Training is, and always will be, a process. Those who find love with the process, tend to find performance more frequently than those that don’t. Out-Of-Season or ‘Off Season’ is generally a time that we have minimal racing, or single discipline specific racing only. It is a time where one can lay down a foundation, to be leveraged come summer.
As Bevan McKinnon so aptly put on his blog about times of no racing:
"Have we at some point lost focus on the pure simplicity of working hard, staying consistent and being patient? For many athletes if we simply focused on being present in the workout we’re currently performing, rather than the destination we want our fitness to reach, we may find we arrive there before we even know it!”
The Off Season is our best time to refocus our mind on consistently laying down this simple focus. But what on? As we alluded to, it is a time to lay a foundation. To us this foundation is about ticking over in our strengths and working on our weaknesses. It is about identifying what areas in our race season let us down and periodising a portfolio of work during the “off-season” that will develop these areas, be they cardiovascular, muscular, psychological, technical, tactical or nutritional.
Often the areas that stand out to us to work on are:
Strength and conditioning, to address weakness or imbalances
• Posterior chain strength • Shoulder stabilisers • Core connection
Technical swimming and running ability
Pacing running
Nutrition
Developing VO2max, and aerobic capabilities
For us, strength and conditioning are a big part of the off season, and our most consistent component, along with aerobic threshold work. This often can be layered with nutrition, as we make sure we are fuelling appropriately to meet the changes in focus and load that this time can bring.
Our first focus we layer on in this period, is taking the time to review technical capabilities and integrate technical skill work, or strength and conditioning work to help address these issues.
Once we have worked through this side of things, we dial back that focus (but keep connected with it) and start to look to develop VO2 max in 2 – 3 x 4–6 week blocks (if we can get the time). This is hard work, which requires a lot of recovery, and the off-season allows us to cater for this. We don’t disconnect with other energy system, we just shift one way or another to gain more focus in a specific area.
Comentários