As the cold months are not too far away here in central Ohio, I am looking for some off season training advice to at least maintain my current fitness level, or if possible to increase it. My season riding was far from systematic. However, in the three to four days a week rides, I did build strength and endurance as my time, speed, and climbing have all improved since the beginning in spring. Strength has increased as I am now able to climb the same 1 mile climb four teeth smaller, and endurance has increased as my 1 hour rides have turned into 2.5 hour rides. Overall speed has increased as my average in the beginning was 14mph and now is 19mph. Muscle mass increase in the legs surely reflect all of this.

So, I am looking for advice on how to maintain the level I am at so that at the beginning of next season I can continue to improve from where I left off. It would be a bonus if I could start next season a little bit stronger than I ended this season, but I don't know if that is possible. I think my biggest downfall is going to be that I go nuts with boredom on the indoor trainer after about a half hour. Recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

See the other winter training thread up-forum.

I wouldn't try to start next season stronger than you finished this one, just stronger than you started this one. That said, training all winter will make a huge difference in the spring. I also dislike trainers, but have no problem with rollers. Much more interesting. If you are bored, you aren't hurting or concentrating enough. You should never be bored. Concentrate constantly on the tiny things. Winter is for training on the fundamentals.

Thanks for the reply and tips - I'll look up the other thread you mentioned.

Ride in the winter.

You definitely want to be training over the winter. It sounds like your going to need to do this on a trainer or rollers. For the next couple of months your going to want to concentrate on base 1 and base 2 building workouts. I would suggest no less than 4 time 1 hour workouts per week. One way to make these go faster is by watching all the tdf stages that you still have recorded on your DVR. Visualize yourself as being part of the race.