Rochelle Gilmore's Keeping Fit in Winter Tips

Tip One: Mental Training: Do what it takes to create a positive mental attitude, especially on those dark, cold winter mornings. It might seem easier to stay under the covers but try to maintain a positive mindset.
Develop strategies that will quickly change your mental attitude before each session, if necessary.
If you're struggling to stay motivated during winter, take a few minutes and repeat to yourself some positive sayings or motivational quotes, or visualise how you want to look at your next big engagement!

Tip Two: Drink Plenty of Water: You've heard this before but it's an important one - drinking plenty of water will aid in keeping you healthy this winter.
It will assist with weight loss as you replace calorie packed beverages and build energy as being dehydrated can make you feel fatigued.

Tip Three: Look the Part: The old adage is true, if you look good you will feel good too.
Purchase a suitable outfit for each of your training sessions. Go to the effort to research or ask the experts what type of attire will be best for each session or event, and then take yourself shopping so you're ready to train in style.
Your workout will benefit and so will your health!

Tip Four: Test Your Fitness Level: Have a professional trainer test your current fitness level. There a many types of fitness tests used, ranging from a simple test to see how many times you can stand from a sitting position before reaching exhaustion, to a lung capacity and lactic acid test for professional athletes.
This will motivate you to start planning and making progress during winter. Make sure you receive a summary of your results and establish a realistic goal of what you hope to achieve when you're retested in three months' time.

Tip Five: Create a Training Program: Plan your sessions, set your goals and register for events.
Together with your trainer or coach, write a training program. It's important that you add activities and sessions that you love doing. It might be an idea to register for an event or competition every four weeks so you have mini targets and the motivation to reach a satisfactory fitness level.
Remember, the harder you work during training, the easier and more enjoyable the competition will be.

Tip Six: Mix It Up: Make sure your winter training plan consists of different activities. Just because it's winter, it doesn't mean activities need to be indoors!
I'm a professional cyclist but believe all the other activities I do increase my on-bike performances by decreasing the chance of injury.
During winter, I strengthen my body by enjoying snow skiing, surfing, water-skiing, motocross, gym sessions, indoor rock climbing, boxing, sand running and if I can brave the cold, swimming.

Tip Seven: Diet: Eat like a queen at breakfast, a princess at lunch and a pauper in the evening.
There can be nothing more tempting than a warm hearty meal during the cold months, and there are many debates about what the perfect diet consists of. Everyone is different and everyone requires a different diet due to physical and mental nutritional needs.
Eating a large breakfast, a small lunch and an even smaller dinner is what I would recommend. Try to stay away from excessive sugars and fats, and drink plenty of water, of course. Carbohydrates will aid in energy and performance for training and races but try to cut down after 4pm.

Tip Eight: EBM (Exercise Before Meals): It's very difficult to exercise before every meal so let's just focus on EBB, exercise before breakfast! This should not be considered a training session but more like a sneaky little extra thing you do… your secret session.
This little heart-starter only needs to be 10-15 minutes but it needs to be aerobic to get your heart-rate up and your metabolism racing, this will warm you up and kick-start your day.

Tip Nine: Recover: Adequate recovery is equally as important as each training session.
The faster we recover, the sooner and stronger we can train again. Training doesn't stop when the workout finishes. You need to recognise recovery as a part of your training. Have a protein shake, take a hot and cold contrast shower and then stretch for 15-30 minutes after every training session to ensure your body is in tip top shape for the next one.

Tip Ten: Reward Yourself: Working hard is made so much easier when there's a reward at the end. You need to decide what your weekly or fortnightly reward is going to be - a nice meal, a night out with friends, a few cosy drinks by the fire, buying yourself a gift or a couple of days off from training.
Maybe try an alternate activity, like go-karting or something extreme to reward yourself for your efforts!

Rochelle Gilmore - Professional Cyclist

Fast Facts:
Nationality: Australian
Date of Birth: 14th of December, 1981
Residence: Cronulla, Australia and Trento, Northern Italy
Profession: Professional road cyclist
Professional Team: Team Faren Honda (Italy)
Domestic Team: The Dream Team (Australia)

What You Didn't Know About Rochelle Gilmore
Gilmore started BMX racing at the age of three, was a national gymnast at six and dabbled in athletics, cross country running, swimming, surf lifesaving, tennis and netball
Gilmore started cycling professionally at the age of 21
Gilmore trains for 4-8 hours, every day of the week
Gilmore owns 6 road bikes
In 2011 a fall at the 2011 Giro d'Italia left Rochelle immobilised for 40 days
Gilmore swears by a minimum of 8hrs sleep and 2L's of water/24 to keep fit and healthy
Gilmore has never consumed any alcohol in a bid to keep her body as fit as possible

Rochelle Gilmore's Career Highlights
Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, Delhi 2010
3 x World Cup Gold Medallist
2 x World Track Championships Silver Medalist
2 x Commonwealth Games Silver Medalist
Oceania Games Champion
Junior World Championship Silver Medalist
2 x Giro d'Italia Femminile Stage Winner
Route De France Stage Winner
2 x Australian Scratch Race Champion
2 x Australian Criterium Champion
1 x Australian Points Race Champion

Rochelle Gilmore's Personal Sponsors
HONDA
Nike
Oakley
Forex
De Grandi Cycle & Sport
Bike Exchange
SRM Training Systems
Lazer Helmets
Pro-Soma
High 5 Sports Nutrition

Follow Rochelle Gilmore's journey on Twitter @RochelleGilmore