How to Make the Most of the Off-Season
The off-season can be such a tricky time for athletes. There seem to be two extremes:
The athletes who turn things off and really soak up rest and recovery.
The athletes who fear deviating from the intensity and focus of training and can’t relax.
The balance and benefit of the off-season lies in the middle.
What is an off-season?
An off-season is usually 2-3 times a year after a goal race where you are not racing or in race specific training. When training for a marathon, race specific work can be anywhere from 10-16 weeks of higher intensity, race focused work. Once you get to the off-season, your mind and body need a break.
But what does that break look like?
An off-season doesn’t mean no running
The off-season is an important time as it lays the foundation for your next training cycle and can set you up for success. Some athletes don’t want to run at all, but this can leave you scrambling when you’re 16 weeks out from your marathon or 10 weeks out from your half and haven’t run at all over the last 6-8 weeks. You’ll risk injury in your buildup adding mileage too quickly or intensity too soon if you don’t maintain a running base during your off-season.
While maintaining the habit of training is helpful during this time, not lowering mileage and intensity can risk burnout - physically and mentally. It’s a good time to run without a watch, explore trails, and reconnect with running without the pressure of time or pace. Mentally resetting will bring you success in the future when it’s time to focus again.
Work on your weaknesses
During race specific training, we often let go of the helpful supplementary work that keeps us strong because we’re tired or lacking on time because of the increased mileage we’re putting in. Things like strength, mobility, and stability are things you can focus more on now that you aren’t running as much. These are important habits to get back into so they can stick around once training ramps up. If you’ve been looking to get stronger outside of running, you can focus a bit more on strength during this time. We recommend a minimum of 2 strength days/week during a focused training block, so during the off-season, you can ramp this up to 3 or 4 days/week.
Rest and recover
If your season was filled with aches and pains, now is the time to let your body rest and heal. This may mean more cross training or physical therapy, but taking care of your body during this downtime is setting you up for a strong season. If you need to take some time away from running because of an injury, strategically keeping up with cross training can be effective at maintaining aerobic fitness so that when you get back to running you aren’t trying to catch up.
Regardless of what type of season you had, the rest and recovery that should be the focus of off-season can help you avoid mental burnout and come into your next season ready to tackle big goals.
But what about speed?
The off-season doesn’t mean completely taking away speed. This is a great time to switch to effort based speed workouts, like fartleks and hills sprints, to keep that routine and turnover while allowing the pace to be dictated by your body. This helps with the mental recovery and loss of fitness that should happen after a goal race. No need to put pressure on paces!
It’s also a great time to cross train! Cycling, swimming, elliptical, rock climbing - take time to do other activities that you don’t have time for during training that can help you maintain aerobic fitness. It will leave you refreshed and excited to get back to race specific training when the time comes.
Whatever you choose to do with your off-season, be sure to give yourself the mental and physical break necessary to maintain longevity and excitement for running. It’s truly an important part of your training!
