If there’s one positive to take from being stuck inside, spinning on the turbo trainer as the winter weather blows outside, it’s that spring is just around the corner. Prepare for the season ahead and you’ll ease straight into it, quite literally with a spring in your step.
Get the bike ready
After a winter in hibernation, your bike may be feeling a little sorry for itself at the back of the garage, tears of rust streaking down the frame. This is the perfect time to clean it up and restore it to its former glory, perhaps even treat it to a new accessory or two.
If you’ve been riding a dedicated winter bike over the colder months, then you may also want to give this a clean down too, removing months of road grit, salt and debris from all your components. It may be another ten months before you use it again, but your future self will surely thank you for such a good deed.
Not all bikes are ready for a new season however and sometimes it’s easier to say goodbye than to fix it. New bike day is the best time of the year for us cyclists, and what better time to have it than at the start of spring with a whole season of riding ahead of you.
Whether you’re on the lookout for a mountain bike, road bike or a combination of the two, we’ve got it all. We’ll even size you up in store and ensure that you’re matched with the perfect machine for your riding style.
Change your wardrobe
As the winter weather recedes, there’s less and less need to bring so many layers on your ride. We can finally don our favourite short sleeve jerseys, skinny gloves and bib shorts, accessorised lightly with carefully chosen items to stave off the seasonal chill.
Living in the UK there’s always the threat of rain – don’t forget the April showers – so prepare for the worst and carry a lightweight, showerproof gilet on your longer rides. It’s also not yet summer, so the temperatures won’t be climbing above 20°C anytime soon – best to hold onto the knee and arm warmers for those colder days in the saddle.
Ease in the training
We’ve already covered the best ways to train indoors this winter, even how to train in the cold outdoors, but we’re yet to give you a specific training session to try out.
The best post-winter training you can do is a tempo session, riding at a certain power/effort for anywhere between five and 20 minutes. These can be done outdoors, but with ever changing terrain, it’s hard to stay in that tempo ‘sweetspot’.
These sessions are best done on a turbo trainer, especially a smart one where you can monitor your effort levels throughout the session. They’re painful, but boy do they get rid of that sluggish and slow feeling we all experience after the winter break.
Stay healthy
It may sound obvious, but this is one tip that a lot of us forget, many heading into the next season with pesky flu or a cold picked up in winter. To avoid such inconveniences, make sure you wrap up warm if you’re riding outside, eat well both on the bike and off, and get enough sleep.
No one wants to start the spring sluggish and full of cold, so make sure you spend just as much time on your recovery as you do on your training sessions. We guarantee you won’t regret it once spring finally rolls around.
Why not head down to our store and have a quick chat with our friendly team. Whether it’s bike maintenance advice or training tips and where to ride this spring, they’ll be more than happy to help.
