Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: andyoxon on 19 February, 2016, 03:37:31 pm
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Are they really worth as much as 'double summer miles' do you reckon, or is that they're just somewhat harder depending on the weather? I did a 100km the other day, but it didn't feel like a 200km... ;)
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Of course they're not!
(well, actually they can be, if you ride in really bad winter weather, pretty hard to find this year fortunately. If you've never done 100 miles or more in such conditions, be grateful :) )
The point is that they're worth a hell of a lot more than not riding from November to march. By simply "ticking over" (let's say 50 steady miles every Sunday) you can be waaay fitter than the "sensible" riders once April comes around.
Hence the saying!
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well I seem to be struggling every day at the moment, just not feeling the ''luuurv'' my legs actually hurt after about 30km :facepalm:. feel like throwing the lot in the skip and getting an engine twixt me legs again.
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Well, after brealing my hand and being forced to ride turbo since the start of the year, I think that i may never ride in the cold dark winter ever again! Getting up a 5am and doing an hour in the garage is so much more inviting than a two hour trek to work. Can't wait for the cast to come off though, so I can ride on the road again ...
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I had a look at Strava commute times over two segments, and my mean av/s :-
Out (12km) - Two 'hills': Dec-Feb: 22.6km/h June-Aug: 25.7km/h +3km/h
Return (10km) - downhill/flat: Dec-Feb: 28km/h June-Aug: 30km/h +2km/h
So it just takes me longer in the Winter, but I guess there's a bit of a summer fitness factor too... :)
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Didn't we have another thread on this recently? Anyway, I don't think winter miles are double the value in fitness terms but they can require double the effort. Not literally double of course, but more. It's not a function of season, though, it's weather. For me, the most effort-doubling weather is strong winds, which seem to occur most in March rather than winter.
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I don't have any "science" for this, but I think the extra layers slow you down too - nothing to do with aero, just the extra effort involved in turning lycra'd legs compared to bare legs.