When the temperature drops and the daylight hours dwindle, finding the motivation to get out on the bike can be tricky. It’s cold, it’s dark and let’s face it: when you wake up to the sound of driving rain and a howling gale battering your windows… hitting ‘snooze’ and staying under the duvet sounds way more appealing! But staying active over the winter months can make a world of difference, not just to your bike fitness but to your mindset and your overall energy levels.
To help you banish those bad weather blues, we’re bringing you our top tips on how to find the motivation to ride through the winter months (even when you really can’t be hoofed…)
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Plan ahead
Set some short term goals
Keep it fun
Gear up: winter cycling kit
Don’t give up until you’ve warmed up
(Re)consider indoor training
Make a plan – and stick to it.
Motivation can be a fickle beast. There one day, totally AWOL the next. And once you add in have to decide what to do, and when – it’s all too easy to end up doing nothing at all. Consistency, habit and routine pick up the slack when motivation goes missing. Plan out what rides and training sessions you’re going to do and when. Treat these like important meetings: you probably wouldn’t keep cancelling on a colleague or ditching a friend, so don’t do it to yourself. This is your time to do something that will make you feel epic! Lay your kit out in advance and make sure your bike is ready to roll ahead of time. Taking away as many moments of decision-making or barriers (like having to root around in the dark for your kit) leaves less room for excuses or talking yourself out of getting the ride done.
Set yourself some winter goals
Summer cycling holidays, big sportives and other races feel a million miles away in the winter. And when you haven’t got a big goal or an event right on the horizon, it can be harder to find the motivation to get out there. There’s nothing to scare you into getting the miles ticked off! This is where setting yourself some fun, achievable goals for the winter can be handy. It doesn’t have to be anything wild. It could be something mileage or volume based, setting yourself a weekly or monthly target to try and hit. Or it could be nabbing a local legend or getting a KOM/QOM on your favourite Strava segment. It might even be seeing if you can unlock a new bike on Zwift or level up a category in e-racing. Whatever gets your Goat, find something that’s a nice balance of fun and challenging. And maybe promise yourself a reward if you do it? Hello new cycling kit! Having shorter term goals to work towards is a great way to stay motivated, and to make sure that come spring time you’ll be a weapon on two wheels.
Keep it fun
If you’re regularly struggling for motivation, take it as a sign to switch up your training. This is particularly true if you tend to train for things like time trialling or triathlons where a lot of your miles on the bike over the spring and summer have to be very specific to the event you’re working towards. Now is the time to make the most of being able to reduce some of that specificity. If you’ve spent the summer tearing up the tarmac, why not take some of your rides off road and enjoy a different pace… and a few comedy tumbles into muddy puddles while you’re at it. Or swap your usual weekend blast for a nice easy cafe ride. If ‘type A’ fun is more your thing, you could give Zwift racing a go. It’s fun in a “I didn’t know my heart rate could go that high” kind of way. The point is, the winter weather might be harsh and bleak but you’re training doesn’t have to be. Plan sessions, group rides and adventures that get you excited to get out and ride.
Get some good winter cycling kit
Look, we’re not saying our winter cycling jackets can solve all your troubles. They can’t do your taxes for you, fix your boiler or get you out of those plans you made when you were feeling uncharacteristically sociable… But if being cold, wet and miserable on the bike is your problem, a few winter cycling kit upgrades can seriously change the game.
We’d highly recommend a pair of good cycling bib tights, and a winter cycling jacket which is windproof and water resistant (we’ve designed ours to offer the perfect amount of breathability to keep you warm and dry, but never boil in the bag). Add a decent base layer, some winter gloves and a set of overshoes and you’ll be amazed at just how much more enjoyable your winter rides become!
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Something is better than nothing: don’t give up, until you’ve warmed up
You’ve made a plan, your kit is laid out… but the alarm goes off and good GOAT, the thought of actually getting up and doing it feels impossible. We’ve all been there! If the thought of doing the planned ride or training session is enough to put you off from even starting, sometimes cutting yourself a little slack and taking a ‘something is better than nothing’ approach can be the key to actually getting out there.
Make a deal with yourself and give yourself permission to change the session or shorten the ride. Don’t give up, until you’ve warmed up. Getting out the door is the hardest part, and chances are once you’ve made it out you’ll end up doing what was originally planned. And if you don’t? You’ve still done something, which is still a win in our books!
Consider indoor training
Love it or hate it, riding indoors on the turbo trainer can be a time efficient way to get your training done without weather woes or the constraints of limited daylight hours getting in your way. And with the right set up, indoor training doesn’t have to suck. Not only does it give you bang for your buck on the fitness front, it can actually be pretty enjoyable! There are some great indoor cycling apps to play with these days, including Zwift or ROUVY (which is handy for recce-ing real life routes, or just doing a bit of virtual tourism). And if you really struggle with indoor cycling boredom, setting up a second screen to binge watch your favourite guilty pleasure TV shows will always make things infinitely more enjoyable. Check out our indoor training guide for more tips on how to get the most out of your turbo trainer miles!
The key to staying motivated so you can keep cycling through the winter months, is really about redefining what we mean by ‘motivated’ in the first place. Motivation isn’t necessarily about how you feel. No one somersaults out of bed every single morning feeling super hyped to go and do intervals or freeze it out on the roads. Motivation is more about your actions. Making a plan and sticking to it. Committing to your goals and consistently making those small every day decisions that will get you one step closer. And trusting that even when you don’t feel like it, 9 times out of 10 you’ll feel better knowing you gave it a shot.
Share your winter adventures with us!
Got some cool winter riding plans (pun intended) or an exciting goal you’re chasing? Tell us all about it so we can share it with the rest of the Herd, you never know who you might inspire!
Ride this way to send us your snaps and share your stories.