News & Features

With the coronavirus lockdown affecting sportsmen and women across the world, we caught up with time trial ace Alice Lethbridge to see how the Covid 19 restrictions were impacting upon her training and plans for the season.

“I’m hugely grateful that we’re still allowed outside at the moment, which is great,” said Lethbridge, the 35-year-old former British Best All-Rounder and multiple national champion.

A biology teacher in a secondary school, she has had to make changes to her working routine as well as her training regime – as have many time triallists.

“I’m hating sitting on my computer teaching lessons all day. We’re doing a mixture of setting assignments for students and running Google meets with them.”

Under normal conditions Lethbridge would wake at 4.30 and 5am and go training before work, but her new daily routine means she can vary that.

“Actually I’ve had a real boost to my training from this lockdown because normally I would train before work, whereas now I’m generally using my lunch break for turbo sessions, and my power has gone up massively just from extra sleep!

“My coach has put me back into base phase and gone back to something more like winter training.

“But I have succumbed to Zwift, which is something I told friends last year I wouldn’t do even if you gave me £1,000! I did a time trial on there last week which was quite good fun, although I was annoyed that someone had a better bike than me and won!

“There’s another program called RGT and some clubs have been doing time trials on there which seems a good idea because you can do it on a real course, but just on the turbo.”

After long winter months of planning and entering events and preparing training regimes to peak at the right time, riders are having to reassess their seasons – and Lethbridge is no exception.

“Lots of goals have gone out of the window because we don’t know when we’ll be back. Lots of races I had entered have been cancelled. People will just have to take it as it comes,” she added.

“My aim this year was to focus on the shorter time trials like 10s and 25s mainly, and possibly a 50 if it had fit in, but I haven’t spent this winter planning for the 12-hour or the British Best All-Rounder.

“Some people very much build for every race, but others are just motivated by the endorphins you get from the exercise a bit more. I think there are people who struggle for motivation, which is where Zwift and RGT are great, especially as some are free during this lockdown.

“Something I’ve found really useful, given that we’re all stuck inside, is using your daily exercise allowance to go out for an easy ride to boost your mood.

“Just do a little local loop and enjoy the weather or the view. Last week I went out just before sunset and it was really nice to take that in. It’s really good for your mental health.”

Government guidelines for exercise don’t stipulate how long you can exercise for or how far you can go, but Lethbridge advocates taking a sensible approach.

“I did three and a half hours each day last weekend, and in the week I’ve been doing between one or two hours. The weekend hours were much less than I would normally do, and it was much more local routes rather than out and back.

“I get that some people don’t want to ride in case you have an accident, and it’s up to each person to risk assess themselves. I ride more carefully, being cautious on descents and sticking to roads I know well, so the risk of something happening is very low.

“I think it’s about being sensible. People shouldn’t go out and ride a hard effort, especially as it can lower your immunity. It’s a balance. I am doing some hard efforts, but all of them are on the turbo.

“Everyone should do what they can but not worry about racing, just do what’s best for their mental and physical health.”

* All reports are copyright of Cycling Time Trials/Snowdon Sports. Not to be used without permission. BG.