July 9, 2025 • 17 mins
OVERVIEW
Lots of endurance athletes take a mid-season break following a big goal event or a substantial training block. Some Time-Crunched Cyclists don't need a mid-season break because they don't accumulate enough training stress to benefit from a prolonged period of reduced workload. Rather, some Time-Crunched Cyclists benefit from an increase in training volume during the middle of the season! Coach Adam Pulford explains how to tell the difference between needing a break and benefitting from adding volume to your mid-season training.
TOPICS COVERED
- Benefits of a mid-season break
- What does a mid-season break look like?
- Who benefits from a mid-season break?
- Which athletes shouldn't take a mid-season break?
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HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now, on today's episode, I'mcoach Adam Pulford.
(01:07):
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistthe podcast that gets right to
the point for all thingsendurance, training, racing and
cycling fitness.
So let's get down to it withthe benefits.
First, I prescribe a mid-seasonbreak for many of my athletes
and many of my athletes thatrace and have aggressive goals
throughout the year.
The benefits of taking a fewweeks of downtime helps to
(01:30):
prevent burnout, chronic fatigue, overtraining or
underperformance whatever termyou prefer on that one and the
main concept is this you take abigger break from normal
training to increase recoveryand ensure a successful second
half of the season.
It's that simple, really.
I'll get into more of what thislooks like in a minute with
(01:51):
some examples.
But a mid-season break can begood for most everyone, as in
its insurance policy that youdon't push through fatigue after
big races and heavy blocks oftraining just for the sake of
keeping going.
Now I would say that this workswell for many of my time-rich
(02:13):
athletes elite athletes, juniorathletes, master's athletes,
racing frequently at thenational level, and typically
I'll take this break after theirroad or mountain bike national
championships, between road andcyclocross seasons or after big
races throughout the year.
And that means like both bigand TSS, as well as emotional
(02:36):
stress, and depending on theamount of hours and number of
big race time periods that myathlete is doing and going
through, I may take a few ofthese breaks throughout the year
.
Typically, I'm finding thatshorter, more frequent breaks
like this are better than onebig break at the end of the
(02:57):
season for both increasedperformance and motivation
throughout the calendar year.
So what do these breaks looklike, and does a time-crunched
athlete need to take this kindof break?
It's a really, really goodquestion.
So let's explore that with someexamples.
Mid-season break for most of ushere in North America will come
(03:18):
after, say, a nationalchampionship or that big race
buildup.
So a lot of my US elites andcadets, that'll be the end of
May, beginning of June.
For Masters and Junior NationalChampionships that's the
beginning of July we justfinished that as I record here
in the first part of July.
Then mountain bike nationalchampionships are coming up here
(03:39):
in mid-July.
Typically a lot of my athletesare going to be, or either have
or are going to be taking theirmid-season break here soon.
For athletes who are focused oncyclocross, usually this would
be like the end of December andthen it's like holiday season,
but it's also like World Cupseason and then World
(04:01):
Championships.
So, depending on your goals andlevel of competition there kind
of gets a little convoluted.
So we won't get into that justyet.
But then there's also the bigraces, not just national
championship races, okay.
So for me, for example, I did abig race this year called the
Treka in Spain and after that Itook some time off because I was
(04:21):
just over it.
I was over volume, I was overtraining, I was over intervals.
And another good example isI've done Cape Epic in the past
and I've had a lot of athletesdo that race and it's one of the
biggest mountain bike stageraces.
It's in South Africa and it'sin March, in March, so that's
(04:47):
typically when a lot of us inNorth America are still in our
base and build phase.
But for Cape you got to show upfit and fresh and pointy for
that one Also, it's just such ahuge race that you need to take
a break from the big stressesand the travel to get there.
So that's a great example ofhow it's early season.
But afterwards you need thatbreak to help reset and recover.
(05:07):
Now, mid-season break, orwhenever that break comes, is
more than just a recovery week.
Okay.
So most of the time, what I'mgoing to do this is a pretty
good example is I'll take a weekoff.
I'll take a week off fromtraining and mostly off the bike
.
I want you to be lazy, I wantfull recovery.
Sometimes I will put intraining peaks for the people
(05:28):
who can kind of handle it ormanage themselves well, meaning
read their body and kind of giveit what they need.
I'll just, you know, every dayI'll say rest easy, your choice,
move around a little bit, thatkind of stuff For some people
who can't manage themselves well, I'll put in three days of rest
, a couple of easy rides, easyhike, walk the dog, that sort of
(05:51):
thing.
So I'll prescribe the recoveryin the rest days in there,
because for those who don'tmanage themselves well, they'll
just overdo it.
So those good rule followers, Iwill definitely keep the TSS
low that we can prescribe it in.
Okay, so that's week number one.
Second week is just easyendurance.
Okay, so I'll keep the totalTSS low.
(06:13):
The volume is going to be low.
We're not going to be doing aton in the gym, we're not going
to do any intervals, but we'llmaybe just increase frequency of
writing and that'll look kindof more like a recovery week for
most people.
Okay, so that's two weeks easy.
That third week.
Then we start to increasevolume again.
We'll come back to that normalfrequency of riding and training
.
So coming back into the gym,maybe doing some light core work
(06:35):
and just ramping back up intothe next phase of training,
which could look a lot ofdifferent for many different
athletes, but typically phase oftraining which could look a lot
of different for many differentathletes, but typically I'll do
another base and build phasewhere we'll increase CTL ramp
rates, put more hay in the barnfor the second half of the
season.
That's essentially what itlooks like for somebody who has
(06:55):
a second peak in their seasoncoming up Now.
A mid-season break can also justbe a mid-season change, and
here is where I think this isthe most compelling for a time
crunched athlete.
Now hear me out on this one we,time crunched athletes
generally will be using moreintervals and more intensity to
(07:15):
increase our fitness and gettoward our goals.
It's what I talk about on thispodcast so often, about, okay,
and that's physically andmentally very taxing.
Okay, I would say more taxingthan some people who have more
time to train and get the volumein, because, as I've talked
about the value of just ridingyour bike and having a three or
four hour ride, that you don'thave any performance goals or,
(07:39):
or you know hard intervals orsomething like this, you can
just ride and mentally, just,you know, not as taxing
Physically, perhaps not astaxing.
Time crunch athletes canphysically recover, I want to
say, more quickly because ourmileage or total hours are
generally low.
Let's just view time crunch andtime rich as two separate
(08:02):
categories and there's no goodor bad.
There are pros and cons rich astwo separate categories and
there's no good or bad.
There are pros and cons, andsome of those pros or some of
the benefits of being a timecrunched athlete is we don't
have a ton of residual fatigue.
That's coming from the trainingside of things, so we can
freshen up, we can recoverfairly quickly, relatively
speaking.
So two weeks quote off or at alower kind of training phase may
(08:26):
not be as advantageous,especially now that summer has
hit, the weather is good and wehave lots of daylight hours to
work with.
So do you really need amid-season break as a time
crunched athlete?
And I would say no, I don'tthink so, unless you're feeling
burnt out and physically tiredand some of these overtraining
(08:48):
things like I talked aboutbefore.
If you're feeling that way,yeah, absolutely take a break.
You pump the brakes.
If you're working with a coach,tell your coach that, and when
you have like a ton of fatigue,you want to get rid of that.
If it's not part of thetraining program, okay.
So that mid-season break, though, in terms of being planned in
(09:08):
there, like I said, I don'tthink you need it, especially if
you're not racing a bunch andyour hours are kind of that
typical time crunched athlete ofaround six hours, maybe eight
hours.
And some people write into meand they're like, hey, man, I'm
lucky to get five hours.
So if you're there and yourmotivation is still high and
you're watching the Tour deFrance and you're getting stoked
(09:30):
to ride your bike, keep itgoing.
You don't need to listen to aold coach over here talking
about a mid-season break andbeing wooed into it.
Not at all.
So here's another observation Ihave with some of my time
crunched athletes.
Some of them become less timecrunched as we head into the
summer because of that improvedweather and increased daylight
hours, like I talked about.
(09:50):
So my advice here is to have amid-season change, not a
mid-season break, and thatchange is a little tick up in
volume, if you can.
So, as we're turning here intoJuly and August, for, again,
like I said, most of us in NorthAmerica, if you can extend that
long ride every once in a while, maybe every other weekend, you
(10:10):
tack on an hour, or maybe youget to just sneak in a half hour
or more at the end of the rideat the end of the day, because
the sun doesn't set until late,and you tell your spouse and
your kids hey, I won't be homeas early on Tuesdays and
Thursday nights, something likethat, and you're leveraging the
(10:31):
weather and you're leveragingthose daylight hours to get a
little bit more volume and get alittle bit more fit throughout
the summer.
And so, yes, I am advocatingincreased volume right now and
that volume should be primarilyzone two endurance training.
Now everyone and their momsknow the benefits of zone two
riding, okay.
And so if you have a littleextra wiggle room right now, I
(10:53):
would, I would take it.
But as you do that, I wouldencourage you to decrease your
time at intensity or number ofinterval days If you're going to
reach for the volume.
Keep in mind adding volume willincrease training stress.
So I generally decrease time atintensity when I'm increasing
volume.
For somebody to keep the TSSroughly similar, or maybe a
(11:17):
slight uptick in TSS so that wedon't hit the burnout or overdo
anything, and for a timecrunched athlete, if you're not
used to doing a ton of volume, Iwould say just tread softly,
tread carefully, and if youincrease by 10 to 15% each week
for two to three weeks and thenkeep it stable, that's generally
(11:37):
a pretty good recipe forincreasing your volume.
Now I did an episode on this.
I don't have the number infront of me but we'll include it
in our show notes.
But I talked about using thesemetrics of how to use ramp rates
, volume and good planning toincrease CTL and fitness.
Again, if you want all thedetails about that, I did a nice
(11:58):
20, 30-minute episode on it andI will link to it in the show
notes.
So check out more on that formore details.
Now for athletes that aretypically crunched on time, an
extra two to three hours ofriding per week for three to six
weeks will do wonders toimprove your aerobic capacity,
depth of fitness and durability.
(12:19):
Just plan ahead, communicatewith your family and your work
colleagues, your kids, and getcreative on how you use your
time.
Many of my athletes do this inthe summer and can do this
because some of the normalbarriers, like cold and dark,
are not there for those months.
So generally, I would say againif you're not blown out, if
you're not craving a break infitness, in fact, if it's like
(12:43):
man craving a break in fitness,in fact, if it's like man.
The first quarter of the yearwas stressful with work and
weather and all this kind ofstuff.
I didn't get in all my trainingand you're going good right now
.
Just keep it up, keep thatconsistency rolling, keep the
momentum rolling and you'regoing to set yourself up for a
great end of the year.
So this gets back to should youdo a mid-season break?
(13:04):
Or is a mid-season break alwaysgood?
And I'd say you know it reallydepends.
You know, for the time crunchedathlete, for the athlete who's
a little like hit and miss intheir training, probably not.
But if you're a very routineathlete, if you're a higher
mileage athlete or time richathlete, I'd say generally, yes,
I would take a break.
And most athletes we want tokeep on pushing from January all
(13:29):
the way through December inhopes of increasing fitness and
improving VO2 and maxing outtheir FTP, all that kind of
stuff.
But I'll remind you and I'llremind them that they need to
rest in order to see gains.
Stress plus rest equals theadaptation and those gains are
not always linear.
So sometimes you just need togo down a little bit before you
(13:52):
go back up, and having a fewmore down weeks after months and
months of hard training candecrease fatigue and allow for
more motivation, energy, focusand that super compensation
effect to come back in months tocome.
So for those doing two sportslike road and cross, definitely
take a couple of weeks, if notthree weeks, easy before ramping
(14:15):
up into your cross season.
You won't lose much in two tothree weeks.
Search for D training episodethat I've done before and you'll
get all the details of whatthat means.
But if you just hang up theroad bike from master's gnats
and then start crushing it onthe cross bike right away, I
think you'll burn out beforeWaterloo.
Okay, for all the cross racersyou know what I'm talking about.
(14:37):
Now, for those time crunchedathletes who are listening to me
and they're like I juststruggled to hit six weeks on
average and my summers are beingburned up by my, you know,
getting the kids to camps andsports and family trips.
I hear you.
I have some athletes thereright now alongside you.
(14:58):
You don't need a break fromyour training.
You probably just need a breakfrom life.
But that's where stayingconsistent with the bike is key,
because those mini breaksbehind your bars are just as
much as stress relievers as theyare fitness builders.
So just know you don't have tofollow the similar build and
(15:19):
rest cycles that you may see onVeloNews or even from our own
newsletters, right, becauseperiodization is kind of out the
window for you.
So just stay consistent for now, and that will carry you
through.
So kind of in a long summary,and to wrap this thing up, my
main message for the timecrunched athletes out there is
see if you can get a little moretime rich during the summer
(15:42):
months, freshen up the legs withan easy week or something like
that if you've been hitting theintervals, and then kick up the
volume for July and August.
The tour is on now.
The Tour de France Femmes isjust around the corner, a couple
of weeks away, I think.
So let that stoke the fires ofmotivation to help you get out
there on the bike and ride alittle bit more.
Get creative with your time putin the miles and know that this
(16:05):
will serve you for the fallfondos cycle cross season, if
that's your thing, or just someextra fun when the heat breaks
and we get some cooler weatherdown the road.
For those of you listening whohave raced a pretty heavy first
half of the season, and ifyou're feeling cooked,
unmotivated and you got sometired legs that just won't go
away, kick them up, watch thetour and be lazy for a week or
(16:29):
two.
Then start riding back.
Don't be in a rush and knowthat all the work that you've
been doing for the past sixmonths is going to be there for
you, but it is very good to takethat mid-season break.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
If you liked what you heard,please share it with a friend or
a training partner, as that'sthe best way to grow the show
and ensure that you keep ongetting good content like this
(16:51):
streaming into your feeds.
If you have a question for me,head on over to trainrightcom
backslash podcast and click onask a training question.
Head on over to trainwrightcombackslash podcast and click on
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Those questions get sentdirectly to me and I'll do my
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Thanks again for listening andbe sure to come back next week
(17:12):
for more training tips in atimely manner.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
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Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
(17:32):
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time.
Train hard, train smart, trainright.
From the team at CTS.
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistpodcast, our show dedicated to
answering your trainingquestions and providing
actionable advice to help youimprove your performance even if
you're strapped for time.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and I'm one of the over
50 professional coaches whomake up the team at CTS.
In each episode, I draw on ourteam's collective knowledge,
(00:30):
other coaches and experts in thefield to provide you with the
practical ways to get the mostout of your training and
ultimately become the bestcyclist that you can be.
Now on to our show.
Now, on today's episode, I'mcoach Adam Pulford.
(01:07):
This is the Time Crunch Cyclistthe podcast that gets right to
the point for all thingsendurance, training, racing and
cycling fitness.
So let's get down to it withthe benefits.
First, I prescribe a mid-seasonbreak for many of my athletes
and many of my athletes thatrace and have aggressive goals
throughout the year.
The benefits of taking a fewweeks of downtime helps to
(01:30):
prevent burnout, chronic fatigue, overtraining or
underperformance whatever termyou prefer on that one and the
main concept is this you take abigger break from normal
training to increase recoveryand ensure a successful second
half of the season.
It's that simple, really.
I'll get into more of what thislooks like in a minute with
(01:51):
some examples.
But a mid-season break can begood for most everyone, as in
its insurance policy that youdon't push through fatigue after
big races and heavy blocks oftraining just for the sake of
keeping going.
Now I would say that this workswell for many of my time-rich
(02:13):
athletes elite athletes, juniorathletes, master's athletes,
racing frequently at thenational level, and typically
I'll take this break after theirroad or mountain bike national
championships, between road andcyclocross seasons or after big
races throughout the year.
And that means like both bigand TSS, as well as emotional
(02:36):
stress, and depending on theamount of hours and number of
big race time periods that myathlete is doing and going
through, I may take a few ofthese breaks throughout the year
.
Typically, I'm finding thatshorter, more frequent breaks
like this are better than onebig break at the end of the
(02:57):
season for both increasedperformance and motivation
throughout the calendar year.
So what do these breaks looklike, and does a time-crunched
athlete need to take this kindof break?
It's a really, really goodquestion.
So let's explore that with someexamples.
Mid-season break for most of ushere in North America will come
(03:18):
after, say, a nationalchampionship or that big race
buildup.
So a lot of my US elites andcadets, that'll be the end of
May, beginning of June.
For Masters and Junior NationalChampionships that's the
beginning of July we justfinished that as I record here
in the first part of July.
Then mountain bike nationalchampionships are coming up here
(03:39):
in mid-July.
Typically a lot of my athletesare going to be, or either have
or are going to be taking theirmid-season break here soon.
For athletes who are focused oncyclocross, usually this would
be like the end of December andthen it's like holiday season,
but it's also like World Cupseason and then World
(04:01):
Championships.
So, depending on your goals andlevel of competition there kind
of gets a little convoluted.
So we won't get into that justyet.
But then there's also the bigraces, not just national
championship races, okay.
So for me, for example, I did abig race this year called the
Treka in Spain and after that Itook some time off because I was
(04:21):
just over it.
I was over volume, I was overtraining, I was over intervals.
And another good example isI've done Cape Epic in the past
and I've had a lot of athletesdo that race and it's one of the
biggest mountain bike stageraces.
It's in South Africa and it'sin March, in March, so that's
(04:47):
typically when a lot of us inNorth America are still in our
base and build phase.
But for Cape you got to show upfit and fresh and pointy for
that one Also, it's just such ahuge race that you need to take
a break from the big stressesand the travel to get there.
So that's a great example ofhow it's early season.
But afterwards you need thatbreak to help reset and recover.
(05:07):
Now, mid-season break, orwhenever that break comes, is
more than just a recovery week.
Okay.
So most of the time, what I'mgoing to do this is a pretty
good example is I'll take a weekoff.
I'll take a week off fromtraining and mostly off the bike
.
I want you to be lazy, I wantfull recovery.
Sometimes I will put intraining peaks for the people
(05:28):
who can kind of handle it ormanage themselves well, meaning
read their body and kind of giveit what they need.
I'll just, you know, every dayI'll say rest easy, your choice,
move around a little bit, thatkind of stuff For some people
who can't manage themselves well, I'll put in three days of rest
, a couple of easy rides, easyhike, walk the dog, that sort of
(05:51):
thing.
So I'll prescribe the recoveryin the rest days in there,
because for those who don'tmanage themselves well, they'll
just overdo it.
So those good rule followers, Iwill definitely keep the TSS
low that we can prescribe it in.
Okay, so that's week number one.
Second week is just easyendurance.
Okay, so I'll keep the totalTSS low.
(06:13):
The volume is going to be low.
We're not going to be doing aton in the gym, we're not going
to do any intervals, but we'llmaybe just increase frequency of
writing and that'll look kindof more like a recovery week for
most people.
Okay, so that's two weeks easy.
That third week.
Then we start to increasevolume again.
We'll come back to that normalfrequency of riding and training
.
So coming back into the gym,maybe doing some light core work
(06:35):
and just ramping back up intothe next phase of training,
which could look a lot ofdifferent for many different
athletes, but typically phase oftraining which could look a lot
of different for many differentathletes, but typically I'll do
another base and build phasewhere we'll increase CTL ramp
rates, put more hay in the barnfor the second half of the
season.
That's essentially what itlooks like for somebody who has
(06:55):
a second peak in their seasoncoming up Now.
A mid-season break can also justbe a mid-season change, and
here is where I think this isthe most compelling for a time
crunched athlete.
Now hear me out on this one we,time crunched athletes
generally will be using moreintervals and more intensity to
(07:15):
increase our fitness and gettoward our goals.
It's what I talk about on thispodcast so often, about, okay,
and that's physically andmentally very taxing.
Okay, I would say more taxingthan some people who have more
time to train and get the volumein, because, as I've talked
about the value of just ridingyour bike and having a three or
four hour ride, that you don'thave any performance goals or,
(07:39):
or you know hard intervals orsomething like this, you can
just ride and mentally, just,you know, not as taxing
Physically, perhaps not astaxing.
Time crunch athletes canphysically recover, I want to
say, more quickly because ourmileage or total hours are
generally low.
Let's just view time crunch andtime rich as two separate
(08:02):
categories and there's no goodor bad.
There are pros and cons rich astwo separate categories and
there's no good or bad.
There are pros and cons, andsome of those pros or some of
the benefits of being a timecrunched athlete is we don't
have a ton of residual fatigue.
That's coming from the trainingside of things, so we can
freshen up, we can recoverfairly quickly, relatively
speaking.
So two weeks quote off or at alower kind of training phase may
(08:26):
not be as advantageous,especially now that summer has
hit, the weather is good and wehave lots of daylight hours to
work with.
So do you really need amid-season break as a time
crunched athlete?
And I would say no, I don'tthink so, unless you're feeling
burnt out and physically tiredand some of these overtraining
(08:48):
things like I talked aboutbefore.
If you're feeling that way,yeah, absolutely take a break.
You pump the brakes.
If you're working with a coach,tell your coach that, and when
you have like a ton of fatigue,you want to get rid of that.
If it's not part of thetraining program, okay.
So that mid-season break, though, in terms of being planned in
(09:08):
there, like I said, I don'tthink you need it, especially if
you're not racing a bunch andyour hours are kind of that
typical time crunched athlete ofaround six hours, maybe eight
hours.
And some people write into meand they're like, hey, man, I'm
lucky to get five hours.
So if you're there and yourmotivation is still high and
you're watching the Tour deFrance and you're getting stoked
(09:30):
to ride your bike, keep itgoing.
You don't need to listen to aold coach over here talking
about a mid-season break andbeing wooed into it.
Not at all.
So here's another observation Ihave with some of my time
crunched athletes.
Some of them become less timecrunched as we head into the
summer because of that improvedweather and increased daylight
hours, like I talked about.
(09:50):
So my advice here is to have amid-season change, not a
mid-season break, and thatchange is a little tick up in
volume, if you can.
So, as we're turning here intoJuly and August, for, again,
like I said, most of us in NorthAmerica, if you can extend that
long ride every once in a while, maybe every other weekend, you
(10:10):
tack on an hour, or maybe youget to just sneak in a half hour
or more at the end of the rideat the end of the day, because
the sun doesn't set until late,and you tell your spouse and
your kids hey, I won't be homeas early on Tuesdays and
Thursday nights, something likethat, and you're leveraging the
(10:31):
weather and you're leveragingthose daylight hours to get a
little bit more volume and get alittle bit more fit throughout
the summer.
And so, yes, I am advocatingincreased volume right now and
that volume should be primarilyzone two endurance training.
Now everyone and their momsknow the benefits of zone two
riding, okay.
And so if you have a littleextra wiggle room right now, I
(10:53):
would, I would take it.
But as you do that, I wouldencourage you to decrease your
time at intensity or number ofinterval days If you're going to
reach for the volume.
Keep in mind adding volume willincrease training stress.
So I generally decrease time atintensity when I'm increasing
volume.
For somebody to keep the TSSroughly similar, or maybe a
(11:17):
slight uptick in TSS so that wedon't hit the burnout or overdo
anything, and for a timecrunched athlete, if you're not
used to doing a ton of volume, Iwould say just tread softly,
tread carefully, and if youincrease by 10 to 15% each week
for two to three weeks and thenkeep it stable, that's generally
(11:37):
a pretty good recipe forincreasing your volume.
Now I did an episode on this.
I don't have the number infront of me but we'll include it
in our show notes.
But I talked about using thesemetrics of how to use ramp rates
, volume and good planning toincrease CTL and fitness.
Again, if you want all thedetails about that, I did a nice
(11:58):
20, 30-minute episode on it andI will link to it in the show
notes.
So check out more on that formore details.
Now for athletes that aretypically crunched on time, an
extra two to three hours ofriding per week for three to six
weeks will do wonders toimprove your aerobic capacity,
depth of fitness and durability.
(12:19):
Just plan ahead, communicatewith your family and your work
colleagues, your kids, and getcreative on how you use your
time.
Many of my athletes do this inthe summer and can do this
because some of the normalbarriers, like cold and dark,
are not there for those months.
So generally, I would say againif you're not blown out, if
you're not craving a break infitness, in fact, if it's like
(12:43):
man craving a break in fitness,in fact, if it's like man.
The first quarter of the yearwas stressful with work and
weather and all this kind ofstuff.
I didn't get in all my trainingand you're going good right now
.
Just keep it up, keep thatconsistency rolling, keep the
momentum rolling and you'regoing to set yourself up for a
great end of the year.
So this gets back to should youdo a mid-season break?
(13:04):
Or is a mid-season break alwaysgood?
And I'd say you know it reallydepends.
You know, for the time crunchedathlete, for the athlete who's
a little like hit and miss intheir training, probably not.
But if you're a very routineathlete, if you're a higher
mileage athlete or time richathlete, I'd say generally, yes,
I would take a break.
And most athletes we want tokeep on pushing from January all
(13:29):
the way through December inhopes of increasing fitness and
improving VO2 and maxing outtheir FTP, all that kind of
stuff.
But I'll remind you and I'llremind them that they need to
rest in order to see gains.
Stress plus rest equals theadaptation and those gains are
not always linear.
So sometimes you just need togo down a little bit before you
(13:52):
go back up, and having a fewmore down weeks after months and
months of hard training candecrease fatigue and allow for
more motivation, energy, focusand that super compensation
effect to come back in months tocome.
So for those doing two sportslike road and cross, definitely
take a couple of weeks, if notthree weeks, easy before ramping
(14:15):
up into your cross season.
You won't lose much in two tothree weeks.
Search for D training episodethat I've done before and you'll
get all the details of whatthat means.
But if you just hang up theroad bike from master's gnats
and then start crushing it onthe cross bike right away, I
think you'll burn out beforeWaterloo.
Okay, for all the cross racersyou know what I'm talking about.
(14:37):
Now, for those time crunchedathletes who are listening to me
and they're like I juststruggled to hit six weeks on
average and my summers are beingburned up by my, you know,
getting the kids to camps andsports and family trips.
I hear you.
I have some athletes thereright now alongside you.
(14:58):
You don't need a break fromyour training.
You probably just need a breakfrom life.
But that's where stayingconsistent with the bike is key,
because those mini breaksbehind your bars are just as
much as stress relievers as theyare fitness builders.
So just know you don't have tofollow the similar build and
(15:19):
rest cycles that you may see onVeloNews or even from our own
newsletters, right, becauseperiodization is kind of out the
window for you.
So just stay consistent for now, and that will carry you
through.
So kind of in a long summary,and to wrap this thing up, my
main message for the timecrunched athletes out there is
see if you can get a little moretime rich during the summer
(15:42):
months, freshen up the legs withan easy week or something like
that if you've been hitting theintervals, and then kick up the
volume for July and August.
The tour is on now.
The Tour de France Femmes isjust around the corner, a couple
of weeks away, I think.
So let that stoke the fires ofmotivation to help you get out
there on the bike and ride alittle bit more.
Get creative with your time putin the miles and know that this
(16:05):
will serve you for the fallfondos cycle cross season, if
that's your thing, or just someextra fun when the heat breaks
and we get some cooler weatherdown the road.
For those of you listening whohave raced a pretty heavy first
half of the season, and ifyou're feeling cooked,
unmotivated and you got sometired legs that just won't go
away, kick them up, watch thetour and be lazy for a week or
(16:29):
two.
Then start riding back.
Don't be in a rush and knowthat all the work that you've
been doing for the past sixmonths is going to be there for
you, but it is very good to takethat mid-season break.
So that's it.
That's our show for today.
If you liked what you heard,please share it with a friend or
a training partner, as that'sthe best way to grow the show
and ensure that you keep ongetting good content like this
(16:51):
streaming into your feeds.
If you have a question for me,head on over to trainrightcom
backslash podcast and click onask a training question.
Head on over to trainwrightcombackslash podcast and click on
ask a training question.
Those questions get sentdirectly to me and I'll do my
best to answer it on a futureepisode.
Thanks again for listening andbe sure to come back next week
(17:12):
for more training tips in atimely manner.
Thanks for joining us on theTime Crunch Cyclist podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the show.
If you want even moreactionable training advice, head
over to trainrightcom backslashnewsletter and subscribe to our
free weekly publication.
Each week you'll get in-depthtraining content that goes
beyond what we cover here on thepodcast.
(17:32):
That'll help you take yourtraining to the next level.
That's all for now.
Until next time.
Train hard, train smart, trainright.
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