With not much happening over the coming months it’s time to start thinking about maintenance. By maintenance I mean a couple of things, the first being maintaining the fitness and skills that you have worked so hard on for so many months leading into your ‘A’ race. This is especially important if you have aspirations of improving on your times the following season. It’s easy to stay indoors when the temperature drops outside, then slipping out of a once regular training schedule in to something more sporadic and inconsistent. Consistency is key to everything. It doesn’t take long to loose what you have built up, only 2-3 weeks of inconsistent training and your going to feel a big drop in performance. So instead of improving on last season’s success huge chunks of time are spent on regaining what you already once had and by then the season is in full swing. By the end of the season you will only see marginal improvements from the previous one and so the cycle starts over again. It doesn’t make sense does it?
Secondly if for nothing else just to stay healthy and active. Keep the body moving, don’t give it the chance to slip into bad habits. Just be active, don’t worry about volume or intensity just get out there and enjoy life. Run beside the kids while there riding, dust off the old mountain bike, brave the cold water of the ocean, explore on the bike. Whatever you do it will go a long way to maintaining your fitness and skill set that next season’s goals will be closer than you can ever imagine by the time your ready to get serious again.
For whatever reason, a new and improved goal for next season or keeping healthy to hold those winter kilos off, maintenance through the off season will go along way in helping you achieve any goal you may set yourself.
Here at SMART Coaching we have designed a membership program that will help with your maintenance and have you ready and prepped for anything you have set your mind on doing next season. Giving you the quality sessions that will keep you in touch with your skill set and allowing you the flexibility of not having to conform to a rigid training regime. Check it out on the website.
Coach Ben