Home > Feature

Maghalie Rochette discusses her winter training: “I really don’t mind riding inside on the trainer”

The rising star in the Canadian cyclocross and mountain bike scenes talks about how she stays in top form during the colder months, both indoors and out.

maghalie_rochette_wins_the_2015_manitoba_grand_prix_of_cyclocross_her_first_uci_cyclocross_victory

When it comes to indoor winter training, on the one hand you’ve got a rider like Geoff Kabush, who prefers to avoid it wherever and whenever possible. On the other hand, there are riders like Quebec’s Maghalie Rochette, for whom the opportunity to spend some time on the indoor trainer presents other, less physical opportunities.

Both, however, see the value in mixing up their regimens—changing their training’s scenery during the off-season, so to speak.

For Rochette, the trainer isn’t so bad, she told Canadian Cycling Magazine.. “I really don’t mind riding inside on the trainer,” she said. “I am a big day dreamer, so spending some time on the rollers for easy endurance rides is not a big problem for me.”

“I can easily space out, and when I come back to reality, two hours have gone by.”

Her preference, she said, is for the training provided by the Powerwatts Nord training center in Boisbriand, Quebec. “They have 10 adjustable bikes on platforms,” she explained, “with power meters and screens where you can see the interval set as well as your poweroutput, revolutions per minute, percent of effort compared to your FTP, etc. It is very fun and stimulating because you are suffering and having fun with other people.”

Still, Rochette, like Kabush, keeps whatever works for her in terms of physical conditioning her top priority over the winter, and that often means keeping her routines varied. It’s certainly yielded results for the Luna Pro Team rider. Victories like her November 2014 win at the Pan-American U23 championships and her resounding win at this year’s Manitoba Grand Prix of Cyclocross speak to its success, to say nothing of her gilded reputation as one of Canada’s top rising stars in the cyclocross and mountain bike scenes. If it’s a balance between the opportunity to “space out” on the indoor trainer and other kinds of exercise—like Kabush, she loves spending time on skis or in snowshoes—it seems to be working.

Those other forms of exercise, too, are quite varied. “I also do a lot of strength, agility and functional movement exercises at the gym during the wintertime,” she said. “I love doing that because I really feel like it helps me become stronger for the racing season, but it aso challenges my co-ordination.”

“If you are creative, diversifying your training can help you stay motivated during the long winter months. For example, I do a lot of boxing as cross-training in the winter and I absolutely love it.”

There’s a caveat to Rochette’s enthusiasm about winter training, though, and she admits it: with respect to changing her winter training’s scenery, she does so literally. For much of the winter she’s not snowbound in Quebec, for the most part, but situated in the Tucson, Arizona area—a decidedly much different climate for staying in riding shape through the colder months. “This allows me to train outside for the best part of winter and to spend some quality time on my mountain bike,” she said. “This is an awesome opportunity that I have and I love going over there for the winter.”

“However, I feel like the few weeks I spend in Canada during the winter are really valuable to my training, physically as well as mentally,” she said.