Optimize Your Fall Racing with a Mid-Season Break
If you have trained and raced endurance sports for a while, you have been a ‘victim’ of the latest training methodologies and modalities that arise every year. Unfortunately, most of these methodologies and practices don’t pan out as intended. There are many ways to skin a cat regarding training approaches, and there’s no shortage of advice on the best path to improve performance and readiness. However, one area that tends to receive much less attention is the ever-important performance amplifier, recovery. As I proudly wear the label of ‘recovery coach,’ I want to dive into this subject more deeply, specifically, the value of taking a planned training break in the middle of your racing season.
Mid-season breaks are not yet a staple in the endurance community, but many would benefit from their implementation.
Let me explain how and why. In this piece, you will learn:
Recovery in Training
Consider why you get up early and train, battling the alarm clock to grind out intervals and efforts in your chosen sport. Beyond chasing goals, you are applying a specific stressor to the body, which should yield positive physiological adaptations. Assuming the body can absorb and adapt, the result should be improved fitness, ability to generate power and resilience. These adaptations lead to faster racing potential. However, physiological changes cannot occur without recovery and rejuvenation – namely, sleep and rest. Here is a simple graphic to highlight this process:
At the surface level, the training process is straightforward. The real challenge is integrating these training stressors into a life that is often hectic and full of its stressors. That is where the prescription becomes more complicated. Whether work, financial, family, and travel, or less good habits in sleep and nutrition, these stressors accumulate and take their toll. It is incredibly difficult for any coach or athlete to accurately dial in the balance between training and life stress while still giving the body space to adapt. In reality, most highly motivated athletes will lean into their work ethic rather than taking time off to recover. While often invisible, this tendency results in an accumulation of fatigue and reduced ability to adapt over time. As an athlete, you won’t likely feel it or even see reduced performance metrics in training, but it is nearly always there. It is no wonder many athletes struggle and arrive at World Championship or late season events tired or sick when stakes are high.
Why a Season Break Can Be a Performance Catalyst
For committed athletes, no matter the level, there is a surprising truth that many fail to grasp – their fitness is seldom the performance limiter. Let's look beyond the small percentage of athletes who have simply not prepared adequately for the demands of their event. Most athletes who face race day challenges don’t do so because of fitness issues. Instead, they are bringing fatigue accumulation into race day. This is highlighted by many professionals in endurance sports, often after their career is over. Who would believe they could have achieved greater performance by embracing more recovery?
The toll that emerges from under-recovery is anchored in both physical and mental fatigue. This fatigue is amplified in folks who participate in endurance sports while juggling work and family. You must apply rigor and focus across many aspects of life, then chase race performance. You do this through a training process that requires progression, where you add hours of physical stress each week against a limited pool of resources. Regardless of your obsession with healthy eating, sleep, and recovery practices, daily life will likely build a physical and mental toll. Fatigue creep can and will occur, limiting the opportunity for that magic race performance. So, how do you escape the fatigue creep, emotional and physical, that is seemingly destined to rear its head? A mid-season break is the answer.
It takes courage, but a planned block of five to ten days of radically reduced training focused on facilitating systemic and mental rejuvenation is a powerful tool. Of course, you don’t need to be wholly inactive, but you should embrace turning back on structured training, prioritizing rest, and adopting a patient and long-term lens on performance gains.
If you are motivated, it will likely drive you nuts, but it is crucial. Trust the process, as we like to say at Purple Patch.
In regular training cycles, there will be anticipated bouts of fatigue accumulation. Good training doesn’t emerge in the absence of fatigue. It is a normal and vital part of performance gains. A smart coach and athlete will integrate mini-blocks of days or multiple days of lighter training to ensure the athlete can absorb, adapt, and be ready to handle more load. It is a delicate balance, and, as mentioned, when we add in life stressors, it's rare to avoid some more profound fatigue accumulation altogether. With this in mind, you can view a mid-season break as a chance for a deep clean. You allow a significant and effective change from all the weeks of training to accumulate and marinate, optimizing the opportunity for full physiological adaptations to occur. In addition, it is a release valve on the grind of training and opens the doorway of opportunity for you to give back to other areas of your life (including family and friends).
The good news about this approach is that you will not regress if done correctly. So, counter to what you may believe or feel, 7-10 days ‘off,’ will not materially impact your fitness. Instead, you refill your mental reserves and capacity to absorb training and ensure that your next chapter is optimized.
The benefit of this approach is that you arrive fit and genuinely fresh to late-season races.
How to Effectively Implement a Break
A mid-season break should be planned to align with both racing goals and life logistics. The ideal scenario is that you can share a ‘more free’ version of yourself with friends and family. If you can, plan your season break to coincide with family vacations, as this offers a chance to enjoy yourself outside of training. You don’t want to reduce the training load and simply replace it with more work or chores. Remember that the mission is a physical and mental recharge. Here are a few key elements to an appropriate season break:
Training:
The break should be five days at a bare minimum, but I prefer 7-10 days of low or no structured training.
Be active, but don’t train. You are welcome to act like a normal healthy human and participate in a soul-filling activity. This activity is typically under 60 minutes and shouldn’t include obsession with metrics, heart rate, pace, or power. It is unstructured, free, and soul-filling.
Don’t obsess over this break, and don’t spend any time planning goals or focusing on training planning. Stepping away from the obsession will bring clarity, perspective, and a refreshed mind.
Rest and Nutrition:
Try to maintain a healthy eating plan. A mid-season break isn't the same as a season-ending break, and you will benefit from maintaining positive habits in nutrition.
Sleep should be a priority during this phase, and your reduced training hours provide an opportunity to be more restful.
Embrace hydration. Proper hydration is good for your cellular health and immune system, so kick-start the big recovery process with a focus on daily hydration. It will help you optimize the yield from the break.
The Return:
Don’t expect fireworks. A proper break can lead to lethargy during the initial days of training. This isn’t detraining, but the compensatory effects of adaptations and the body being knocked out of rhythm. You will emerge.
Start with endurance. I would include two to three days of endurance-focused training and easy intervals that build in intensity over the first days. I am not a fan of a ‘shock and awe’ return to training in the form of very high intensity. Instead, we seek a feel-good return to rhythm.
If you dare to commit to this break, I promise the following months of training will be more effective and amplify your race readiness. Of course, this hinges on the optimal timing of your break, with plenty of time to allow a serious block of training before your A-race. We recommend at least seven weeks before the event.
At the Purple Patch Center in San Francisco, we have a sign on our wall that reads ‘it takes courage to recover.’ Do you have the courage? You should if you care about your performance and race results.
Cheers,
Matt Dixon