Mixing up the off-season - 2024


At this time of year in the northern hemisphere, you should be wrapped up or close to wrapped up on your competitive endurance racing season. I hope it was a good one! If you put in the time and effort, you are likely mentally ready to ease off the gas and take a step back for a few weeks. And you well should. Training and racing hard takes a toll, especially if you have been balancing that as well as possible with work and life demands. You deserve a break.

A break, however, doesn't mean you should sit on your bottom and watch the world pass by the entire time. It does mean you get to move into general fitness and unstructured training for a while.

If you're on the young side, you may have the time and energy to stay pretty gung ho about your specific area of training. That's great! In that case you might want to take a good look at your annual plan. It's fine to stay in good shape all the time, but it's dangerous to attempt to stay in top shape all the time. Everyone needs an ebb and flow to their training. For US based athletes, the winter season is the best time to back off a bit.

Consider cutting a few hours from your average training week. If you hit a lot of 15-20 hour weeks in the heart of the season, a few weeks in the 10-12 hour range won't be the end of you. You can even keep up with regular interval training. Just cut back on everything a bit. Mixing it up a bit wouldn't hurt.

For my older athletes, definitely switch things up. The off season is a great time to focus on strength, which often falls by the wayside during the high season, and maintaining or improving your weakest leg. If you've become a well balanced athlete over the years, then you can just pick something that will keep you entertained and in shape during this time.

There are plenty of good options. Mountain biking, cyclocross, trail running, hiking and rucking, and more in-depth strength and conditioning routines. Sports unrelated to endurance events could be entertained at this time as well - volleyball, tennis, pickleball, soccer, martial arts, and so on. Always wanted to check out CrossFit or Orange Theory Fitness? Now's the time. Never had a moment for a yoga class? Now you do.

Coaches can talk about numbers and gains and peaks until we're tongue-tied and cross-eyed looking at charts. Yes, there will be some loss of fitness when you take an off-season. No doubt. But, to use an easy analogy, you have to stop your car every few hundred miles to put gas back in the tank (or plug in your EV). You must consider the physical and mental recuperation that are crucial to long term success and improvement.

To be fair, the less you train during the regular season, the less you need to back off at any point in the season. What I mean by this is that if you're not actually training enough to challenge yourself, you don't really need time to recover from this lack of challenge. Athletes like this might do best to stick to the routine they've established so as to not fall out of the habit. In the grand scheme of things, training for races is just an excuse to keep in good physical condition.

Athletes that do challenge themselves during the season really should back off after the final major race. That is when you get to physically recover and mentally unwind. Doing so will allow you to prepare to go hard again in the next season. This break from structured training can also help reinject that sense of fun doing new and different things. Having fun while staying in shape has got to be a good thing!

Marty Gaal, CSCS, is a USA Triathlon coach who lives in the Triangle area of North Carolina. Marty has been coaching endurance athletes since 2002. You can read more about OSB coaching services at www.osbmultisport.com.