Time off in the winter...

joe.90

Hard isn't it?

Your body's nakered and your trying to unwind from a long season. great for the first few days but after a while I just feel plain lazy! been going to the shed staring at my bikes and on this forum x5 the normal amount!

Who else has a similar problem? I have a week off work, but no cycling! As much as I want to ride I physically have to stop myself, otherwise my body will die come jan/feb.

Don't get me wrong I'm not talking months, but a week or 2 feels forever when your used to 12-15 hours a weeks training.

danowat

I don't stop, I have an easy(er) week once the season ends, but then the blocks of base start

ju5t1n

joe.90 wrote:

...otherwise my body will die come jan/feb.

Do you know this from experience? What happened?

Like Danowat, I don’t really stop either

joe.90

ju5t1n wrote:

joe.90 wrote:

...otherwise my body will die come jan/feb.

Do you know this from experience? What happened?

Like Danowat, I don’t really stop either

I have done it before and it made me pretty ill and my race performance was below my usual standard the following year. At the level I feel i train at, I know personally my body couldn't do it 365 days a year.

I usually have a week off every 12 weeks in the year anyway, but it still catches up with me at the end

TakeTurns

I just take it easier. My weekly average is about 12h, I'll be bringing it down to 8 and make up for it with a bit of running. I find that I can get through winter well if I don't overdo the training. So basically don't train till I'm knackered, head back home even if I feel that I could have done more. However, maintaining the intensity.

I've done a bit of research and found that some pros also do running during off season.

SBezza

I haven't stopped riding, I ride to work so the option of not riding for a week or 2 isn't there. I don't think there is any real need to be completely off the bike, you could quite easily do just very gentle rides ( and I mean very gentle), this would allow the body to recover from any hard training/competing.

Just cut the number of hours down, you might feel you can do more, but if the season has been a hard one and your body really is knackered from it, it will take a while to recover, and to carry on training hard might actually end up being worse and resulting in a longer period off the bike later in the winter if you get injured or sick.

As you have mentioned yourself, if you get ill by not having a break then you shouldn't worry about being off the bike, also there is no need to constantly train so hard that if you can't do training for the majority of the year without taking weeks off. Maybe backing off slightly, or doing a plan that allows you to build properly is the better option, going hard all of the time maybe isn't the best use of training time.

joe.90

Some good advice here. Interesting reading.

Thanks guys.