The 5 Signs Your Winter Training Isn’t Working (And What to Fix Before January)
Written by Ric Stern
The 5 Signs Your Winter Training Isn’t Working (And What to Fix Before January)
Every December I see the same pattern: riders are training, riding regularly, even doing long weekend rides — yet nothing is improving. Their FTP is flat, they’re tired more often than they should be, and they don’t feel any stronger on the bike.
Winter is when fitness is built. But only if the training you’re doing is actually productive. If you’re heading into January without clear progress, there are usually five reasons why.
1. Your Zone 2 Isn’t Really Zone 2
Most cyclists think they’re doing Zone 2, but their power file shows something very different. Instead of a clean endurance profile, the ride is full of spikes, surges, long sections drifting into Zone 3, and a Normalised Power that’s too high to be considered true low-intensity work. The result? You never accumulate enough actual endurance volume to move the aerobic needle.
Fix: Zone 2 is only Zone 2 when the majority of the ride is at your endurance level and your NP lands roughly in the correct range. Surges are fine on hills, but they should be brief. The ride should feel almost boring — but you finish knowing you trained, not drifted.
2. Your Durability Falls Apart Too Early
Most riders can produce good power in the first 60–90 minutes of a ride. Where the real cracks show is after 1,500–2,000 kJ of work. For some riders (and this is extremely common over 40), performance falls off a cliff once the workload gets high. Even moderate tempo becomes difficult, and anything near threshold feels impossible. This isn’t a character flaw — it’s a physiological limiter. And it’s trainable.
Fix: Start identifying where your durability drops. That’s your training opportunity. For some, it’s 1,500 kJ. For others, 2,500 kJ. The absolute number doesn’t matter — what matters is lifting it over time.
3. You’re Doing Too Much “Kind-Of-Hard” Riding
This is the silent winter fitness killer. Rides that sit just above your endurance zone but nowhere near a proper training stimulus. It’s not Z2. It’s not MIET. It’s not threshold. It’s just… work. Fatiguing, unproductive work. It leaves you tired enough to lose quality, but not structured enough to trigger adaptation.
Fix:
Polarise or pyramid your training properly:
Easy days must be easy.
Hard days must be structured and purposeful.
MIET, threshold or VO₂ intervals get their own space — not sprinkled into random rides.
Consistency beats enthusiasm.
4. You’re Not FueLling Well Enough to Adapt
Under-fuelling is endemic in masters riders, especially in winter when the rides feel slower and the weather is colder. But the physiology doesn’t care about your perception — if glycogen is low, you won’t produce the required intensity, you won’t recover properly, and you won’t build durability. Most “FTP plateaus” are just carbohydrate shortages in disguise.
Fix:
Fuel your training:
60–90 g carbs per hour on long rides
Eat immediately post-ride (carbs + protein)
Don’t do VO₂max, MIET or threshold work on low glycogen
The better you fuel, the more work you can perform — and absorb.
5. Your Training Isn’t Progressing Week to Week
Riding regularly is not the same as training progressively. Your body adapts when the training stress increases — duration, intensity, frequency, or density. If you’re simply doing “more or less the same rides” each week, you’ll stay more or less the same athlete. Winter stagnation is rarely due to lack of effort. It’s due to lack of progression.
Fix:
Introduce a logical progression:
Increase endurance volume by 5–10% every 1–2 weeks
Progress MIET duration or density
Progress threshold and VO₂max interval structure
Build predictable recovery weeks
Progression is where improvement happens. Not random variation.
If You Recognise Yourself in Any of These Signs…
That’s good. It means you know what the problem is — and now you can fix it. Most riders don’t lack motivation. They lack structure. They lack clarity. And they lack a plan that makes sense for their physiology, age, goals and available time. Here’s how you can get proper structure for 2026:
1. Try The Collective (7-Day Free Trial)
Group coaching, live Q&A with me, community support, and multiple structured training plans to choose from. Perfect if you want guidance without the cost of 1-to-1 coaching.
👉 https://www.cyclecoach.com/the-collective
2. Get Personalised 1-to-1 Coaching
With me, Glenn or Neil. Fully customised training built around your life, your numbers, and your goals. Perfect if you want accountability, progression, and expert feedback every week.
👉 https://www.cyclecoach.com/coaching
3. Not Sure Where to Start?
Reply to this email or message me on Instagram. Tell me your goals, training time, and current numbers. I’ll point you in the right direction — no pressure.