The mission of training is simple across all enthusiasts and athletes:

• To maximize training load while achieving positive adaptations.

If you embrace this concept then you must realize that the game we play is stress management, especially for those in a time-starved life.  Training is a specific stress (hormonal and muscular) applied to achieved sport-specific adaptations, but we must balance with the stress of work, life, travel, sleep loss, and even potential eating.  It is a puzzle.

As performance driven enthusiasts and athletes, we consistently fight to hold our grip on balancing these stressors.  A never-ending game of decisions of focus and priority and, for many, time becomes a most precious commodity.  The chance for breathing room and relaxation is seldom a luxury to enjoy.

With all this in mind, at the peak of training periods as we prepare for racing, this challenge often means that training takes up a larger focus, often at the expense or sacrifice of social life, family fun or even work commitments.  Balance (an over-rated word) is tipped toward training. This isn't sustainable. The body gets fatigued from the training load (hormonal and muscular).

The mind gets cloudy from the juggling and stress.

This situation is central to why it is so critical to lean in and embrace a true season break and period of rest but we must put it into context.

The power of rest.  It cannot be over-stated - the body's need to rest.

1. Emotional:  Any challenge/puzzle/project gains passion and clarity with a bit of space.   Whether you were writing a book, building a coffee table, or training to win a world championship, your project might be a labor of love but stepping away and taking a break is a sure way to maintain that love.  To fuel and recharge that passion and to gain perspective globally, an emotional recharge is super. The spreadsheet of life replaced with a short-bout of free-range living is a marvelous way to charge up and remind yourself of the power of planning and structure.
2. Physical:  In endurance sports, there is undeniable wear and tear on your system, including your muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  They require rest and a chance to repair, or the constant load will likely cause damage or injury to occur. Like battling a fever, you cannot fully restore without rest.  The body demands it and grows in strength and resilience with it. While emotionally challenging, fitness and form can appropriately and temporarily drop if the system gets to repair.  This will only help readiness from the next cycle of progression and work and allow your long-term progression.
3. Long-term thinking:  Combine the physical and emotional benefits and needs:  You arrive with a clear opportunity for creating a path to longevity.  A block of rest - a break in focus and structure - is the only route to carve a path for long-term development and performance gains year over year.  Those who skip or avoid are typically those who plateau, who face injuries, who lose passion. The confident and the wise allow FORM to slide, knowing training will allow the form to rise again and retain a long-lens on their energy, performance, and progression.  

So, we establish the benefits of a break, but how do we rest most effectively without losing long-term development and progression?

Don't become a sloth.  Just because you drop the structure and focus, you don't need to become a sloth.  In fact, a proper season break entails this approach:

1. 2-3 weeks:  It typically lasts two to three weeks before we experience a return to structured training focus
2. Be a healthy human being:  In these weeks your mind can shift from a performance-driven athlete to a simple healthy human being.  That means it can include exercise, mostly healthy eating and good sleep, but leeway with a little excess and fun.
3. Everything in moderation, including excess:  Enjoy some later nights, less training structure and a little fun.  It is a good time to relax and loosen the reigns on structure.
4. Lose the metrics:  Any exercise is just that - exercise.  You do not need to track, monitor output with heart rate or power, and should not be pursuing getting fitter.  Globally, you should be exercising less than 50% of your normal training load.
5. Mix it up:  Try other things - whether it is yoga, hiking, mountain biking, Barry's boot camp have fun.
6. Appreciate a dip in form:  Don't panic if you add a few pounds, lose a little fitness, or your form dips.  This is normal, expected and actually required.
7. Lean into life:  Embrace the other parts of life.  Read the newspaper, enjoy coffee, spend more time with the kids.  Give back to partners and friends who accommodate and enable you to follow your passion for much of the year.
8. Don't obsess:  As much as possible, turn your back on the sport.  Since Kona, I have spoken to my more elite athletes no more than once, and don't want to talk to them for another week or so.  I don't want to invade their life and break with performance talk. That can come later.

This is the bedrock of a wonderful breakthrough next year - and is vital.  You don't want your break to begin to spread into four, five, six, seven weeks.   As you return, you will likely feel stale and low of form. Don't look to jump into training at the level you were just a few weeks prior.  Instead, you begin the essential prep phase of the post season.  We focus on the technical, rebuilding muscle resilience and integrating new habits of performance.   Just don't skip the enjoyable break from structure first.

Cheers,

Matt