Trevor and Chris discussed the merits of hanging up the bike for a few weeks at the end of the season on the most recent podcast Fast Talk Episode 182 with Rebecca Gross. I would be curious to hear from other cyclists about this.
Specifically:
Cheers and happy fall to all,
John
@johnhintz time off is very important. I think this is different for everyone, and what stage they are at in the cycling life. I do believe minimum of 1 week, more likely 2. After that I would recommend 2 - 4 weeks of unstructured training by feeling, preferably mixing up sports if possible.
For next season maybe try something I do with my athletes. Create a list of things that you would like to do, fun things that maybe can’t get done with life and cycling at the same time. Then during your break check everything off this list before starting up again.
I think it’s also very different for those of us who live somewhere where we can ride year round. Does the idea of a “season” have to be a year long or is that just northern European tradition? Maybe you can have several seasons each year, with 1-2 week breaks in between? Maybe you can do a mental reset by also switching focus from one discipline to another (like road to MTB)?
I’m with with on this, as I can ride all year round. Winter, where I stay, is mild; average mornings are seldom below zero degrees Celsius, and by lunch time it is usually mid teens. When it it cold, thermal sleeves and a jacket is enough to keep the cold out.
Racing for the serious (road) cyclists is from January to April, a few events through winter, and then every week from late August until end of November.
The season would then be a double or triple peak.
I live in Florida USA and the you can ride here pretty much all year long. I used to be caught up in that mind set until I started to listen to Fast talk and other podcast. Events and races here can go into December. My last event is the first weekend in December after that I shut in down till January
Enjoy the holidays and family Then I start out slow work my way into base session this year I also to a week off in July to rest up and have a break from the heat. I think it’s important to start taking mid-season breaks especially as you get older.
I ride all year and never hang up the bike. And I do this at least the last 20 years this way.
That’s the case for me. Important is the change. I summer I focus on time trails and ride occasionally some road race without priory. But my passion is CX.
After a important TT i usually take some time of the TT and ride a week or so only in the nature without any special training goals. Is not so much that in need this physically, but mentally.
In that sense I have some breaks every year.
And after the CX season I take some weeks of without a lot of structure. If cross country running events I may join, but also without pressure or maybe I do more weight training. But even during this time I ride for just fun and do more technical stuff with CX.
As I become older the mentally change is very important to me.
But is all about context. For one who have a tight race schedule in the season this would be totally different and she is happy to throw the bike away for some time.
As i get older (i’m 48) i find that if i take off more than a week, it really takes me a while to start feeling good on the bike again….so i only take 1 week completely o ff the bike, but do stay active doing other things. I also pretty much have about 2 months of non structured riding in late sept to mid November. This has intensity, but mostly just consists of random strava segments or a zwift race hear and there. When i was 30 and racing as a cat 2, i alway performed best for the road racing season when i had a semi serious season on cyclocross, followed by 1week off before starting base building. Many will say that I should’ve taken more time off, but the number and result were there the years i did this.
I’d like to cross-post this post from coach member @Carolynsgaskell who took 5 weeks off and saw some interesting test results. Check it out!