Well for most of you out there, the season is finished and it’s now time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t. If you had a great season, you might be thinking, now is the time to get started on next season to try and get the jump on the rest of your competition. If your season was sub-par in your eyes, you may also be thinking that you should be training hard to get back into old form.

In my own limited experience I have found that most runners and triathletes commit themselves to a vicious cycle of hard training 12 months of the year without taking any time to recover the previous 10-11 months of hard training. I am sure that most of you are aware of the “3 weeks hard and 1 week easy” model of periodization. What most of you may not realize is that this magical week of recovery or the magical two weeks of tapering before a major competition is not necessarily recharging the batteries back to 100% capacity. It is therefore recommended that athletes take some time, up to 4 weeks is commonly prescribed, at the end of a season to recover before beginning the next phase of their training.

What’s the evidence? Is 4 weeks a magic physiological window, during which the body restores all fuels, rebuilds all lost protein and heals all wounds? Not likely, and few researchers have attempted to address this issue. Sever studies have been performed to examine the recovery needed to return muscle metabolism back to resting states after one or two hard bouts of training. Other studies have documented to appropriate amount of time required to recover from an intense 3 weeks of multisport training, however the ideal “end-of the season” recovery has been poorly documented.

So what is the evidence that this is going to help my training/performance?

Similar to most other rules of training, the amount of time required for recovery at the end of a long season has been determined for the most part by observation and may vary a great deal between athletes. So today all I can share with you are my personal experiences and reports other athletes and coaches.

Personal account: The past three years, training has played a large part in my life. I have used an educated trial and error approach to my own program design and I have learned great deal from other athletes and coaches. I cannot tell you how many athletes I have seen train non-stop, for as long as four years, without taking any time off. What happens to these athletes after their university career? They usually quit and rarely have the desire to return to the sport. I was also amazed at the number of triathletes that have recounted stories of exceptional run or bike performances following long periods away from training. One athlete even told me how he recorded a 1-minute personal best in a 10km run, following a 12-month hiatus away from serious training. How is that possible?

All of these personal accounts intrigued me but there was no way I could take a month away from running. A MONTH! Are you kidding? All of my colleagues warned me that burn out was inevitable, but I told them they new nothing more than what they read in books…reading a physiology text isn’t going to get you under 33 minutes for 10km…but running will.

In the winter of 2001 I set a goal of making the traveling squad on the University of Alberta cross country team. I started training in January of 2002 and the qualifying race was October 27th of that same year. After several months of 80-95 mile weeks and intense intervals, I achieved my goal, but forgot that making the team meant racing at nationals. The 11 months of hard training helped me attain my goal but I was not prepared for the outcome. After a disastrous race at nationals, I decided it was time to train harder and time off would only make things worse. I ran the next day and was back on the track three days later. By the end of the month I was back into full-time training with the indoor track team and ready to mount another attack in the fall of 2003.

For the next 9 months I made it to the workouts, I put in the mileage, I met the time goals, but I didn’t feel as though I was making any progress…and I was starting to hate it. By August 2003 I had run a personal best for 10 miles, a full 90 seconds faster than the year before. I should have been happy, but it took a lot of effort to get out of the house and train. At the end of August I had planned a trip to Europe to present some of my research and take a little holiday just before defending my thesis. The plan was to run 100 miles a week for two weeks and start the cross-country season the fittest I had ever been. Once I got there however, all I wanted to do was sleep, drink and be merry… and that’s exactly what I did.
Although wrought with guilt at the beginning, I happily spent days eating and drinking, staying up late and having fun. I got fat…but I also got hungry. I had found a new desire to train and race, something that was missing for the past 9 months. Would things have been different if I had taken the time off in November last year? Who knows, but I did learn an important lesson: Without recovering mentally, it is impossible to train at 100%.

Final comments: So for all of you thinking about starting early, remember that your season will be exceptionally long. Get fat, get hungry and don’t get back into it until you feel like you are ready. Let your body, and not guilt, guide you back into training this winter.