Staying in shape in Winter for mountain biking

The end of the mountain biking season.  It can certainly feel that you didn’t get enough riding in.  I always feel that, no matter how much I ride.  But as the daylight is away, and the cold filters into your house, and the snow piles up.  Winter means a lot less time to ride outside on a bike. You can always plan to come strong out of the gates next season.  

Trail riding here in Colorado can be hit or miss in the winter. If it stays dry and frozen, the trails are open to ride. But the ground here has a high clay content, so as soon as it melts, the trails close and become unrideable. It gets warm during the day. The snow melts fast.

There are a lot of things you can work on during the off-season.  You need to think about what you can do on and off the bike. 

So what can you do?

There are four main areas to focus on for the off-season: inside training, outside bike skills, nutrition,  and bike upgrades.

Outside bike skills. We know that the way to really train for bike riding is by riding a bike.  Winter is the time for bike skills and building stamina. The small skills that you can work on have big payouts on the trails. Stepping up the bike handling skills in the off seasons makes next season more fun. 

Inside training is all about core power, balance, and Strength. Make sure to exercise the muscle groups used less during mountain biking. Whole body, full-motion exercises. You might be lured into only training on a bike trainer. But what I’m really talking about is strength training workouts, using body weight or weights.

Nutrition is another key part of the bike off-season.  This is a hard topic since everyone seems to have a different opinion about what works.  One, listen to your body.  Second, eat less.  No, really, eat less.

Bike Upgrades. Thinking forward to next year also means thinking about bikes.  Maybe a new one, or better yet, fixing and upgrading the one that you have right now.  Part of it might just be to dream or make an excuse to browse bike shopping online.  But the act of doing it is a great way to keep you engaged with biking in the off-season.

But remember that time off is needed.  There is nothing wrong with taking a month off around the holidays just to relax.