An off-season is when you take a break from regular training. You take the opportunity to recharge your mind and body to regain balance after a busy season of racing before resetting for the next season. Your aim in this period is to lay the foundations for a healthy, athletic lifestyle so that you're mentally and physically fresh for the following season.
Off-season 'performance' is also usually one of the best predictors of long-term endurance success. As a coach, it's easy to identify those athletes who are likely to build year-on-year progression compared to those likely to burn out or miss out on the chance to evolve.
The majority of the UK working population is given 28 days of holiday to help them balance productivity with burnout, stagnation or illness. This principle works with training, too, and follows a similar process of unwinding:
1. Still on: You can't switch off
2. One eye open: You keep sneaking a look at work because you think you need to.
3. Total immersion: You don't know what day it is! You've checked out!
4. Itchy feet: You start looking forward.
The key to a successful off-season is to go through this process, spending enough time through the total immersion period to recharge but not too much that you can't get yourself off the metaphorical sun-lounger!
So how can we best manage our offseason time? Over the page are 10 simple ideas to follow to ensure a successful 'off' period that will help set you up for an even more successful 'on' (race) period.
10 TIPS TO MASTER THE OFF-SEASON
Make these simple tweaks to your mindset and approach to the autumn and winter months of training, and you'll be set up like a champ for the next race season...
01 CHANGE THE NAME
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
How to Carb Load - Packing your working cells with carbohydrates in the build-up to your big race is a proven strategy to race stronger and faster...
Whichever distance triathlon you're racing, the intensity and duration of your activity will see your body tap into its stores of carbohydrates (in the form of glycogen) to power your effort. While it's possible to top up your tank on the go, it's better to start your event with your stores full to the brim.
The Olympic Champion - On 31 July, Great Britain's Alex Yee put together arguably the greatest one-day performance we have ever seen at an Olympic Games to win gold. And we were there at the finish line to speak to tri's new poster boy...
The opening line of the race report read how 20 years on from New Zealand’s first and only Olympic triathlon gold medal, Hayden Wilde had put in a careerbest performance to regain the title for his nation. Then Alex Yee comes around the corner.Yee’s charge, seemingly from nowhere on the final lap of the 10km run in Paris, didn’t just help him become the most decorated Olympic male triathlete of all time, and didn’t just cap a rivalry that has been building for six years, it left seasoned watchers of swim, bike, run in awe. It will go down as one of the greatest triathlon races; Yee, still just 26, as one of the greatest triathletes. His medals from Paris added to the two from Tokyo, leaving his haul at two gold, a silver and a bronze, and counting.
"I HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO INFLUENCE THE GROWTH OF TRIATHLON"
British Triathlon CEO Ruth Daniels talks Paris, her plans to grow tri and her own personal goals... knees allowing
ZWIFT RIDE
£1,199.99 Zwift's new Ride is an indoor bike that might help you break your PB... but won't break the bank
PARIS SHOWED THE VALUE OF OLYMPIC EXPERIENCE
With the spotlight on triathlon like never before at these Games, debutant athletes talked about being overwhelmed by the unique environment
GAMES AT THE GAMES
After watching and enjoying the Olympic triathlon events, Brunt amused himself by playing the 'guess how far into each event I would die' game...
WHERE EAGLES DARE
With little heat prep, the wrong gear choice and a course-recce mistake, would experienced extreme triathlete Sean McFarlane soar like an eagle or drop like a stone in Italy?
HOW TO INCREASE RUN PACE WHEN FATIGUED
The ability to dig deep in the latter stages of a race helped Alex Yee achieve Olympic gold. Here Ben, a member of Team GB's coaching staff in Paris, explains how you too can find that extra gear...
BUYER'S GUIDE: BIKE COMPUTERS
Log your rides, find your way and monitor your multisport training with a quartet of impressive bike computers...
POLAR GRIT X2 PRO
\"You can't be anything other than impressed with the GPS, whose design is one of the significant changes to the V3\"
