Your A races are done. You may achieved everything you set out to. You may have not quite done so. Either way, the culmination of what is probably a years worth of graft is upon you as the nights draw in and the temperature drops ever further.
It’s at this time when your coach is encouraging you to take a break. Have a rest. Do something different. You’ll see athletes posting and going on about their off-season and how they ‘embracing it’ or ‘grudgingly accepting it’ or quite mistakenly ‘ignoring it completely’. So what is an off-season? Why do we need it? What’s the best way to carry it out?
First up you just need a rest. No matter how invincible or motivated you think you are your mind and body just cannot cope with the rigours of endurance training for extended periods. You will more than likely have been pushing your body for months on end and often to levels that leave you very fatigued. Hopefully this load has been carefully managed and manipulated by either you or your coach to ensure it’s enough to force adaptation but not so much that t leaves you knackered and unable to perform. The point is your body needs a rest - give it what it needs.
What is often forgotten in endurance training is the mental strain it places on your body. It takes incredible focus to both train and compete in endurance events. You need the resilience to push on through when it hurts and your brain is telling you to stop. The unrelenting monotony of training also takes its toll when you just have to keep getting out the door in all conditions. Your mind needs a break from this as well. To not feel pressure and accountability. To not be tested in keeping you pushing when it hurts. Just not have to think about which bit s of kit you’ll need in the morning.
Your off-season is also a perfect opportunity to reflect upon the year. Too often athletes plough merrily along from race to race season to season getting the same results and often feeling disheartened with the results. Their time would be better spent reflecting about what’s going on and what could be done better. What’s going well in your training and how do you capitalise on that. What isn’t going well and how can that be changed. What opportunities are afforded to you to do something about it.
You also need to do some planning. While not so focused on the process of training get your calendar out and plan your forthcoming season. Which races do you fancy. Where’s your family holiday fit. Do these races align with your goals. Then set yourself some goals so that have something to pin your training on and structure it around. Not having a goal will lead to disjointed and often unproductive training with poor adaptations from your body which in turn will lead you feeling underwhelmed and in danger of feeling like you’re just crap.
If you’ve read this far then you’re clearly bought into the idea. So what can you do and how do you go about it.
Let’s get one thing straight here. We are not saying you have to cut the chain on your bike, lock your trainers in a cupboard and cancel your gym membership. It’s good to move your body - keep doing it. But consider cutting back your hours considerably. That 5 hour epic on your bike can easily become a 2 hour spin to the cafe with your mates. Could even be going out and messing about on mountain bike trails. That 90 min long run with race pace intervals can easily just become a few hours hiking. That well structured and carefully progressed S&C routine can easily be a yoga or pilates session. Also don’t think that you need to wipe any intensity out completely. Instead of a specific power session on swift do a race. Instead of those threshold road runs working on lactate threshold just go do a Parkrun or even a cross country race. As long as you’re reducing overall intensity and volume and taking your foot off the gas you’ll be fine.
This period can last for 3 months with elite athletes - I’m not suggesting you do this as training for you is for the most part a hobby and not your job and often an escape or relief from the daily grind of life. But I would have at least a month of this.
‘But Mark I can’t do this I’ll loose all my fitness and be back to square one’. Here I could go into an explanation of how your body doesn’t work like this and it’s better to loose a bit of performance for various reason. Instead I’ll be blunt. Grow up and get a grip. That training you did for 10 months doesn’t get wiped out in 4 weeks.
Off-season. Embrace it. Take it. Enjoy it.
TL:DR Take an off-season now while it’s needed or your body will take one for you and it won’t be at convenient or welcome time.