Very few beginer thing to practice to place protection as they aid climb a route. Many of you think that we most do murdorwall to be good, but there is very nice pitches to do at Barber wall or pine tree eliminate at cathedral.
As you aid, you can see how is your nut's placement: direction of the pull, contact surface and solidity of the rock. It is also good to evaluate the distance of a fall if your pro pop up. Some times, I played on the cliff to use the most marginal pro. Ounce I have two or three good pro, I place the best protection, remove it, try an other not as good, remove it and progress on the third one. It is a very good exercise to get confidence on the pro. An other training is to place as much pro as you can on top rope. this will help you after to place good protection on lead and it will help to find good rest places. some times the rest is lower than the place where you slot the tricam, you have to climb up, fix the pro and come back to the rest.
As the weather is cold, you will use a lot of power to do the pitch, but you are going to be in better condition to climb trad route with other difficulty than a physical movement.
climb safe