End of season break
‘The only training we benefit from is the training we recover from’.
This quote is important both at the micro level (individual training sessions) and at the macro level (seasonal level). While a reduction or pause in training will result in a slight decline in performance, we still need these for many reasons and taking that break will allow you to push on again when we resume.
Your body is constantly being pushed to the limit in training, taking a break allows your tissues to recover, especially things like your tendons and bones. Training is hard on the mind also, so a break can restore your enthusiasm and desire to train hard.
Does a break have to mean no activities? No- you can still be active and exercise, but the emphasis on ‘training’ isn’t there. Your volume should reduce right down to no more than 50% of your usual program, so you can still go out and run or ride your bike, but all easy and not too much. Drop those early morning sessions and sleep a bit more. You can use this time to also try some different activities; stand up paddle board, golf, ride your mountain bike and just PLAY!
So how long should your end of season break be?
This will depend on many factors, such as what events or challenges you have done this year and what your work/home situation is, as well as when your next major competition / event will be. While we’re focussing on the end of season break, it’s worth noting that a ‘season’ isn’t necessarily 12months long and elite athletes might have 2 short breaks over a 12month period totalling between 4-8 weeks of ‘rest’ periods, but on average you’re looking at 2-3weeks ‘off’ training.
Your off season will thus look something like this:
1-2 weeks of rest, no structured training.
2-8 weeks of unstructured light exercise, mostly really easy.
Then you move into your base training phase, or preparation phase. The length of this phase will depend on when your next major event is.
Nutrition considerations during the off season break
Due to the fact you are not training as much your energy demands will obviously be less than before and you may worry about putting on a bit of weight. Don’t worry! In fact it’s actually a really good thing to put on a bit of weight, you don’t want to try and stay in ‘race shape’ all year, it’s not healthy! Let your body put on a few pounds, for most of us this phase in training coincides with the winter months and having some spare calories kicking about boosts your immune system.
Fill the holes in your diary
If you are used to filling all your spare time with training, this is a great opportunity to try new things or pick up other hobbies. Try to find activities which are not sport related if you can, so that your whole personal identity is not focussed around your sport. This will make you a much more rounded individual, and should the worst happen - you get injured in the future - you can look after your mental health with other activities. So pick up that musical instrument, read those books, see your friends/family, binge on those netflix shows everyone has been talking about!
Once you’ve had your break you can then slowly ease back into training, the duration of this rebuild phase will depend on how long your complete rest was, just go steady. While you will notice a slight decline in performance initially, rest assured that by taking this break you will set yourself up for a much better season the following year.
