Training for triathlon in the cold north.
January 10th, 2010 by Aleksandar
Winter has really come to Copenhagen.
Normally we don’t get much snow. Denmark is surrounded by the ocean and is just a bunch of small islands.
A typical winter doesn’t have much snow but this winter is much worse than usual.
What is a triahtlete to do?
Training in the cold is a bit of a challenge since it does require some adjustments in your training.
Triathlon is quite popular in Denmark and there are several of the worlds best triathletes living here which one would think is far from optimal but year after year it is proven that it is very possible to train through the cold winter and have great results come summer.
There are two main adjustments I do in my training.
The first is to not do too much volume in my training. I think training many hours outside in the cold wears me out so I make sure I don’t get out too much.
This of course means that intensity is quite high when I do force myself out of the door, but then I make sure to not do too much high intensity in a session since it’s still winter and a long time until I want to be in great shape.
Another thing is that I do all of my biking inside. This again means that cycling is a bit different from what I would do if I was in a nice and warm place. However I really do enjoy the trainer and I think it’s nice to be efficient and have more time to do other things that training.
So basically training in Copenhagen is very possible but you do have days where I get very whiny about the training but then I think about how much I will enjoy training when I get to train in the sun.
