Sizing up the two words that surely haunt any cyclist, good or bad, pro or rank amateur, the most: ‘Winter Training’.

As I sit here writing this, 18 stories above the frozen, frigid and snow lined streets of Toronto, Ontario, we’re already entering the third week of January and depending on who you are and perhaps your location on the globe your 2012 cycling year will be at some stage or another. If you’re one of the paid few on the books of this new WorldTour, your season of racing is only a day away down at the Tour Down Under. If you’re an amateur enthusiast from a part of the world with an acceptable year round climate (ie. not Canada) you might well be trudging out the miles and racking up the stamina on those weekend road rides ahead of your season (if you race that is, for otherwise your season may never begin and therefore never end). Or, if you’re like me — the fair weather cyclist — in a climate that sits well into the negative digits for three-point-five months per year, with a mental allergy towards gyms, you’ll be on the fringes of beginning a pre-season — having put it off long enough — in the hopes that the mountain bike sitting in the spare room (soon to become a nursery) and very soon to be relegated to the storage cage until the snow melts, will get value for money when the hammer drops on the first race of the season in 15 weeks time.

I hadn’t raced a bike in anger for a number of years until last year when I finally got the cash together to buy a new mountain bike. I’d missed the thrill of racing the MTB and wanted to get back involved, but with my ten year old MTB back in Bangor, Northern Ireland ever since my immigration three years before I had to go without. I purchased the bike at the tail end of last season, but thankfully early enough to allow me take part in two events. Hooked, I got the most out of a mild autumn and early winter before shutting it down for the season.

I had good intentions of keeping up any base level of fitness I had gained from after work road rides and those days out at Kelso Park on the mountain bike, but like anything when the only option for someone who prefers not to ride in temperatures below freezing due to the misery outweighing the enjoyment, became the gym, the fitness began to dwindle. And if I’m to be perfectly honest, I shouldn’t really have an excuse – the building I live in has a gym and a swimming pool on the ground floor that is free to use for residents. I started out okay, got down there several times per week and felt that I’d be in good shape for the new year, but it couldn’t survive December and the temptation to sit by the Christmas tree with the heating on, the Yankee candle burning and a good movie or hockey game on the TV, then later of course the week of indulgence that is also known as Christmas.

I got out for one run (actual run, not a run on the bike) when up at the lake over Christmas and my fear was confirmed. I struggled around the 3km jog and knew it was time to get back to training regularly if I didn’t want to end up slogging around at the back of the field in the 30-34 age class. I got back to the city on New Year’s Day full of good intentions and despite officially labeling it as a ‘resolution’. Sadly I came down with a nasty dose of the cold for that first week of January and that was followed up with a nasty dose of laziness for the second week. So here we are, Monday, January 16th at the beginning of the third week of the month and with no excuses left.

I’ve fifteen weeks exactly left until the first mountain bike race of the year. Fifteen weeks of fat burn, stamina gain, healthy eating, no boozing and the dreaded gym. Actually, I figure about ten or so weeks of the gym before it finally reaches temperatures acceptable enough, and post-work evenings bright enough, to get back onto the traffic light loaded roads of suburban Toronto and into the fringes of the countryside. And of course into the secluded trail lined forests away from the world. The first ten weeks will be miserable, will require building up a habit and a strong willpower, but the final five should be fun and hopefully productive.

Over the next fifteen weeks I’ll post a diary of my pre-season winter training boot camp on this link if you’re interested in seeing how it goes, whether it turns out to be enough, too much, or whether I managed to stick to it. I’ll not punish myself every day and other commitments will at times take preference, but hopefully I’ll do it enough and though I make no guarantees I’ll stick to it — this is live, there is no editing — I hope I will and we’ll see what it does for me come Sunday, April 29th.

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