For many of us, spring racing is winding down, and it’s time to build more fitness for next season. Most often, riders begin to approach their off-season by initially taking a week or two off, then going into base training. Base training is traditionally approached with a set of long rides and a substantial increase in training volume. But, it’s easy to get trapped in a “base” mentality throughout the off-season. Many athletes end up trying to log more miles than necessary, and find that they have not made the fitness gains that were expected.

In this brief article, I will give you a few tips on how to re-think your off-season program so that you utilize your time effectively and make progress in your training.  Before I get started, I want you to think about one key concept: in order to go faster over any given distance, you have to train at faster speeds, not train slowly over long distances. Let me state that another way: in order to go faster, you must be able to sustain a higher power output (do more work) for a longer period of time.  The long, slower rides have their place, but use the following tips to avoid the pitfall of getting stuck in your off-season training:

1.  Don’t be afraid to go fast in the off-season. Again, you must ride faster to develop the ability to ride faster which essentially means you can’t be afraid of getting in some intensity.  Don’t shy away from harder group rides or local races in the off-season.

2.  Keep the volume reasonable. Often times, I hear people make arbitrary decisions about the number of hours they’d like to train in a week. It’s not the hours in the saddle that are important, it’s what you are doing during that time that is important. There is a maximum amount of time that you can spend at a given intensity to gain benefits. If you go beyond that maximum time, you run the risk of hitting diminishing returns. Also, unless your boss, your significant other, and your other obligations understand and support the phrase, “It’s the off-season, I need to ride all the time,” then chances are, you’re setting yourself up to do something that you simply cannot manage.  Don’t make the mistake of thinking that will keep you from achieving your goals next season.  Establishing volume is a highly individualized task, but try not to exceed more than 15% of your previous year’s training volume in your new training phase.

3. Re-think the base ride. A base ride is not a ride in which you putter around for a few hours talking to your buddies, and laying off the pedals. In other words, it’s not long, slow distance. It’s long, steady distance.  In order for this to be effective, you have to STAY right in prescribed intensity for that particular ride. Thus, you need to ensure that more than 85% of your time is spent at that effort. That means you shift in order not to go too hard uphill, and you shift into larger gears in order to keep the effort up on the downhill.  Go ahead and talk to your buddies and have fun, but keep the effort right on target to get the most out of your rides.

4. Try a low-power ride after a hard ride. If you have a good background and good  amount of fitness, try a base ride the day after a harder group ride. If you ride harder one day, then easier the next following the guidelines in #3, you will derive more fitness benefits.

5. Stay focused on one thing at a time. Even though it’s the off-season, you can still break up training into different focuses without doing a ton of structured work. For example, you might spend 3 weeks doing flatter routes, then 3 weeks on hills.

6. Always have your eye on specificity. If you have a specific focus for the upcoming year, such as criterium racing, mountain bike racing, or time trialing, you must spend time working on skills specific to those disciplines. Write down the different skills required for those races (such as cornering, sprinting, etc) then think through what you do well and what you need work on. Then, look back at tip #5, and think of how to incorporate those skills, or the foundation for those skills, into your training regimen in a meaningful way.

7. Measure your progress, and be realistic in your goals. If you are self-coached, make sure that you are being honest about your progression and that you are able to quantify some of your gains. If you have a coach, make sure that you are in communication with him or her about what you can expect going into the new race season. Too often, I see athletes that come out of their off-season with expectations that are beyond the training gains made. Often times, this leads to that individual feeling as though he or she has done a ton of work, but must not have the talent or ability to be a great racer. Having the right expectation sets you up to continue to make gains and meet and exceed goals throughout the race season. Training is a process, and it can take a long time to make large gains.

8. Give yourself a break. We all need down-time; don’t be afraid to take extra days off or to be lenient with yourself in the off-season. It’s okay to get distracted, and it’s okay to change your routine in order to stay motivated. If you are really struggling with motivation, try something different. Cross-train, or do a type of event you’ve never done before, in a crowd of people you don’t necessarily know. Changing things up can work wonders for your motivation and can help you refocus on the things you enjoy the most.

9. Don’t forget to have fun. In the off-season, I like to “hide” training in fun workouts or prescriptions that give my clients flexibility and enjoyment of the bike. If you incorporate the steps above into your off-season strategy, you ought to be able to have fun, make gains, and remember why you fell in love with the sport in the first place.

Sara Krause is an exercise physiologist and owner of Krause Sports Performance, a coaching company based in Austin, Texas.