying to be too realistic (which indoor cycling can’t ever be), yet provides a proper workout. I can also see why people would prefer Rouvy, if they’re not bothered about the fun features of Zwift and just want to ride something that looks and feels like a real world place.
One thing that I would recommend regardless of which platform you choose, if you can, and are fortunate to have the space, put together a permanent setup, with either a bike on a trainer, or a static smart bike, and a decent sized screen to run on. When I did this, I ended up doing much more training, without the faff of setting up/packing away every time.
My current rig is Tacx Neo Smart Bike, running with a laptop and 43″ UHD TV.
TL;DR – try both and see how you get on.
mark1a wrote:
Absolutely agree with that, when I first got a smart trainer I thought I would definitely want to ride with real-world video and do the famous climbs etc, but they just made me feel that I wanted to be there for real and so induced dissatisfaction. With many it’s also impossible to suspend disbelief as unless you ride at the exact pace at which the original video was shot people, cars etc either pass in slow motion or whizz by like they’re in a Benny Hill montage. Zwift is cartoony enough to not make you long for the outside world it’s portraying but realistic enough to be immersive, if that makes sense, and I enjoy the silly distractions like the dinosaurs in the forest, steam trains, the whales and dolphins in the underwater sections etc. My only complaint would be that I wish they’d adjust the algorithm so that those distractions are a bit different every time you pass; when Mrs H and I did a 200-mile charity ride on Zwift on a lockdown Christmas day, and when I did a 1038km in ten days ride the next year for the same purpose, it did get a bit wearing knowing exactly what was going to happen around each corner, same every lap! That quibble aside, I think I’ve tried pretty much every VR program out there and I keep returning to Zwift, even though I did object to the 100% price hike.
I would agree with you on the
I would agree with you on the permanent set up if you can spare a bike and if you have a direct chain drive turbo.
I don’t have a bike to spare. My wahoo is the tyre on roller type (less accurate, but repeatable). It usually takes me around 5 mins to set up. I usually get changed into my cycling kit while zwift is loading.
Incidently, the roller tensioner assembly thread wore out after 6 years. As this is not a standard part in their spares catalogue, I emailed wahoo to enquire about the cost of them supplying a replacement for me. I was shocked when the new assembly arrived FOC from the States within about 5 days. It took me around 30 mins to fit. Terrific service.
Kind of agree here. Either
Kind of agree here. Either British winters have got colder and wetter, or I’m older and less tolerant of the conditions, but I’m somewhat ‘over’ trying to tough out summer sports (cycling, dinghy racing, windsurfing, surfing) through the winter and chucking more money at keeping warm. Envy places in the world (eg Norway, Alps) where you can switch to a winter sport (eg snow sports) and you just can’t do the summer sports. Still commute and, on a sunny day, do some urban hills/loops (Bath) or a burn up the bike path towards Bristol, but bogging lanes; no thanks (and washing bikes in the cold). Even wading through mud on a walk can be a bit grim. When you’re commuting, you have the sense that it’s the right time to start heading out on longer weekend rides again (late Feb/Mar). Joined a calisthenics gym, so winter’s a good time to work on strength (class based, so social) which is good for cycling.