Off season is the time you make up ground on your rivals. While everyone else is chilling on the couch and horking back the christmas cookies, you spend your evenings sweating your ass off on the damn trainer or spending your weekends at Joyride.
Off season is also the time you switch things up with a little cross training. Even for someone such as myself who loves cycling, do it for 12 months and you'll suffer from a little bit of burnout. Myself I turn to cross country skiing. Before the snow hits I start off with roller skiing, the most stare inducing sport in the history of sport. Seriously you strap a couple of these to your feet...
And everyone you ski by will stare at you for the entirety of your time by them. They just can't stop staring. Of course when you use these...
You make a click click click sound everytime you pole, thus drawing their attention. They look at you like you're on a rollerblading rampage or something. Basically these are pieces of metal with wheels on either end. The top sheet is drilled like any other proper ski and the binding is screwed on so you can use your regular boots with them. The poles often have roller ski tips placed on them so to give you more grip when poling on pavement. Mind you I only use these until we get some proper snow, then it's off to the races at Highlands Nordic (Or Hardwood, depending on how far I want to drive)
 |
| Winter driving means really big following distances |
 |
| Ski Swap |
Right so the drive up north means slow driving, but it means I can get some good skiing in on actual skis. Highlands got absolutely dumped on before I got there and the skiing conditions were perfect.
The snow may have been a bit soft in places but it's always nice to mix things up from the usual riding and get in some on snow workouts. Of course having not skied since this time last year means I'm horribly out of shape for it. Cross country skiing is the sport where your technique is far more important than your fitness. On a bicycle you can just mash the pedals and go fast, skiing you can move you legs and arms as fast as you want but unless you have them all properly coordinated then you aren't going anywhere.
The past three weekends I've gotten up to ski. I hope it translates into biking strength and form. If not, at least it staves off my eventual insanity from too much biking
The snow may have been a bit soft in places but it's always nice to mix things up from the usual riding and get in some on snow workouts. Of course having not skied since this time last year means I'm horribly out of shape for it. Cross country skiing is the sport where your technique is far more important than your fitness. On a bicycle you can just mash the pedals and go fast, skiing you can move you legs and arms as fast as you want but unless you have them all properly coordinated then you aren't going anywhere.