After a long season of training and racing, it's important to take some downtime so your body can recover. Not only does your body need a break, but your mind does, too. Taking a break may actually make you a better and happier athlete, helping you stay in the sport for longer and, therefore, have a higher chance of reaching your potential.
Take an end-of-season break so you don't lose fitness or motivation.
Phase 1
One week of total rest.
After your last race of the season, take a week off. This is to break the daily training habit and let your body catch up on itself. If you want to exercise during this period, you can take long walks.
Phase 2
Two to seven weeks of active recovery.
After the first week of rest, you should do two to seven weeks of unscheduled, unstructured, light cardiovascular exercise. It doesn't have to be running, cycling or swimming. Workout duration should be one hour or less and done mainly at an easy intensity. Take two rest days per week during this phase.
Phase 3
Four to twelve weeks of structured, low-volume training. This can be the prep phase of our longer-duration Training Plans or the standalone Off-Season Fitness Maintenance Plans.
Phase 3 is designed to provide an easy, gradual return to proper training. It is more about getting prepared to train rather than preparing to race. The weekly volume is nearer half of what you might do later in the year, and most (not all) of the training is at an easy intensity.
This is a great time to try new things out. Like joining a new swimming club or riding online with Zwift. It means you can find out what works best for you before the proper training starts. The length of your Phase 3 depends on how many weeks you have until your target race. For example, if you have 40 weeks until your big event, you can enjoy 8 or 12 weeks of Phase 3 training. Whereas if your target race is in just 24 weeks, you should shorten it to more like 4 weeks.
Once you've finished Phase 3, you can return to normal training again. From this point, you can gradually ramp up the training volume each month so your fitness keeps growing.
Phil has a range of plans that enable you to select options that best meet your goals, schedule, and ability. There are two ways for you to manage your training.
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This article was based on information from our blog post here:
https://www.myprocoach.net/blog/triathlon-cycling-running-end-of-season-break/
Copyright MyProCoach™ Ltd © May 2018. All rights reserved.
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