Mitigating the Losses
Now that we know what can happen if you stop riding, let’s figure out how to limit those losses. Fortunately, the answer fits well with our end of season “I need a break” mental letdown. Simply put, you want to decrease the training volume while maintaining the frequency and much of the intensity such that you can maintain all those hard fought gains of the previous summer.
Training frequency, the number of times per week you ride, should only come down 20-30 percent in the offseason. That means if you are riding six days a week you can cut to four days per week without long-term loss of fitness if the other two parameters are addressed with equal sincerity. Then again, if you only train three days per week you are likely looking at no reduction in training volume. Of course, at three days per week, you probably aren’t that cooked at the end of the year anyway.
Volume is often the most sought after reprieve after a season of long hours on the bike. Here is the real payoff to taking an extended break. Research suggests that if frequency and intensity are maintained at correct levels, actual training volume can drop by as much as 70-80 percent. Wow, think of all the time you’ll have for the rest of your life. As with all things sport-related, individual reduction should be personalized and reflect your age, mix of training intensities, and experience level.
A masters athlete who is new to cycling (under two years) should probably minimize their actual “offseason” in favor of improving overall aerobic conditioning via maintenance of some long rides. Conversely, an athlete with 10 or 15 years of racing experience can easily cut their volume a lot and come back to their normal training fresh and ready after a few weeks.
So now we come to the true pivot point of your plan—intensity. Bergman speculates that actual training intensity should be reduced only by 10-20 percent over any given reduction in training. You don’t need to do the full volume of LT, MAP, and Anaerobic intervals, but you have to do some version of those intensities at regular intervals, especially if your rest period is intended to last more than a week or so.
Summary
After a long year of racing and training, the idea of taking an extended break is infinitely attractive, but the reality is that doing so may well ruin the hard gains you made. Physiological measures like lactate tolerance, blood volume, mitochondrial density, and VO2max all drop prodigiously in the first weeks after the cessation of regular training. What is the salvation? Fortunately, it is just what you already like doing, riding. To maintain the gain simply reduce your training volume by 70-80 percent and your training frequency by 20-30 percent, all while maintaining your training intensity at roughly 80-90 percent of your in season volume. So easy. By taking a bit more programmatic approach to any scheduled offseason you can maintain your base fitness level, and set the stage for a further increase in your fitness next year.