Careful Cross Training

It's getting to be that time of year again. Cross training base fitness time. This can be either the most liberating time of the year for a cyclist with a structured training plan if you use it carefully. Or else it can wind up being just wasted time if you don't care to use it appropriately.

Let me explain what I mean.

As an amateur racer in the midwest, the summer months are race time. It's a fairly short season compared to professionals and those in warmer climates, so it means that we have a lot longer off-season since we're not getting paid to ride. For lots of people that off season is their undoing. They stop riding and so they stop doing much of anything. However, the best part of an off-season that long is that you get some time to just play. The first couple months after a full cycling season should be used to rest and then just enjoy being active anyway that you want to. Play soccer, go running, try something new like curling or polo. Okay, maybe that's a little extreme, but you get the gist.

After that, though, comes a good stretch during which you have the opportunity for solid base training before the next Spring. I generally consider mid November until January a good time to start some nonspecific base training and strength building. This means using your exercise time to maintain general aerobic fitness and do some muscle building as well. The best part is that if you get a little interrupted (for instance with Thanksgiving and Christmas in there) it's not the end of the world. You're workouts don't have to be killer long either because they are maintenance workouts. Maintenance workouts are typically most beneficial when they are a little bit shorter and a little more intense. The long workouts come in springtime when you are trying to increase your aerobic capacity and get ready for early season riding again.

It's generally accepted that fewer high intensity workouts compared to longer low intensity workouts more often will help you hold onto your fitness a little bit longer. Regardless, I don't expect to feel as fit as I was in July when I get to January. For that I'll need to rebuild again during the spring. It's frustrating that your fitness cycles from high to low through the year, but don't despair. That's normal. The cool thing is that each year that you increase your fitness the following low is a little higher than it was before and you can build a little higher than your previous height of fitness. That's why you hear of cyclists, runners, triathletes etc peaking in the careers during their 30's, because they've had several years to build fitness.

You're fitness, then, might look something like this over the years:

Each peak and trough here is roughly a year's cycle of fitness. This is by no means scientific, just qualitative.

Cool, eh? So get out there and make the most of the off season...and if all year is your off season, maybe it's time to make some goals for next season.