The Off-Season
By Kris Bachman
The off-season…both welcomed and dreaded. It is easy to go from one race to another for an entire year, never resetting your physical or mental clock. This can lead to nagging injuries, fatigue, decreased performance and overall burnout.
What if a year of training was strategically planned so there were peak races, but also a scheduled off season?
The term “off-season” has been removed from some of the top running coaching vocabulary. It has been replaced with “pre-season work.” In changing the context of the language, we can shift the focus of training. “Off-season” gives the connotation that we are not training. Pre-season has a proactive tone that sets the stage for the upcoming race season.
What Pre-season is and is Not
A pre-season time period of four to eight weeks can be broken down into three parts: reflect, recover and readjust.
First, the pre-season is a time to reflect on the past training cycle. What worked well? What are areas of improvement? What are areas to continue to build on?
As you navigate the pre-season, it is also valuable to review your lifestyle performance in relation to your training. Your sleep, nutrition, alcohol consumption, stress levels, and hours at work all play a role in your performance. Consider having lab work done and/or investing in any health metric devices.
A drop in running mileage by about 20% – 30% and a reduction in intensity for 1 – 3 months is enough to give your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints the chance to repair themselves. However, if you prefer a shorter time off of 2 weeks twice a year I recommend cutting down mileage more drastically to about 50%. Training miles should mostly consist of easy-paced running. There will be a detraining effect, but the goal is to not completely lose our aerobic base.
As far as moderate intensities are concerned, I strongly advise omitting VO2max intervals, threshold runs, and high-end aerobic runs during the off-season.
Watch Kris’s full Autumn Athletes Interview Here
