Given the time of year I thought it made sense to talk a little bit about the off-season. Right now I am taking some time off. I didn't realize I needed it until I spent a whole week off the bike after my last race of the season. I didn't feel tired or sick of riding after my last race but that week long break sure felt good. For the first time in months I was able to eat whatever I wanted, stay up late, and spend the whole weekend just relaxing. It also provided an easy transition when I returned to school. After a summer filled with just riding, sleeping, and eating, hours of calculus homework was quite the shock to the system. But because I didn't have any training to do, I had the time I needed to focus on school and finish all of my homework. Since starting this off-season, I have also been able to look at colleges, start applications, and even apply to join the National Honors Society. I have a feeling that this nice break will have me motivated to start training again when December comes around.
I wouldn't consider myself extremely qualified to be giving training advice but if you too are in your off-season, why not take some time to focus on school or work? Eat some ice cream if you want to, go to bed at midnight if you want to. Now is your time to recharge. Don't be afraid to let loose a little bit and have some fun. It may feel like all your work from the previous season is going to waste but that is far from true. If anything you are rewarding all of the blood and sweat you put into a long season. The only exception being the slim chance Chris Froome is reading this right now. If you're a Tour de France champion I would suspect things are a little different. No ice cream or late nights for you. But for the rest of us, we should just try to have some fun. We deserve to sit back and relax before we need to start building those base miles again.
Thanks for reading,
Jackson Hootman
That's is a great blog! I think sometimes a lot of cyclists think all their fitness is going to waste as a take a week off. But that's far from the truth, our bodies need that break. For me the hardest thing is to find something else to do other than cycling but that's how school helps because I can focus on just school. I think a really good time to take off from cycling is the week of finals or before so you can just have the time to study and relax .
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