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5 Tips for Cycling Training in Autumn

By Jiri Kaloc

With your biggest event goals in the rearview mirror, the next few months are full of opportunities! Rather than sitting on the couch and watching football, use this time to address aspects of health, fitness, and performance that were difficult to deal with during the height of your sport-specific training.

Get into strength training

Most cyclists know that strength training can help them reduce chances of injury and even improve the power they can generate on the bike. But let’s be honest, most of us have a hard time prioritizing it, or even getting started. Autumn is the best time to get into strength training. With racing done for the year, you don’t have to worry about the initial soreness or the time investment that comes with establishing a strength training routine. Check out our previous article to see what exercises are most beneficial and what you can do at home.

Make changes in your nutrition

It’s good to avoid making changes to what you eat on and off the bike in the spring and summer when there’s always a race on the horizon. But it would be a mistake to never make a change. Nutrition keeps evolving and you should too. Autumn is the perfect time to test out new strategies.

On the bike, you can try new brands of gels, bars, and sports drinks to see which ones work best for you. You can also experiment with new recipes for home-made snacks like rice-cakes or sandwiches. You can also experiment with high carb intake of over 90 g of carbs per hour.

Off the bike, you can experiment with new pre-ride meals. You can practice eating a large breakfast before going on a morning ride. And you can try increasing your protein intake, that’s something a lot of athletes struggle with in general.

Go for adventures

At this point in the season, most races and important events are behind you. That also means you’re close to your peak fitness. All of those intervals and structured training that got you here took a lot of discipline. Now you can use this fitness for some fun unstructured training in the autumn.

All you really need is to rack up a good amount of time in zone 2 to further develop your endurance base and set yourself up well for the holiday break. This is the perfect time for longer adventures. You can do some MTB and gravel rides to explore new places, if you normally cycle on asphalt. Make the best out of the good weather that’s left this year.

Go for a bike fit

Autumn is also the ideal time for getting a bike fit and experimenting with changes in riding position. If you’ve been planning to get a new bike, try shorter cranks, or make some aero adjustments, this is when you can do it without worrying about how it impacts your next race. It’s also going to be a lot easier getting used the new while doing your adventuring at low intensity.

Go see a physio

Autumn is when you should prioritize resolving all of those nagging little pains and niggles you collected during the season. This typically means planning a visit to a good sports physio that can help you address any old injuries or imbalances you may be carrying. It’s also a good time to get a full checkup at your doctor since you’re closer to your baseline now than you were while racing.