Cycling: Taking Off-Season Out of the Dictionary

Originally Published in Cyclesport Magazine

Written by: Chris Carmichael

The Offseason is a myth, like the jackalope, the unicorn, and the perfect training program. For competitive cyclists, amateur and professional, a prolonged break from exercise tends to be more harm than good.

“The point is, there is no real offseason for me. I don’t think I’ve missed three consecutive days off the bike since the Tour de France,” said Lance Armstrong in a December 2001 interview. He was telling the truth, he hadn’t missed many riding days, but he also hadn’t completed much structured training either. A period of unstructured training, built around some very general goals, like total riding hours per week, allows an athlete to retain a large percentage of his fitness while eliminating the stress associated with regimented training.

“A few years back, we just would take 3-4 weeks of time off the bike, off of exercise,” Lance said. We realized that it was easier on Lance, physically and mentally, to stay active and stick to a routine he was familiar with, rather than take a prolonged break. Following weeks off the bike, the first few days back in training we more difficult than they should have been. It takes nine-12 days of complete rest for a highly trained aerobic athlete to lose an appreciable amount of fitness, but recouping the fitness lost over four weeks of rest can take between eight and twelve weeks. It didn’t make sense to spend all of November and December to get back to the same level of fitness Lance had in October.

To improve strength, power, and endurance from year to year, it is important to minimize the loss of those performance factors during any one portion of the year. Losing a lot of fitness and then training to regain it leaves too little time to make sizable improvements before the racing season begins again in March-April. The same can be said for body weight. Lance does not attempt to hold his Tour de France weight any longer than he has to, but he never gets more than 6% heavier throughout the year. It takes less work to maintain a healthy body weight than to burn off too many excess pounds in the spring.

Cutting back on training volume and allowing for a lot of latitude in training intensity and frequency works well with most of the athletes I work with. Lance mixes some mountain bike rides into his weekly rides, while other CTS athletes add cyclocross riding, hiking, running, swimming and cross-country skiing.

While the term “offseason” may be a misnomer, don’t confuse year-round training with the need or desire to maintain competitive-shape the entire year. It is important to exercise throughout the year to make bigger gains from season to season, but it equally important to take enough recovery time to prevent injury and burnout. Write a period of unstructured training into your yearly periodization plan and think of it as your reward for all the weeks of regimented training you followed. Think of it as a bridge from this season to the beginning of an even better season next year.

When it is time to train seriously again, hopefully you will approach cycling the way Lance does. He keeps telling me, “I just love getting on my bike.”

© 2004, Carmichael Training Systems, Inc.