Most of my tours surround a long distance event of some sort, and I need to train in order to race 24-hour races or to ride 1200K randonnees. So therefore I may take a short break to catch up on some rest during a down time in the year, but most of the time I'm quite active.

When I lived in Canada I spent my winter ...

- cycling outside - commuting, riding on the weekend, and riding monthly centuries
- cycling inside - especially in the evenings when it is dark outside
- spinning classes - once or twice a week
- weightlifting - I usually had my own equipment, but would often do a workout in a gym on the days I did my spinning classes
- cross country skiing - that's a good, whole-body workout!
- snowshoeing - good leg workout
- walking - walking in snow with heavy winter boots is great for building up the calf muscles


Last winter, here in Australia, I took a break from cycling for various reasons, but when I started again in mid-August, it was on the trainer. We had a very, very rainy winter and spring, so I was on the trainer until some point in September when Rowan and I finally started riding outside again. But in addition to riding on the trainer, I walk about 15 km a week, and have been doing that for 6 months now and will likely continue doing that as long as we live where we are and I work where I do.

Now that summer is here and it has warmed up, we're out cycling quite a bit (did a 1200 km month in October), and for some variety we've started canoeing a bit. I had my things from Canada shipped and we've each got a set of golf clubs now. We've gone out one evening to do some practice shots and may work up to playing a game soon. Plus there's the weight bench on the back deck and the weight bench in the garage, and weights in various locations around the house any time I feel like doing some weights, I've got the equipment.


A tip for anyone planning a tour to a part of the world where there may be a combination of cycling and train travel or hostels with lots of stairs (i.e. Europe, parts of Australia) ... focus on building up your upper body strength. There can be a lot of heavy lifting on a tour ... and a lot of very hurried heavy lifting as you rush to disembark from one train, and navigate long corridors and flights of stairs to get to your next train which is set to leave in just a few minutes. A stronger upper body makes that a bit easier. A strong core and upper body also makes staying in the saddle for long periods of time easier. If you've got a strong core, your posture on the bicycle is better, and you can hold that posture longer.

In 2011, one of my goals is to build up my core and upper body strength so that my triceps and abs don't ache at the end of a long ride. I think canoeing is helping with that, and I've started doing crunches.