Been training consistently hard for a long time. 2, maybe 3 years…bit more.
Bunch of things recently, new schedule, sleep pattern changes. Having to work out late, sleep late, wake up late (for me). I’m a morning person, sleep early and wake up/work out early when I’m at my best. Over time, mentally I’m just not there.
Took a few days off; didn’t work.
Figure I might need a full week or two. Find the cadence that works for me with this new schedule. Since it doesn’t seem physical, might just go for easy rides with my dog or something hehe.
Ok, so question….what the minimum I can do to not completely lose the fitness I’ve gained. If I’m still doing easy riding for a few hours a week that should be fine eh? What do you do to “reset”? For how long?
Could be a month, could be a year, could be a decade. It’s whatever you need to find that spark again.
Regarding the minimum to maintain, I remember Chad on a podcast recounting a study that concluded that one spirited ride a week that elevates your heart rate is enough to do “something” to stave off some of the losses.
Yeah. I still love riding. I think I’ll just cash in some of this fitness I built up and hit the trails and parks and work on the skill training I’ve put off.
A few hours a week of easy riding would start bleeding a good bit of fitness for me if it lasted more than 2-3 weeks. But it also depends on your stress balance when you go into this mode. If you are highly fatigued coming off a huge block, a couple weeks of easy efforts will likely still have you flying. If you were already well rested and detraining and then backed off further for 2-3 weeks, it’s just going to accelerate your fitness loss.
But it’s a long game, I generally don’t worry about fitness loss in the off season. You don’t want to start the season after sitting on the couch for 3 months, but you also don’t want to start the season super fit (with nowhere to go but down). The hard part for me is when I gain off season weight, that doesn’t fix itself as fast as the power coming back. I took up rowing last fall during the off season and it was fun to try something new and it helped maintain aerobic fitness. If you have an interest in another activity, it’s a good time of year to give it a try.
When was the last time you took more than 2 weeks where you just shoved the bike in the corner and didn’t think about it?
Don’t worry about the fitness. If you’ve trained it right, it’ll come back quickly, even if you take a month totally off and sit on the couch. You NEED to let some of it go to properly recover. It’s a temporary recharge, and you’ll build higher than you were before. Keep doing what you’re doing now, and you’ll just continue on slumping. Let it go.
Athletes hit slumps because they’re scared to lose fitness by resetting, and it’s exactly what they need to do to gain fitness for their next season. So… do it!
I learned this over the past month or so (after riding/training for 6+ years). It’s a busy time for me at work and we had an unplanned home DIY repair project that sucked up most of my free time for the last 3+ weeks. I haven’t been off the bike this long in years. I was able to get a ride in on Saturday and felt kinda meh at first. The motivation came back quick and I set lifetime power PR’s from 30s-1min (plus an all time HR max by 1 BPM).
The fitness will come back so don’t stress that part.
100% this. “Scared of losing fitness” is an overtraining trap.
You need to embrace the off season and the subsequent fitness rebuild as part of the optimal training process. You body needs time to recover. There’s a whole host of biological mechanisms that will make it easier to regain old fitness. Each season you will rebuild and then ideally push the envelope further. The body will remember.
If you’re scared of the couch just switch focus. Spend a month or two in the weight room. Do some prehab/PT on nagging issues. You can make off-season productive beyond recovery.
Over a week or two (or even three) you could basically do nothing. It will take a couple week to get back to the level but you’re not going to ‘lose’ anything. If you don’t have important events in the next month or two then the boost in physical and mental freshness will be worth any temporary fitness drop you experience.
Sure. Just make sure you’re doing them for enjoyment and not to sustain your fitness. The whole point of the break is to lower your stress, not to switch to stressing about maintaining. Just go out and do short rides, hikes, walks, etc for fun with no purpose other than to breath some fresh air.
As long as it takes really. Don’t go so long that the new habit is to do nothing but long enough that you have the headspace to reevaluate your plan.
Run a little, lift a little more. More walks. More household stuff that tends to get pushed off but adds stress. More dinners out with my wife. More nothing. Throw a group ride in. Go ride without a plan.
Totally, go look at the instagrams of world tour riders right now. Half of them are sitting on beaches somewhere for a couple weeks doing nothing. If they can do it then we definitely can.
Find something new to suck at, you’ll suck less as you put in work and the dopamine that comes with progress will be addicting. before you know it, you’ll crave the bike and be right back on it.
Swimming
Rock Climbing
Running (cyclists have great cardio but often get injured as new runners because their body is not ready for the impact that they put on themselves - proceed with caution)
The loss of fitness thing is hard to overcome and something you’ll need to cope with. I was once a gym bro who could lift 3x my current strength allows and I just laugh when I go to the gym these days.
This is actually my curse. I was a runner before. But got plantar fasciitis that kept reoccurring. That was the reason I picked up cycling. But now every time I go back, my lungs and cardio are ready go “go go go!” but I end up injuring myself….and its’s almost always plantar again. (I know all the PT, etc. I just can’t shake it)
