So, you’ve signed up for a cycling challenge. Is it Monte Zoncolan like this fellow above?! Either way, congratulations! However, you might already be feeling slightly nervous, or thinking “Holy heck … what have I just signed up for?” (or words of that nature!)

It might be (ahem) a superbly organised & guided Marmot Tours road cycling holiday. It might even be the iconic Raid Pyrenees, or it could be any other mega cycling challenge like La Marmotte,  the Maratona or L’Etape where you’ll hope to slay one or more of the most iconic cycling climbs in Europe. Whatever your chosen challenge, panic not, but be sure to know that the preparation starts NOW.  Here, our guide Claire Balman gives you some great tips to help you get started with your planning and hopefully put your mind at ease.

For all cycling enthusiasts, from the crazy challenge seekers among us to the keen and happy recreational rouleurs, we know that there’ll always be fundamental physical, mental and emotional preparation required for us to prepare for the goal we’ve set ourselves. 

It all feels achievable, right?  Of course it does, especially when the sun is shining, the breeze is light, and we still have those wonderful fresh memories of our summer exploits and cycling adventures. Add to this our amazing photos of majestic mountains and sublime scenery and it’s enough to make us sign up for anything!   

However, autumn is now with us, and winter knocking at the door. We have fewer daylight hours, it’s colder and that often means our motivation to create – let alone execute – cycling training plans to keep ourselves conditioned can most definitely start to deplete. Even for the most dedicated, it’s tough. YOU ARE NOT ALONE! The prospect of winter can be daunting, even more so when we have exciting, but what might feel like insurmountable challenges in the year ahead.  

In this blog, I’ll aim to instill some calm in your mind so that you can create and follow a training plan for a cycling challenge with confidence …

Top 5 tips to prepare for a cycling challenge

1. Do not panic!

My top tip! If you start training a few months in advance of your challenge, you’ll have plenty of time and no matter where your cycling challenge takes place, have confidence that the time you put into your planning now will pay off when the date comes around. Trust me. You have time if you start now!

2. Make a plan: REALISTIC, ACHIEVABLE, VARIED

REALISTIC – Making a plan that’s realistic is important, even more so throughout the winter months when light and time are limited, and the weather is unreliable. DO NOT rely solely on riding the roads to achieve your training goals – it’s likely you’ll only end up frustrated. So, what else? Well, how about looking at other ways to train? Plan your attack incorporating different types of training and things that can be done, indoors (check out Marmot guide Emma’s blog Winter Training for Cycling – Without Cycling) or outside. Make sure you incorporate plenty of rest days giving your muscles, mind, and body a chance to benefit from the training.

Also, don’t forget to build then taper towards your key dates. Deciding on the key areas you want to progress will help you plan more effectively, then decide on a plan that incorporates work on all these areas over the duration of your plan. 

Indoor trainers are a great resource with a brilliant social platform too (who doesn’t love Zwift?), allowing us to stay more connected even if the weather does ruin an outside plan.  A one-hour full tilt, focussed indoor session can often be more effective than say, four hours of mediocre riding on the road in terrible weather, exposing your body to extreme conditions. You’ll risk getting cold, wet, and miserable, let alone putting your immune system at greater risk of compromise and vulnerability. Now I’m not saying don’t plan to train outside in the winter – no way! Just be smart and keep your planning realistic to the time of year and conditions. 

ACHIEVABLE – speaks for itself.  Setting super sky-high training goals from the gun will often demoralize you at best and at worst, force you to push too hard too soon, risking injury or illness.  Plan for progressive gains over your given time frame, start small(ish) relative to your current state, and gradually build. Enjoy the wins as you reach each goal/task/part of the plan.  You’ll be gaining confidence by seeing and feeling the benefits as you get stronger on the climbs/more efficient on the flat and you’ll be happier overall with your consistency, performance & capability.  This also nurtures our feeling of control over what we’ve set out to do. 

VARIED – variety, as they say, is the spice of life.  Finding different ways to train for a cycling challenge that keep you motivated, keep the process enjoyable, and enable you to train consistently will always aid our success.  Understanding how our bodies need different things at different times of the year to help us stay healthy is key. If I can’t go out on my bike for a four-hour training ride due to the weather, I might choose a two-hour indoor leg strength & core conditioning session, leaving the four-hour ride for a better day. It’s not a compromise, it’s an intelligent, effective alternative and equally vital when planning for long days in the saddle when better weather or spring arrives.

Also, an hour’s Hot Yoga can be exhausting but a massive benefit to tired muscles, tendons, tissues, and brain. It’s also lovely in winter when it’s freezing outside! Think outside of the box: how about a few cold-water plunges to add to your plan?  Great for getting rid of the ‘winter blues’ alongside the anti-inflammatory benefits. Tune in to both your body and your surroundings. 

3. Trust the process and be patient

Most of us have been here before. Let’s say you have seven months to your cycling challenge. You’ve got a structured, enjoyable, achievable, and progressive cycling training plan worked out and it’s going ok so far. BUT … sometimes you get that sneaky voice in your head telling you to “Just do a bit extra today!” or “Sack the rest day – I don’t need it!”. You feel great, so smashing out a few more kms/reps won’t hurt.

STOP. Don’t even be tempted.  It will not do you any good and sticking to the plan is a much better strategy for training success. Over-training can harm our body’s capacity to transform training into a positive performance outcome.  Just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should! Be patient and trust the process. Marathon runners are a great example.  They don’t attempt a 42km run on day 1 of their training.  That would be madness.

Give your mind and body time to adapt and respond to your training. It takes time and often longer than you think, but this is fine. Don’t be tempted to overload or double up on days in the hope of getting there quicker.  Consistent training and adaptation over time also give you a greater chance of holding on to that precious conditioning for longer. Once attained, your mind and body have positively evolved (through training over time) into new patterns of physiological & neurological responses.  It’s a WIN-WIN and patience pays off.  Don’t be afraid to play the long game.  

4. Be consistent

Particularly in winter, consistency is essential to training success. In the colder months of the year, our idyllic vision of next year’s cycling tour in the Italian Dolomites can start to feel more daunting as our departure date approaches. By being consistent with your training, these negative thoughts will fade as you see improvement. In time, they’ll be replaced by more excitement for your chosen cycling challenge.

 Consistency over time is the lynchpin of training success. As I said earlier, make sure you schedule rest days and breaks in your training plan, but keep the work periods consistent.   When I’m not guiding for Marmot Tours, I teach & practice Seasonal Yoga. Briefly, this form of yoga means staying in tune with one’s surroundings, respecting and valuing the changing of the seasons while being consistent, allowing you to reap the full benefit of regular practice in different ways. 

5. Keep it fun

If it’s not fun, then for me, it’s a deal breaker!  I love training, but I love it more and stay MORE motivated when I am happy in the process and having fun with it.  Sure, we have serious work to do to get the kms in the legs, the endurance, the climbing ability, and stamina to keep going regardless of what’s thrown at us but there are no rules to say it can’t be fun at the same time.  There are lots of ways to inject fun into your training – whatever floats your boat! 

For me, doing different things in my training plan keeps it fun, and less monotonous. A rock-climbing session on a training day perhaps? It helps build stamina, and improves my tactical thinking, patience, and constant mind/body connection: not a bad compliment to my cycling goals either. Music can be a massive motivator. If I’m struggling with a tough leg training set, my go-to would be a playlist of my fave tunes pumped up loud: works every time!

Another is good company. Priceless. Your cycle buddies – maybe those you met on a Marmot Tours holiday?! – the ones you can have a good craïc with even when the going gets tough, or when you’re not sure whether to go out or not, will message back regardless to say, “Yes – we’re doing this!”, or “Shut up & get yourself out!”. What works for you?   We’re all different.  Find what puts the fun element into your cycling training plan and use it – A LOT.  

So that’s it, in a nutshell: my top five tips for how to train for a cycling challenge. Good luck and keep it simple. Enjoy the process and hold on to your vision of how amazing your 2025 cycling challenge is going to feel. The mountains are waiting, and I hope to be supporting some of you on your cycling challenge next year! 

Claire Balman.