The Value of Off Season....Maintenance training

I strongly encourage my athletes to take a serious break from training in December. The pros do, so why are you still training like there's an IM next week? If you're afraid of losing fitness, you can actually maintain your fitness with a lot less training than you do to prepare for a big race. So while I don't recommend a total break from training, I DO recommend you back down your training hours and training stress to a level that could feel minimal to most IM athletes. I understand. It can be hard to not train when you have a habit of going to the gym. My best advice is to keep going so you still have that habit, but to slow down, do more zone 2, reduce the time at the gym and generally focus more on enjoying the workout than on pushing your limits. There will be plenty of time for pushing limits once you get back onto the race prep planning. Another way to back down is to take more rest days per week. If you've only done 1 per week, take 2. Older athletes may train with 2 days of rest so adding a 3rd rest day will be necessary.

 

If you cannot fathom adding a day of doing nothing, change from a bike or run to an easy hike or a yoga class...not Iyengar or Hot Yoga, but more like meditative yoga for mental and physical rest and recovery. In essence, give yourself time to read a book, be bored, spend time with the family, or generally focus on anything else for a while. The hazard of continuing to train is that you burn yourself out before the race training plan begins because you've made your training into a second job instead of a break from work. IM training can feel like you're working the second shift at its peak. This taxes you mentally and physically, and continuing this without a break can break you and cause you to feel unmotivated and unjoyful when workouts appear on your Garmin or training plan.

 

Letting the biochemical adaptations of training clear, and then waiting for the season to bring them back, gives us a racing jolt. Otherwise, we'd cruise around at 75% of our capability all the time. This is why detraining in the off season allows us to peak for races. (From The Benefits of Taking and Off Season,Trevor Connor, Fast Talk Laboratories). 

If you use training peaks, look for a form # that is 0 or slightly positive. That means you are in a maintenance phase.  Negative form means you are building, but you need to save that for when you are training for your races. Ask your coach to help you figure out what to reduce to get Form to a 0 level. 

On tridot, go to your settings and set all your sports to LOW intensity. This will reduce your training plan sets and the training intensity to more of a maintenance level. You can ask your coach to help you with that if you can't find it. Thus you can keep working out, but your focus and intensity is lower for about a month to 2 months. Enjoy the time. Think about how you will fill in the extra hours you gain from less training. What books have you put off? What plays or movies would you like to see? What family events can you schedule? Your body may feel a bit jittery with less training, but like anything we adapt. Your mind will appreciate the break from the high demands of life, work, and training, and your family will certainly appreciate that they have your full attention for the holidays. 

If you're worried about fitness losses as you reduce your training, check out this article that says it is a good thing to lose some fitness and destress. DESTRESS and DETRAINING If you don't have time to read that article (YOU SHOULD...YOU'RE NOT TRAINING SO HARD NOW! lol), Here is a quote that should reassure you that your detraining levels will not impact your future outcomes as much as you may imagine. "Structural improvements such as capillary density, muscle fiber ratios, and the size of our hearts do not detrain quickly. Many studies have shown no changes even 12 weeks after stopping exercise. In fact, one study demonstrated that many well-trained endurance athletes still had larger hearts 14 years after retiring."

Here's an article from another coach about why resting and losing some fitness is a good idea in the off-season. REST SEASON GREETINGS In conclusion, give yourself a break. Take a few more naps, and rest assured you will be better served by doing that now than by continuing to push yourself for the next 6-12 weeks. In fact, putting more relaxation in your life can be a significant benefit in the long run. And that's what we're training for, right? The LONG RUN? I know I'm embedding a couple of lame puns but bottom line I hope is that you get it. Giving yourself, your family, and your friends time to reconnect and enjoy life is a good way to celebrate last year's training, racing, and the season. HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND ATHLETES.