The roads are lined with trees of all shades of red.  The air is cool, but it doesn’t bite.  Then winter comes around, the temperatures plummet, and nobody dares go outside.

Little 500 teams spend all winter spinning away.  Whether it be in a damp and dim garage or a carpeted apartment room, the training cannot stop.

For last year’s men’s race winner, JETBLACH, the training happens all in a small garage next to their house.  With handrails on either side and their rollers in hand-crafted stalls, Josh Herbst and his fellow teammates put in the work.

“Typically, a block is three to four weeks, and you’re basically just trying to build up a lot of fatigue,” Herbst said.  “Then you’ll get a rest week where your muscles can really recover.”

While in the fall training typically just consists of getting in miles, winter training is more structured, built to target two different areas.

The first focus is power.  Riders in all facets of cycling look to their power output as a gauge for their fitness level.  One metric to sum up their power ability is FTP, or functional threshold power.  This number is the estimated power output that a rider can sustain over one hour.

The other area is focused on cardiovascular endurance.

“Other days, we’ll do some VO2 stuff, which is a lot more cadence based, just getting your legs spinning fast which is what you’ve got to do on the track in Little 5,” Herbst said.Another challenge that winter training brings is having to put in hours upon hours and many miles while not going anywhere.  Teams either use a trainer, or like JETBLACH, a roller.

“There are a few benefits of rollers,” head coach Anthony Vicino said.  “I think the biggest positive is that it really helps you work on your cadence, which is a big thing for Little 5, just spinning your feet faster.”

Anthony Vicino is taking over for previous coach Courtney Bishop, who went to University of Nebraska as a volunteer cross country coach.

While this will be Vicino’s first year at the helm, he has written JETBLACH’s training plan for the past few years after riding for the team during his time at IU.

As March begins, winter training is finally coming to a close for Little 500 teams.  Now, the track has opened, teams move their training outside.  Each team can have two riders on the track at a time, and will conduct interval and team based training.

While I may seem far away, Quals weekend is just around the corner at the end of March.

For tickets or more information, visit the IU Student Foundation website.