It's been nearly a month since Dade City states and you're either a) riding again, b) wondering when to start riding again, perhaps c) wondering what to do now that you're riding again.
As I suggested last time, how long one takes off after the end of race season depends. One of my clients told me flat out he was burned out and wanted to cross train a couple of months. No sweat. Three others wanted a two week break and back to it, either because they just love riding bikes or in one case because they have some late spring and summer events planned.
Off-season base training
If CX is your focus all year, everything but it can be prelude. In that case, now is a perfect time to rebuild a solid endurance base, to do some strength training, to work on your off road handling skills, all the things you knew you needed to work on but couldn't fit in with two races a week and trying to train.
8-12 weeks of base training--plenty of steady endurance and tempo pace riding, a couple of days a week of strength training if you like that is plenty. After that it is time to move to a bit more structure--maybe you found your accelerations out of corners and/or finishing sprint to be lacking. In that case, incorporate some sprint workouts into your weekly training.
Whatever you're doing, what you want to avoid is building in so much intensity that you peak early in the year.
Two Race Seasons
Practically speaking, it is feasible to peak twice in a year. Ideally those periods should be at least 3 months apart, preferably further in time. So, for example, if you'd like to perform well at the state road championships in late May/early June, that is feasible. You could even plan on that now and spend less time in base training mode (recognizing that you'll do it again in July-August). In this case you will pinpoint the two weekends on which you want to be your best and work backwards, with the last week or two before go time being devoted to tapering and peaking and the four weeks prior to that two-week block focusing on volume and the highest training stress load.
How to plan this?
Some people do well planning their own training. Others like to have someone else planning their big cycles of training. If you're the former, there are lots of resources available to help you and among others Drew Edsall has plenty of generic training plans to get you started. If you're the latter, you know already the coaching options available. In either case, don't fret; cross season is only 8 months away!
As I suggested last time, how long one takes off after the end of race season depends. One of my clients told me flat out he was burned out and wanted to cross train a couple of months. No sweat. Three others wanted a two week break and back to it, either because they just love riding bikes or in one case because they have some late spring and summer events planned.
Off-season base training
If CX is your focus all year, everything but it can be prelude. In that case, now is a perfect time to rebuild a solid endurance base, to do some strength training, to work on your off road handling skills, all the things you knew you needed to work on but couldn't fit in with two races a week and trying to train.
8-12 weeks of base training--plenty of steady endurance and tempo pace riding, a couple of days a week of strength training if you like that is plenty. After that it is time to move to a bit more structure--maybe you found your accelerations out of corners and/or finishing sprint to be lacking. In that case, incorporate some sprint workouts into your weekly training.
Whatever you're doing, what you want to avoid is building in so much intensity that you peak early in the year.
Two Race Seasons
Practically speaking, it is feasible to peak twice in a year. Ideally those periods should be at least 3 months apart, preferably further in time. So, for example, if you'd like to perform well at the state road championships in late May/early June, that is feasible. You could even plan on that now and spend less time in base training mode (recognizing that you'll do it again in July-August). In this case you will pinpoint the two weekends on which you want to be your best and work backwards, with the last week or two before go time being devoted to tapering and peaking and the four weeks prior to that two-week block focusing on volume and the highest training stress load.
How to plan this?
Some people do well planning their own training. Others like to have someone else planning their big cycles of training. If you're the former, there are lots of resources available to help you and among others Drew Edsall has plenty of generic training plans to get you started. If you're the latter, you know already the coaching options available. In either case, don't fret; cross season is only 8 months away!