Every Fall I talk about the same thing. Over and over. Why? well, people still ask, athletes still don’t know, and every year there are new athletes, new dreams new goals and new ambitions.
I wrote this first article many years ago. I have made some additions and updates, it needs more updates i’m sure. This is the first of 3 articles and they address what I feel is the most important time of year and the most important training you will do all year! every year people ask my clients how they are so strong in spring and how they seem to never burn out, never get injured, and improve every single year. the next 3 articles will get you in the right track.
It’s the “Off Season” what do I … not do?
article one in our 3 part series.I get this question often this time of yr. “how do you NOT train?” Especially for the competitive cyclist or triathlete who has been racing all summer, sometimes every weekend, not training hard and racing all the time can feel very strange.The Off Season:First off I want to stress the word “OFF” in off season. Off means Off! The first and most important aspect of your next season is being totally fresh and completely motivated for next season. Now is the time to start that process.
Less is better here. Catch up on work, family, and drop off the bike at the shop for a tune up. Have them check it over for cracks in the frame along with full safety check. Racing is very hard on your equipment. The key with this phase is to make sure you are 110% ready to start training come the start of your program. The under trained, over motivated athlete will beat the perfectly training under motivated athlete every time! Come the beginning of “base training” you should be itching to train. It should be all you think about, so when its 20 degrees and freezing rain, your pumped up and ready to put in a solid training effort! This is also the best time to sit down with your coach and/or teammates to discus what your goals will be for next year. How did you perform this year? What was good? What was bad? What will have to be different with your preparation for 20, etcUpdate:
Less is better here. Catch up on work, family, and drop off the bike at the shop for a tune up. Have them check it over for cracks in the frame along with full safety check. Racing is very hard on your equipment. The key with this phase is to make sure you are 110% ready to start training come the start of your program. The under trained, over motivated athlete will beat the perfectly training under motivated athlete every time! Come the beginning of “base training” you should be itching to train. It should be all you think about, so when its 20 degrees and freezing rain, your pumped up and ready to put in a solid training effort! This is also the best time to sit down with your coach and/or teammates to discus what your goals will be for next year. How did you perform this year? What was good? What was bad? What will have to be different with your preparation for 20, etcUpdate:
Ok some terms we need to get straight. “Base” is not a verb. it is not an type of training. it describes a time frame. some coaches use other terms like foundation phase, etc. so just drop it from your vocab. “Speed” is also NOT a type of training but lets say it is. speed is relative take two athletes tell them to do “speed work” of their choice and you will see totally different workouts. I always say “start with the science, then work in the real world, your resources, etc” what energy zones are you training? what are you focusing on during the training sessions? are you lactate threshold intervals? VO2 int. tempo (Zone 3) work? what? start there. if you want to call it “speed work”, fine.
Here are three easy steps for an effective off season:
- Off time: Take an extended time of ZERO training. This will be deferent for every one. 2 weeks for some, 2 months for others. How ever much time you need to be totally rested and motivated to train again.
- Recovery: Any lagging injury’s? Bike not working quite right for the last 2 months, been wanting to get that nagging cough looked at. Do it!! Get a message go to the doctor, dentist, what ever you need to do to feel 110 percent physically and mentally for the next season. This is active recovery, taking aggressive action towards healing. These are the most important aspects of off season training.
- Maintenance training: After this you may be ready to train but your program doesn’t start for another month. What to do? Many pro’s and age groupers alike will take part in “unstructured training ”Its best to make is something different than your primary sport, try something new. It will most likely improve some skills needed in your primary sports. Just stay active, (cross training) will maintain your base fitness and, depending on your activity, can address your weakness leaving you fit, motivated and with stronger limiters than you had last year. A perfect way to start your next season!!
- Cross Train! Go Mt. biking , running, play basket ball, tennis whatever you like and have put off for the past summer. Working on stuff like this will help keep you injury free next year.
- Most important have fun! Do those old training rides you did when you first started riding. Plan a trip. I have done a few long rides with friends in the fall that have proved to be lots of fun and great endurance training.
Update:
I’ll be straight up. this is a bit of a teaser. Article 2 and 3 have much more substance, mush more specific “do this” and a bigger call to action. So hang tight it’s coming next week!