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The Corner: Transitioning to the Offseason
By Justin Daerr
10/1/2009 |
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The majority of Northern Hemisphere athletes will be ending their season in the next two to six weeks. Right now many of you are (hopefully) experiencing your best fitness of the season. It is hard to let that go, but we all need to reset in order to grow again. Allow me to introduce you to the offseason. You all have probably heard of it before. In fact, some of you might be more familiar with the offseason than the in-season.
A lot of athletes ask me about taking offseason; particularly in regards to what should be done and how long it should last. I tend to see two mistakes that cause issues with athletes taking an offseason. Interestingly enough, they exist on either end of the spectrum. The first mistake is trying to hold fitness into your offseason without giving yourself a mental and physical break. The second mistake is spending six (or 10, 20) weeks on the couch (or at a bar) instead of rolling along with a moderate amount of exercise. I have found myself in both situations and neither scenario made the beginning of the following season easy to deal with.
As a result of being “December Fit” and “December Fat” I think I have finally found a happy medium. Ideally, I like to see six weeks of downtime from one season to the next. Within this time frame I don’t stop exercising, but I do try to avoid breathing hard. It seems a little odd to hear (well, read in your case) that, but I try to step away from overly stressful exercise and allow myself to simply enjoy movement in any medium. This can be easy bike rides, hikes, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, walking, easy swims, etc.
Within this six-week offseason, there are some things I do not do. First, I do not stop running. I stop running long, but I don’t stop running altogether. I include some moderately long hikes, or walks, to maintain the ability to be on my feet for more than 20-30 minutes at a time. I also don’t take a lot of consecutive days off. I take days off, but I prefer to scatter them around for whenever I feel like it. I have taken multiple days off in succession before and have found that it does not work for me. Finally, I do not stop strength training. In fact, I find myself in the gym more in the offseason than I do in the racing season (for obvious reasons).
Enjoy your final races of the season and enjoy your offseason. It’s a long road once you get started again.
-Justin
Justin Daerr is a professional triathlete from Boulder, Colorado. You can read more at www.endurancecorner.com and www.justindaerr.com.
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