HOW TO STAY CONSISTENT
Winter is when training stops being glamorous. There are fewer medals, fewer Instagram posts, and a lot more headlamps and frozen water bottles. But the athletes who keep showing up through this season, the ones who adapt rather than hibernate, tend to be the ones who see the biggest payoffs later.
That’s because winter isn’t a “pause” between race seasons. It’s the foundation for everything that comes next. The goal isn’t to train hard; it’s to train consistently, to stack weeks of steady aerobic work, strength, and recovery without burning out or getting hurt.
Here’s how to do that, and why it matters.
Redefine Progress
When snow, darkness, or travel throws off your schedule, it’s easy to feel like your training is unraveling. But your body doesn’t track fitness in miles; it tracks stress.
That’s one of the biggest misconceptions I see in athletes this time of year. Whether the stress comes from running, skiing, strength training, or the treadmill, the physiological adaptations are similar. Your heart, lungs, and mitochondria don’t know the difference between trail miles and steady aerobic work on skis, they just know you’re giving them a stimulus to adapt to.
So when conditions force you to modify, zoom out. A slightly shorter run or a ski day doesn’t derail progress, it maintains the signal to adapt. That’s the key: keep the signal alive. Think of training load like a dimmer switch, not an on/off button.
-
Slow Down on Purpose
Cold weather doesn’t just turn your eyelashes into icesicles; it changes how your body performs. When temperatures drop, blood vessels constrict to conserve heat. Your muscles get less oxygen, your stride stiffens, and your heart rate lags behind perceived effort. You feel like you’re working harder for slower paces, and you are.
This is actually an opportunity. Winter is the perfect time to double down on aerobic development, the low-intensity, high-frequency work that builds your endurance base. Those easy runs are what increase mitochondrial density (your muscles’ energy factories) and improve fat metabolism. That’s what lets you go longer and recover faster once intensity ramps up again in spring.
If your RPE feels easy and your pace looks “slow,” good. You’re doing it right. This is how you build the aerobic foundation that everything else depends on.
Just give yourself extra time to warm up. Spend five minutes doing dynamic mobility, leg swings, lunges, skips, then run the first mile truly easy. You’re not wasting time; you’re letting your physiology catch up so you can actually train the right system.
If you want to get sporty, treadmill workouts are a perfect way to stay warm while you safely revv the engine somewhere warm.
Don’t Depend on Motivation, Build a Routine.
You won’t feel motivated all winter. No one does. But motivation isn’t what keeps you consistent; structure is.
Set up simple, repeatable systems that make running the default choice, not a daily debate. Run at the same time each day. Lay out your clothes the night before. Pair your workout with a ritual you enjoy: coffee after, a podcast during, a sauna session when you’re done.
If you rely on willpower, winter will win. If you rely on habit, you’ll win.
And if a run doesn’t happen? Move on. Consistency isn’t perfection; it’s persistence. Missing one day doesn’t matter. Letting guilt turn it into three missed days does.
-
Cross-Training Isn’t a Cop-Out
When trails are buried or icy, use what’s available. Your aerobic engine doesn’t care what you’re doing as long as you’re working it.
Skiing, snowshoeing, cycling, hiking, or pool running can all keep your aerobic system sharp while giving your tendons and joints a break from repetitive impact. Most elite runners spend part of the winter doing exactly that.
Supplement that with short, targeted strength work, 20 to 30 minutes twice a week, focusing on single-leg balance, hip stability, and eccentric control (step-downs, Romanian deadlifts, split squats). Runners who strength train consistently not only perform better but also miss fewer training weeks due to injury.
The point of winter isn’t to become a different kind of athlete or qualify for the winter Olympics in Skimo; it’s to become a more durable one.
-
Understand What Winter Training Is Actually Doing
This time of year, if you’re not chasing speed, you can build the machinery that will let you handle harder work later.
Aerobic capacity: Those easy, consistent miles increase mitochondrial density and capillary networks, your oxygen-delivery system.
Metabolism: By staying in your aerobic zones, you improve your body’s ability to burn fat efficiently, saving glycogen for later intensity.
Hormones: Lower-intensity training helps recalibrate your stress response. After a long racing season, cortisol and adrenaline often stay elevated. Easy aerobic work and rest help bring them back to baseline.
Durability: Consistency without overreaching builds musculoskeletal resilience, stronger tendons, better neuromuscular coordination, fewer breakdowns.
This is the physiology behind “base season.” It’s not a throwaway period. It’s the reason you can hit higher highs later without breaking down.
Recover Like You Mean It
Winter is also a recovery season, and recovery is not the opposite of training—it’s part of training.
Adaptation happens after the stress, not during it. When you sleep, fuel well, and take complete rest days, your body repairs micro-damage, restores glycogen, and reinforces the adaptations you’ve been working for.
If you push through every fatigue signal, you don’t get fitter—you just accumulate stress. Think of rest days as deposits in your future training account.
And if you’re feeling flat, moody, or chronically sore? That’s not laziness. That’s feedback. Listen to it and adjust.
-
Have Fun!
The best winter athletes find small ways to make training enjoyable. That doesn’t mean every run feels like a magical jaunt through a Hallmark holiday movie; it just means you’ve built in reasons to like the process.
Maybe that’s running with a friend once a week, listening to an audiobook you only play while running, or ending long runs with a bakery stop. Maybe it’s treadmill workouts paired with a show you love (my go-to is Below Deck —we love a sea-worthy drama). Whatever keeps you engaged is worth cultivating.
There’s real psychology behind this. Enjoyment reinforces behavior. The more positive associations you build around your routine, the easier it becomes to sustain.
-
Play the Long Game
Every winter athlete has to decide what kind of runner they want to be: the one who burns hot in spring and fades by midsummer, or the one who shows up steady, healthy, and prepared when it counts.
The work you do in the next few months, steady, unglamorous, consistent, determines which path you take.
You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep the lights on. Fitness compounds. Adaptation accumulates. Every time you show up, warm up, and put in the work, whether that’s a snowy jog, a ski, or a strength session, you’re adding to a foundation that will hold up when the trails thaw and training gets serious again.
When everyone else is “starting from scratch” in March, you’ll be ready to hop right in.
Zoë Rom is a science journalist, ultrarunner, and co-host and producer of Your Diet Sucks podcast. Her reporting focuses on the intersection of sports science, nutrition, and the environment, with bylines in The New York Times, Outside, High Country News, and UltraSignup. On the trails, she’s an accomplished ultrarunner with podium finishes at Run Rabbit Run 100, UTMB Puerto Vallarta, and Leadville, and was named Run Spirited’s “Most Inspiring Trail Runner of the Year.” Whether she’s interviewing experts about performance fueling or pushing through the late miles of a mountain hundred, Zoë brings the same curiosity, clarity, and commitment to evidence that defines her work across every discipline.