Angry at Winter
 

I am upset because I got on the scale today and have gained ten pounds since summer. This is because I am not biking. I am not biking because I dont like to bike in the winter. I did it last winter, and it almost killed the love of the sport for me. I tended to associate biking the the royal PITA of riding a bike in dirty road slush, frozen toes, and three hour commutes that should take only an hour in summer. What can I do? Indoor trainer? Surly Pugsley? I need to find a way to get my wheels spinning during the winter, that is actually fun (i.e. no stuck/broke chains, dirty road slush, layers of winter gear thats too hot when your riding and too cold when your not, and super slow commutes on slippery ice)

Move, honestly.

I've made a few significant moves since 2007 and every time I greatly enjoyed every new location.

However, this is only if you're honestly dissatisfied, as life is too short to make compromises.

CO, I hear Skiing is popular there .. XC skiing is a good workout ..

Lots Of people buy another house in AZ.. :innocent:

+1 on XC skiing

why limit yourself to the high cost of the US, La Paz (Baja) is quite nice :)

or even Argentina .., there a whole bunch of Ex Pats in Costa Rica too ,

Weight gain after stopping is a serious problem among active cyclists. Cycling for any distance or at a good clip burns lots of calories, and we get into the habit if eating accordingly. It's hard to change when we stop, but w have o find a way.

As others have pointed out, there are some winter sports that burn fuel, and there's always the option of indoor training, but in my experience, there's not many options that burn as much fuel daily as cycling. Some things burn it faster, such as X-country skiing, but we don't tend to do these as long.

I suggest you find whatever you can to burn fuel and maintain fitness, but also pay attention to the diet side. Cut back on large meals (especially dinner) to help shrink your stomach a bit, and learn to like zero calorie fillers like celery and carrots. Also 2 cups of broth or a lite soup before a meal will fill you and cut down on hoe much you'll eat at mealtime.

I ride year round, but not as much in the winter. I've had to cut back on pizza, cookies, ice cream, and double size meals, but I don't have o cut it out, and manage to stay within my weight band.

BTW- one less known way to burn fuel is to intentionally stay cool. Underdress whn you go out, and keep the thermostat low. In a short while you'll acclimate to the cooler surroundings by burning more fuel, and you won't be uncomfortable. I let my house temp drop by about one degree a week in the late fall, until 64° where I keep it all winter. (Deb stays in Cozumel) This saves heating fuel, and I make up for it by not aging as much weight. It's like getting paid by Con Ed to stay fit.

Although I love living in the EU, I really do miss the easy access to Central/South America (almost no time zone difference also!).

Summer, In Northern Scotland. I Met a hemisphere swapping Argentine , from Ushuaia.

Always trainer/rollers and a good playoff game...

This is my first year to ride through winter. In the past what I've done to avoid winter weight gain was simply to walk and stand more. I wear a pedometer and try to be sure I hit that 10k mark everyday. I've also swapped out my traditional desk for a standing work station. I find that when I'm already standing, I naturally find myself moving more. One other trick: I set a timer so that after 50 or 55 minutes of inactivity, I move for 5-10 minutes. My office is on the fourth floor of my building, so sometimes I just walk down to the first floor and climb the steps again. Every little thing seems to help. Good luck!

Unless you are eating way too much, you don't need long workouts/commutes to maintain health and weight. Can you ride to lunch or dinner (or hardware, liquor, or whatever store) for about 15 - 20 minutes each way? Do you have a city bike that's easy and reliable to ride without spending an hour putting on special clothes?

Stop eating so much?

If I am not cycling, I drop my calorie intake by about half. My preference is just to fast - I generally just don't eat anything until dinner. If I'm actually trying to lose weight, I do that when I AM cycling (along with resistance training to keep the muscle mass up).

It is a pretty large investment to do it really well but investing in proper gear can make a world of difference in terms of enjoying winter cycling. If you do not like the slush don't forget to check out local single track, trails you have ridden hundreds of times become new again under lots of snow.

If you have no desire to do that XC ski's could be a good substitute as well, also look into snow shoeing or ice climbing (another very large financial investment though).

If none of that appeals to you, there is always a trainer or the gym or really working hard on discipline to not eat like you do in the summer time.

90% of weight loss comes from eating less so that fat is used up for energy. Conversely, 90% of weight gain is from eating more than you need so that fat is added. Sorry to say, but your 10 pound weight gain is 1 pound from not exercising, 9 pounds from eating too much.

roughly 3500kcal/lb

500kcal less/day = 1 lb/week weight loss

give or take a little.

Like others said, you need to eat less and find some alternative exercises. In addition to XC skiing, you could start running, snow-shoeing or spin cycling. Personally, I love cycling in winter, but we tend to have pretty mild winters in NC. The key to cycling in winter is to get the proper gear and keep at it. If you lay off for a few weeks, you quickly lose your acclimation and will power. Before I started bike commuting, I used to go to spin classes several times a week and do longer road rides on weekends when weather was favorable. Since I started commuting year-round, my concept of decent weather has changed quite a bit and I often ride on days that I wouldn't have even considered in the past. Eg, I rode 62 miles solo yesterday after all of my cycling buddies wimped out due to temps in the 40s and a 50% chance of showers. I rode for 4 hours without hitting any rain at all, so my friends missed out on a great cycling day in my book.

I watch what I eat on the off months so I don't gain more than maybe 3 pounds during the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years day eating binge period.

And this winter has been a real pain, yesterday and last night we got a foot of snow according to local weather, except I went outside to my front lawn and stuck a tape ruler in and got a 2 foot level and no drifts yet, just flat snow.

Gaining at least a little weight over the winter season is just something that happens to most of us -- we're spending more time indoors and it just feels right to eat a little more comfort food. It seems like regular exercise encourages me to eat the healthier food -- sugary/fatty things are less appealing when active -- so it's a double-whammy.

Fortunately, that 10-15 extra lbs comes back off every spring, but I should probably limit it to 5 in the future. ;)

a gym membership for some cross training of some kind?

Another option I haven't seen mentioned is to just not worry about it. Gaining weight in the winter is a fairly normal part of the biological cycle. The weight will come off again when you start biking again in the spring.

If riding in cold and slush nearly killed your enjoyment of the sport, I'd run from the very idea of riding on an indoor trainer. It's mind-numbingly boring and you sweat like a wrestler trying make weight. Riding an indoor trainer takes a near obsessive level of dedication.

The non-cycling options that have been mentioned aren't bad ideas. Beyond that, I'd suggest exploring other modes of cycling. Cyclocross was invented to keep people interested in cycling during the winter. It's a bit late for CX racing but you can always take your bike out and explore the roads less traveled. A mountain bike is probably the way to go for this. You probably can't get to work this way and you'll still be fighting the elements, but it may just be fun enough to make you forget all that. Gravel grinding is starting to catch on for similar reasons. Maybe find a map of unpaved roads in your area and go see where they lead. (Tip: take a GPS of some sort -- unpaved roads tend not to be well-marked.)

If you don't want to move to la paz you could also try a vegan diet. I eat as much as I like without weight gain.

Eating as much vegan food as you like is kind of a dubious claim if you ask me. It sounds a lot like being poked in the eye as often as you like. ;)

Winter in So. CA is non-existint. I ride all year around.

Vegan food is what food eats.