Making sure you're training during the winter is indispensable to keep your fitness. Everyone needs a short rest, even the world's best gymnast, but the hard work you put in over the winter will set you up for the rest of the year.
Plan Your Winter Running Training
It is often the hardest time to train, as well as the training is quite hard. From the weather conditions and short nights, through to the cold and damp, nothing will help you with dictation apart from a training partner, a PT, and of course your own self-motivation.
Why is Winter Training Needed?
There are a few reasons really. Not only the evident need to keep yourself in tip-top shape, but also training across the winter will help you to build a base of fitness and muscle strength that will support you as the weather gets warmer. Whether you are a bicyclist, runner, rugby player, or swimmer, the winter training you do will make a big difference as the days get lighter. You will feel more power and if you have trained the right way, less fatigue.
If you are training for a competition or just for your own fitness, your body improves both in cardio endurance and muscle strength. If, like some, when the bad climate comes you put your feet up and stop training then more than two weeks and your peak fitness level will drop. Then after a prolonged period of no exercise, you're getting back to fitness will be difficult and arduous as you have to fight to get yourself back to the same fitness levels. You have been through "detraining"!
What is Detraining?
If you are a keen gym user, runner swimmer, or sports bigot and undertake lots of exercise and fitness on a regular basis, then take a break of 3, 4, or more weeks away from it, your fitness levels and muscle mass will downfall over that period. Whether that's due to injury or an illness or an elaborate holiday, the effects on your body and fitness will be quite remarkable. When you start back on the training, it will be difficult, but actually, this short break (even up to 8 weeks) may prove to be beneficial to you allowing you (if you are up for the challenge) to get fitter than you were before.
A lot of top acrobats now deliberately put detraining into their plans in order to go through the retraining process. As you have read above, they lose some fitness but also give their body time to completely relax and heal. Also, it is now known that detrain actually helps to increase the power of the muscle fibers. All allowing you to train harder and longer when you come-back.
Two Simple Things for the Winter
Ok taking all of the above into account, a winter training plan or government can be covered in 2 key steps (it can be covered in lots more, but we're keeping it to a minimum).
Keep The Mileage Up
If you get to the end of November and think it's time to give up and relax until the New year, then think again! The less activity you do, the quicker your body will fall into what can be called "detrain". Unless you are a top-level athlete we suggest you don't try "detrain" as it is a common route for people to lose motivation as they cannot get back to the fitness levels they were just a few months before.
We suggest, therefore, that running-wise you go keep running up to 3 times a week for about 45% - 55% distance of what you were doing. The days must not be consecutive and you must train at around 80% of normal capacity. For other sports, a similar level of training, but you can introduce other types of training, not necessarily all running.
Mix Up Your Training
Ever heard of Fartlek training? Fartlek, which means "speed play" in Swedish, is a way of training that brings together both continuous training with interval training. This training ensures a variable intensity which in turn gives your body both an aerobic and anaerobic workout. Ideally, Fartlek training should be quite unstructured meaning the runner can vary the speed, intensity as they wish, and can manage. Over a 30 or 45 minute period (or more) exercises can range from aerobic walking through to anaerobic sprinting over 200 - 400m.
If you combine both Fartlek and upbeat timed runs over a longer distance (for example 5 miles at 85%) your body will be able to cope with the more intense training as you head towards your races and spring training. The faster pace runs alongside the anaerobic sprinting will ensure fast-twitch muscle fibers remain very much intact and ready to go!
One Final Motivational Tip
Make sure you plan Far. Give yourself a goal to aim for. Put a date in for your first race or event, complete your application, and pay your money. There's no bend back then and you have a fixed goal to aim for. This will also, when you trackback from the race date, provide you with your proper training schedule to get your race fit!
