Mile Munching Over The Dark Days

[willhub]

Just having a think.

I enjoy munching on lots of miles, but I also know it's detrimental to speed.

Next year, I basically want to train to get much faster, same as every year, I aim to do more road racing (providing I can afford it with a job and can get to them).

I also want to be able to improve my time trial times too.

Is it ok to use the winter months to just munch up lots of miles? 300-400 miles weeks? Sort of long rides, long and steady, some may have hard bits in, some may have cafe stops in.

Or should I just keep on as normal, doing hard tempo sort of rides around 50-60 miles, and short intervals (~5 ~10 and ~20+ minutes) ?

Whatever the answer I do intend on doing a few long rides, sort of 100-150 on a Sat/Sun depending on the club runs, but only now and again and not all the time like I'd like to.

 

[Moodyman]

Yes. Get as many miles in winter as you can. Though 400 might be unrealistic as the days are shorter and you tend to lose many cycling days due to colds and the weather. Might be worth getting a turbo trainer.

 

[black'n'yellow]

if all you do is ride long steady miles, then all you will become good at is riding long steady miles. One or maybe two long rides per week is all that should be needed in the off season, but you will also need to add shorter tempo and threshold and VO2 sessions into the mix as the season gets closer...

 

[willhub]

This is my idea of mile munching: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/217588595 It's a group ride, so it's very easy untill the hills, I like to use the hills as intervals.

That ride wrecked me last night, the last time I did a 100+ mile ride with that amount of hills was about 1.5 years ago maybe more, so the last 30 miles I could not stop thinking about food and could hardly walk when I got home, I'll probably be fine next time.

The only problem with rides like that is muncies, at midnight I had to eat some crackers with Marmite on.