Winter Training Handbook

For most of us, winter’s the time to revert back from training in open water to hitting the local pool. But though it’s tempting to stick with your open-water goggles all year round, there are benefits in swapping to a pair of pool-specific goggles. Pool goggles are usually smaller and sit closer to the eye socket than open-water goggles. This may reduce your field of vision but, as you rarely need to look beyond your lane in the pool, that’s no real loss and the benefit in exchange is a more streamlined goggle that can enhance your speed. The other thing to consider is the lens. For open water you may have chosen a pair based on the light conditions that you’ll be swimming in outdoors (i.e. a bright sea…

Winter’s here, meaning it’s goodbye neoprene and hello chlorine. Well yes and, for some triathletes, no. You see, an increasing number of age-groupers are channeling their inner Lewis Pugh – who’s undertaken numerous icy swims to highlight environmental issues – and swimming outdoors all year round. Why? As essential as pool training is, it simply can’t match the freedom and cerebral cleansing from open-water swimming. An outdoor dip’s a great way to lower stress and boost self-confidence. And then there are the physical benefits with studies showing cold-water swimming strengthens immunity and lowers inflammation. With that in mind, here’s the kit to assist your off-season outdoor odyssey… 2020 TRIATHLON CUTTING EDGE Roka Maverick Pro Thermal £675 roka.com Thermal tri-specific wetsuits are growing in number, including models from Blueseventy (the £600…

Triathletes seeking a 2020 PB have no option but to head outdoors and face the elements. In the UK, that means dealing with temperatures that drop to a mid-winter mean of 3.7°C. Throw in a further windchill drop of up to 8°C and those Sunday morning rides seem less appetising by the week. You can, of course, spend the entire winter cycling indoors but that’s unsustainable. The solution? A windproof bike jacket that features water-resistance, too. As ever, the fit of the jacket is vital to maximise effort and enjoyment. Commuters can arguably get away with a bulkier cut but, for training rides, you want to minimise flapping in the wind so we’d advise a close and slim fit, but one large enough to squeeze a base layer under and,…

The turbo trainers on test here are machines that sync to your smartphones, tablets and computers; that provide all your speed, distance, power and cadence data; that devise tailored training programmes for you to follow; and that can connect you to other riders to compete against on simulated routes. They’re turbos with all the bells and whistles and, obviously, the prices to match. So while they are indulgences that you could at a push make do without, if you’re spending winter upon winter training on a turbo then you want it to entertain you, to let you crunch a vast array of data. And this quintet certainly do that… Technogym MyCycling £1,590 technogym.com All of the turbos here are expensive but the Technogym takes it to another level. The justification…

Indoor cycling, facing a wall, straining to hear your favourite playlist over the deafening whirl of your turbo has long proven a greater mental battle than the physical. But, as the likes of elite triathletes Lucy Charles, Jan Frodeno and Jonny Brownlee have shown, indoor training, specifically the gamification of indoor training, is losing its reputation as a necessary evil. Instead, these virtual-riding packages, specifically Zwift in the case of Charles, Frodeno and Brownlee, have captured the imagination of triathletes around the world. So has gamification truly taken a foothold or do we have another Nintendo Wii on our hands? This piece uses Zwift as the exemplar because, well, it’s the industry leader. A snapshot of its popularity reveals well over 500,000 users had used Zwift from over 150 countries.…

Zwift £12.99 p/mnth Industry leader Zwift have added gaming, competition and interaction to the indoor cycling market. The basic requirement is an indoor trainer, a speed sensor, ANT+/Bluetooth connectivity and a laptop. If you have the money, a smart trainer will calculate further metrics as well as changing the resistance to suit the terrain. You simply download the app and register for the free seven-day trial, which is £12.99 a month thereafter. zwift.com The Sufferfest $12 p/mnth Sufferfest’s arguably the brand that changed the face of indoor training, revered by many and feared by a few who’ve ridden into the depths of ‘Sufferlandria’. Whereas Zwift’s purely graphical, The Sufferfest is real-life footage including sections of the Tour de France. Metrics are wirelessly transferred and overlaid on the footage with tongue-in-cheek…