Use these strategies to integrate your bike workouts into your celebrations–and libations–all season long.
Bicycling | December 2021
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During the holidays, it’s not always easy to fit in voluminous workouts, get enough shut-eye, and focus on balanced nutrition. And that’s 100 percent okay. The end of the year is meant to be an opportunity to relax the rigor and take some much needed downtime.
“There’s a lot of grace involved with the holidays—expect that things won’t go as we plan,” says professional coach Joe Howdyshell, founder of the Summit Endurance Academy.
If you want to keep riding and maintaining those goals-on-wheels throughout the holidays, though, we have the info you need to make it happen. Here are seven tips from road, track, and trail bike coaches on dealing with all the seasonal roadblocks that might keep you from pedaling.
How to Deal With: A Chaotic Schedule
The simple solution: Do your ride first thing in the morning, says Jane Marshall, a Carmichael Training Systems pro coach. Marshall won the 2019 USA Cycling National Championships in the cross-country masters category. She’s also a mom of a 4-year-old and 18-month-old.
“Set that alarm early. It will make you feel better and manage holiday stress. You’ll be wrapping presents or going to a holiday party in the evening, and you won’t ride,” she says. Working out right when you get up also means you get the workout done, so you don’t have to think about it the rest of the day.
If you work from home, put the ride on your calendar. “Block off the time you’ll be on the trainer, riding, or lifting weights, whether it’s 30 or 90 minutes. Treat it like a meeting,” says Marshall. “If we have to cut volume back, that’s totally fine. Mine is slashed in half because of holiday craziness.” Even just 20 minutes of a good sweat does the body good, so don’t worry about getting in a full hour or more if you can’t manage it.
Brett Donelson, owner and coach of Donelson Coaching and founder of The Cycle Effect, agrees. “It’s good to give ourselves a break—reach for 50 to 70 percent of your training plan,” he says. “Set lower expectations and know that your plans might not go perfectly.”
How to Deal With: Brutal Weather
For venturing outdoors, organize your winter riding gear and get your bike dialed in in advance, so you don’t have to worry about it on a day when the weather gets frigid. Also, arranging your apparel the night before your ride can go a long way in the morning when you wake up just before you should be on your bike.
When layering up, keep this in mind: “You need your feet and hands to be warm and a hat and neck gaiter. If you’re climbing and sweating, unzip [your jacket] or take the hat off. If you’re going to descend, throw your layers back on. You don’t want to sweat and get too wet—it can make the downhill brutal,” Marshall says. The key is to have all the items you need so you can take off or put on a layer when you need an internal temperature adjustment.
Too cold, icy, windy, or snowy outside? Make the miles easier by bringing your wheels indoors. “With winter weather, we train indoors a lot with a smart trainer that links with an app to enhance the experience,” says Zach Allison, a Source Endurance coach for road, gravel, and track cyclists. He and his wife Whitney Allison are professional gravel cyclists and co-founders of Bike Sports in Colorado. Donelson and his wife also have indoor trainers and set dates to cycle side-by-side while watching nostalgic holiday movies.
If it’s snowy out and you don’t have an indoor trainer, get creative. “You can have fun by working on skills in a less structured way, like getting on your mountain bike with flat pedals and working on track standing—a technique bicyclists use to maintain balance on a bike while standing on their pedals, like you would do at a stoplight or a bottlenecked feature on a trail—or doing 360 bunny hops in your garage,” says Donelson.
You can also skip your ride that day and focus on a bodyweight workout (indoors!) instead, if you don’t have equipment.
How to Deal With: Drinking (or Eating) a Little Too Much
Enjoy one too many cocktails or pie slices? “Drink plenty of water and at least get on your bike to try a 10-minute ride,” Marshall says. “A lot of times, endorphins kick in, and you’ll end up feeling better than if you hadn’t ridden. If you still feel terrible after 10 minutes, then get off.” Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started, but you’ll likely feel so much better after.
Another trick Zach Allison suggests for treating hangovers is to drink an electrolyte beverage or mix—like NBS Nutrition, NUUN, Gnarly Nutrition, or Pedialyte—before bed or when you wake up. They offer some extra hydration to help kick up your recovery.
How to Deal With: Long Travel Days
Static stretching doesn’t cut it after a dozen hours on the road or in flight. So, to loosen up all your tight spots, pack a lacrosse ball and/or mini foam roller so you can spend some time rolling it out when you get to your destination, the Allisons say. Your quads, calves, glutes, and upper back are smart places to focus on finding release.
Also, after a travel stint, give yourself additional warmup time prior to a workout. This will better prep your muscles for the workout so you’re not going in cold.
There’s also a major pro to traveling for the holidays: “Visiting somewhere new is a good way to explore and do something different in that place,” says Mariana Doran, The Cycle Effect mountain bike coach, who is based in Colorado. “Our season is changing here in Colorado with snow, which gives us all a chance to try fat biking. Many places offer tours and rentals. Nordic centers often permit fat biking on their groomed tracks, too.” See what the area you’re visiting has to offer and maybe you’ll even find a fun new (and active) hobby.
If you’re roading tripping, you can also bring your bike and trainer, Zach Allison adds. “An intense 30-minute ride on a trainer supports your fitness,” he says. When visiting family for the holidays, the Allisons also use their family’s gym pass, with a complimentary visit for guests, to take indoor cycling classes. This can help you keep your workout routine consistent. So don’t be afraid to ask whoever you’re visiting what their gym situation is like—at their home or in the area. Then you can plan ahead to take classes or even plan to follow an online workout program.
How to Deal With: Family and Friends Who Don’t Cycle
If you’re loved ones don’t cycle, invite them anyway and modify your ride to be less intense, advises Doran. “Take cruisers around town and make the ride a group activity rather than a solo workout,” she says.
Incentivize the crew by choosing a fun biking destination like a natural or historic site, coffee shop, or hot cocoa stop. Bribe the group with an invitation that can’t be turned down. “We set up a tandem bike for my parents to ride to a brewery with dialed seats and pumped tires. They could eliminate time finding a parking spot and avoid drinking and driving. The ride was only 1/4-mile away. We made it really hard for them to say no,” Allison says.
How to Deal With: A Change of Pace
Whether you have more time off for longer rides or less time off and need to focus on getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to your cycling workouts, embrace that change of pace—it can be beneficial to your fitness. In fact, Carmichael Training Systems expert level coach Josh Whitmore says, “Look for opportunities out of the ordinary from your regular schedule.”
Whitmore, who is based in North Carolina, manages three principles in a cyclist’s training plan: consistency, volume, and intensity. During a typical workweek—or during the holiday season, when you have a potentially social-packed calendar—he suggests riders focus on shorter indoor rides on the trainer, emphasizing intensity. If you have time off work, add a long outdoor endurance ride during the week, which enhances base fitness, he says.
Get these mix of workouts in as much as you can and know even just a little sweat goes a long way. But changing up your typical routine can offer some beneficial improvements to things like speed, power, or endurance, depending on what you do to switch it up.
How to Deal With: Socialization Fatigue
Take time for solo resets. “Some of us need a break from family or our significant others because holiday visits can be intense. It’s okay to step out and go riding solo to keep your mind sane,” Doran says. “Staying active and biking is a good way to balance the holidays. Pedal out that stress.”
If you think this will be a problem with your family, just let them know ahead of time that you plan to still go out for rides, even when home for the holidays.
“Make sure you communicate your cycling plan to your people,” said Howdyshell. Families, significant others, and athletes “get frustrated when plans conflict. A hugely valuable tool is to set expectations early. There’s often guilt, especially since COVID and not seeing people. We think we need to be a martyr, sacrificing ourselves completely. Counterintuitively, you need to fill your cup to be the best version of yourself and present in the moment,” he says.
Rather than viewing your independent time as a detraction from togetherness, clearly express how important the workout is to you and identify the benefits for them. “Instead of apologizing for taking time away, say ‘I’m excited to do this bike ride, it’ll give me energy, and I’m excited to spend time with you this afternoon,’” Howdyshell says.
Lead by example. Ask your family and significant other how they need to refill their cup, too. “Ask, ‘What do you need to decrease stress?’” says Howdyshell, who realized on a recent trip to visit his in-laws that during COVID, their family units had become very accustomed to their own routines.
“We would leave for them to have their normal morning routine for coffee, and we had one hour of exercise. It was a nice benefit for everyone,” he says.
