Winter Training: How To Get Fitter and Faster This Winter

Winter can be a tough time for cyclists. With limited light and inevitable wind, rain and general gloom forecast for the next few months, it can be tempting to put the bike into hibernation and wait until spring.

However, as we’ll uncover in this article, this should definitely not be the case. In fact, this winter could get you riding faster than ever, setting you up to have the best year on the bike yet.

Let’s take a look at how you can get through this winter in your best condition yet with the help of Zwift.

Why Winter Is Tough for Cyclists

Anyone who has ridden a bike in the cold and wet knows exactly how taxing it can be. Wet feet and cold hands from puddles and wind can make it tempting to opt for some running shoes instead of a bike this winter. This doesn’t have to be the case.

Gearing up for a ride outside in the cold involves a lot of preparation. From thick gloves, to keeping your lights charged and fitting mudguards. There is a lot of winter admin to do even before you’ve thought about how to carry out your session properly.

It can all become a little stressful. But there’s no need to worry!

Indoor Cycling with Zwift: Cycling in Winter Made Fun

Introducing riding indoors. Whilst conditions aren’t favourable for outdoor riding, indoor cycling presents a huge opportunity for improving your fitness over the winter season.

The benefits to training inside with Zwift when the weather turns include:

• Comfort is Key: Staying protected from winter weather is an obvious benefit of training inside. Whether it’s your kitchen, living room, or dedicated pain cave, it’s easy to hop on Zwift and ride when the time suits you, not just when the weather permits.
• Targeted & Efficient: Boost fitness with thousands of Zwift workouts to choose from. There’s a session for every duration, intensity, or goal. From spikey workouts like HIIT intervals or endurance efforts like Devedeset – completing workouts indoors allows you to train more efficiently.
• Social & Events: Whilst the summer season has long cooled off, the Zwift schedule is packed with races, events and social rides. Choose to race with the Zwift Racing League, take part in the Brompton World Championships, or ride easy with social rides like Off The MAAP.

How to Get Your Set Up For Winter Cycling Indoors on Zwift

All you need to get started with indoor cycling is a bike, a turbo trainer, and Zwift.

Here’s a quick start guide for getting your set up ready:

1. Download the Zwift app on your chosen device: Remember the device you use will effectively be your view into the game, so the bigger the screen the better. 
2. Choose an indoor trainer: A raft of Zwift-Ready turbo trainers can be found on the market today and start from as little as £299. Zwift-Ready trainers come with Zwift Cog pre-installed and include the new Zwift Click controllers meaning you’re ready to plug in and play straight out of the box. 
3. Mount your bike to the trainer: Will your bike work with Zwift? The short answer is most likely! Indoor trainers are compatible with almost any road, hybrid, MTB, you name it.

The simplicity of indoor cycling on Zwift is a huge draw for many cyclists over the winter. No mudguards required! Mount your bike onto the trainer and start pedalling.

Winter Indoor Cycling Training Plans on Zwift

Once you’re up and running you can think about choosing exactly the type of indoor training you’d like to do.

Zwift features lots of indoor training plans and standalone workouts that can help you move closer to your summer target.

Zwift Training Plans: For An Early-Season Sportive or Gran Fondo

The Fondo and Gran Fondo training plans are four and eight weeks in duration respectively and have been designed to put you in the best possible shape for your long ride.

They comprise three hours per week for the Fondo and four for the Gran Fondo with much of the riding concentrated around the sweetspot zone.

To the uninitiated, this is an intensity that is around 90% of your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) and is a time-efficient zone for improving your aerobic fitness.

Sweetspot is highly repeatable – although the intensity is relatively high, it’s a zone that never sees you doing too much soul searching, and it’s for this reason that Zwift has included such a high volume in these plans.

Zwift Training Plans: For Off-Road Riding

Away from the road and into the woods, it’s fairly typical for many cyclists to mix up their riding disciplines in the winter and there are many off-road (both gravel and mountain biking) events to choose from in the colder months. Zwift can help you arrive on the line primed and ready to pedal with the Singletrack Slayer and Gravel Grinder programmes.

Singletrack Slayer gives you the opportunity to not only improve bespoke trail-bound fitness indoors, but also to improve your skills in outdoor sessions throughout this 11-week plan.

Having been allocated a not insignificant six hours a week, Singletrack Slayer is the perfect means of developing new skills and fitness over the wetter and wilder months.

Likewise, Gravel Grinder is an involved plan which – at 13 weeks in length with five hours a week of riding – will see you through the majority of winter. As the indoor plan’s name suggests, this is for those who want to improve their fitness for gravel events. Usually rather lengthy affairs with an invariably undulating profile, gravel races are demanding of both mind and body. Which is why some of the sessions in Gravel Grinder are over two hours long with a focus on intensity deep into a ride. Gravel Grinder is an ideal antidote to the dark and dreary off-season.

Winter Cycling Tips: Get Fitter and Faster on the Bike this Winter

1. Keep Some Structure with a Training Plan

Keeping to a plan, even if it’s a simple one, will help you tick through the weeks and get you into spring as fast as possible.

The easiest way to follow a training plan is through Zwift’s built-in plans. There are loads to choose from, just like the plans mentioned above, and they’re all included with a Zwift subscription.

Whether you want to ride once a week, like Back to Fitness, or want something a bit more serious (like Active Offseason at 8+ hours a week), you can find it on Zwift.

One of the best reasons to train with Zwift is that training plans are flexible, so you can fit workouts around your schedule.

2. Ride With Friends: Zwift Rides and Zwift Races

A surefire way to keep your motivation up this winter is to ride with other people. With Zwift this is easy. You can jump on your indoor trainer and select one of the hundreds of daily social rides or races.

Zwift Rides are similar to a club ride, where there is a chosen route and you’ll automatically follow other Zwift riders on the ride until the route or distance is finished. It’s a quick and easy way to get on a group ride this winter.

Zwift Races add a competitive element to your riding, an exciting option if you like to race! Like Zwift Rides, Zwift Races come in multiple distances, with lots of routes and formats to choose from. The best way to learn about Zwift Racing is by jumping in and giving it a go. It’s a brutal workout but also serious fun too. Especially on a dark winter’s evening.

3. Work On Your Cadence

Indoor training allows us to focus on aspects of cycling that are much more difficult to execute on the roads or trails.

This includes working on your pedalling cadence. Cadence, in cycling terms, is the measure of how many times you spin your pedals and is calculated as Revolutions Per Minute (RPM).

Climbing workouts like ‘The Bernal’ include a mix of high and low cadences, with the aim of improving your pedalling dynamics and strength.

4. Build Your Endurance

Endurance is one of the key components of cycling fitness, and winter is the ideal time to build it without the pressure of events or long outdoor rides. Steady, low-intensity sessions help develop your aerobic base, the foundation that supports harder efforts later in the year.

On Zwift, this is easy to add in: choose a longer route, settle into a comfortable pace, and let the miles stack up while you zone out or even catch up on a podcast.

These rides aren’t glamorous, but they’re incredibly effective, and you’ll feel the payoff as soon as spring rolls around and your legs are ready to go longer, faster.

5. Keep Your Training Fresh

Doing the same workout every week is a quick route to boredom, so mixing things up is key to staying motivated through the darker months. Variety keeps your body adapting and your mind engaged. Try alternating between steady rides, short but sharp interval sessions, climbing-focused workouts, and the occasional group ride or race to keep things fun.

Zwift makes this simple by offering new routes, rotating events, and a huge library of workouts you can dip into whenever you feel like changing gears.

Ride through your best winter on the bike with Zwift…

Get your 14-day free trial today to crush winter and hit your summer goals.