1. A fall off the bike due to ice can put you out for weeks/months. Missing one ride will make little difference to your fitness. Be sensible. Avoid ice at all costs.

2. Its a great time to vary your training and make it enjoyable again. Off road runs. Mountain biking. Fun group swim sessions. Cross Country. Go walk some hills/mountains.

3. Once the lakes have closed, its a perfect time to get in the pool and work on your swimming for next season. Make sure sessions have a goal and are focused on technique or fitness.

4. Wrap up warm, sleep well and eat well to avoid injury and illness.  

​5. Protect your bike. While you can sometimes get away with little 'maintenance' over the summer. During winter you need to make sure you look after your bike. Clean. Oil. Lube. 

6. Running in fresh deep snow can be an excellent strength work out. Take time to enjoy the scenery and focus less on distances/paces.

7. The start of winter is a great time to review your previous season. What went well? What would you have done differently?

8. Shake off those injuries. With not as many races over the winter there is less pressure to train all the time. Take enough time off now to sort out your niggles for good. You'll reap the rewards next season.

​9. Build a base. Winter is the time to start building an excellent base aerobic fitness for next year. This means lots of slow and steady (Zone 1-2) runs/rides. 

10. Build strength. Want to be stronger and have less injuries next season? Over the winter is a great time to add more strength work to your programme. This doesn't need to be gym based. Squats, lunges, plank, press ups, tricep dips are all great exercises you can do at home.

11. When its too dangerous outside to cycle, switch your ride to the turbo trainer. Learning to love the turbo can help you make huge gains over the winter. Focus on building aerobic fitness and strength. 

12. Plan next season. Which races do you really want to perform well at? Be cautious not too enter too many events. You are best off planning your season and 2/3 events you really want to target.

13. Consider a 3-4 week block of training focusing on your weakest discipline. Over the winter is a great time to work on your weaknesses. 

14. Consider a week away training! Sometimes a week training somewhere hot can be a great motivator. If you do this be careful not to do a sudden jump in volume when you are away!

A challenging festive themed swim session to try over the Christmas period! You can do this by yourself or as part of a swim squad! It will take around 1 hour including your warm up!
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...and probably some swimwear too. We'd recommend that. Nice red festive swimwear if you have some.
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 1. You need to know your CSS pace. If you don't know that you can find out here:
http://www.swimsmooth.com/css-calculator.html
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2. Turn your Tempo Trainer onto 'Mode 1' and key in your CSS pace per (25m) length.
Example: If your CSS pace per 100m is '1:56' you divide by 4 (lengths) and need to have '29:00' displayed on the Tempo Trainer

Something like this will do. Shorten the distances if you need to...
200m - Easy Swim
200m - Side Kick With Fins (Swap sides each length)
200m - Half a length sculling into half a length easy swim
200m - Start the 200m slow and build up to a fast finish
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• Your aim is to swim every length in time with the beep!
• No faster, no slower.
• ​You are going to take 1 beep recovery after each rep.
• The set starts with 1 length (1st day of Christmas!) and the final rep is 12 lengths (12th day of Christmas!)
• The set is 1950m total!
• Good luck...

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Here are the reps:
​25m (Easy right!)
50m
75m
100m (Still fairly easy!)
125m
150m
175m (Hmm getting tougher now!)
200m
225m 
250m (Are you going to make the end?)
275m
300m
(Well done if you made it to here on the beep!!!)
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Let us know via Facebook and Twitter if you have a try at this session! We'd love to hear how far you managed to get!
Feel free to tag @GreenlightPT and use #12beepingdays so we can find your messages :)
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If you are swimming this in a club/squad setting we'd recommend rather than taking 1 beep recovery - just wait until everyone in the lane finishes the rep... then start the next one! That way you can all use your own individual CSS target paces.

If you are attempting this in a 50m pool (so doing double the distances each rep!)  we'd recommend adding 4 seconds to your CSS pace per 100m as it will be a very long set...!
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