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Vail Living with Vitality column: See the benefits of an indoor winter cycling training program

Jennifer Sage
Living with Vitality
The Vail Vitality Center offers a specialized winter training program for cyclists, starting in November. This is a structured program based on science, designed to develop all elements of your cycling fitness, including aerobic and muscular endurance, climbing strength, threshold power and aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
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The Vail Vitality Center offers a specialized winter training program for cyclists, starting in November. This is a structured program based on science, designed to develop all elements of your cycling fitness, including aerobic and muscular endurance, climbing strength, threshold power and aerobic and anaerobic capacity. If you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Want to know what to eat and when to maximize your training and body composition? Add on the nutrition meeting and get advice from one of the country’s top dietitians on how to eat to reach your goals. You’ll get a personalized meal outline and ideas on what to eat and how to time it with your workouts.

For more information on the program, contact Jennifer Sage at Jennifer@vivatravels.com. To register, call the club at 970-476-7960.

There is a conundrum for many cyclists in the Happy Valley once the snow starts to fly: Should I hang up my bike until the ski season is over? Should I set it up on a trainer and vow to ride it twice a week all winter (knowing darn well this just is not going to happen)? Should I pay to take one of those cycling clinics to stay in cycling shape? Do they actually work?

The answer to that last question is a resounding “yes.” Following are 10 reasons to consider taking a winter cycling training program:

1. Results: If you measure it, you can improve it.



2. Joy: Nothing makes a cyclist happier than cresting a local climb faster and without as much suffering as before. Do you want to make it up Vail Pass for the first time or finally break your record? You can achieve your goal earlier in the season next year by developing your climbing strength during the winter.

3. Ahhh, endurance: Alpine skiing ans snowboarding are not aerobic sports, while cycling relies heavily on your finely tuned aerobic system. Unless you continue working on this crucial element of your cycling fitness throughout the winter season, you will lose it.

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4. Power: Wouldn’t it be nice to jump on your bike next May and be smiling from ear to ear when you realize the power you have built up in your legs?

5. Efficiency: Indoors is the best place to work on and refine your technique.

6. Mental strength: Cycling is as much mental mastery as it is physical. Training indoors is a great place to develop the mind-body skills of visualization, breath control and finding the state known as “flow,” all of which will benefit you in every sport you love participating in.

7. It’s more fun together: We’re willing to bet your bike on the trainer in your basement will become a clothes rack, no matter how many promises you make to ride on your own. This is not the case with a focused training program. Learning and training together as part of a group will keep you motivated and coming back all winter long.

8. Knowledge: You’ve heard that knowledge is power, now you’ll see why. You’ll learn so much about yourself and your training, allowing you to make wise decisions in the future so you can continue evolving your fitness.

9. Bucket list: Make 2016 the year to train for that special event you’ve been promising yourself you would tackle. A cycling trip to Europe? Your first century? The Triple Bypass? Or maybe just riding up to the cul-de-sac on Vail Pass. Everyone’s goal is personal, and a dedicated indoor training program can help you get there.

10. What you should eat: You can’t outride or outrun a bad diet. If you want to get on the road to making 2016 your best year yet, adding nutrition to your cycling program can help make that happen.

Jennifer Sage has been leading and organizing bicycle tours for the past 25 years and has taught spinning classes at numerous facilities around the Vail Valley since 1996. As one of the top indoor cycling coaches in the country, she has certified and trained thousands of instructors at conferences and workshops around the world. Sage also founded the Indoor Cycling Association, an online educational resource for cycling instructors to improve their knowledge of cycling training principles, exercise physiology, biomechanics, class design and inspirational coaching.


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