How to maximize your offseason and early season training for faster racing

You’re done racing for the season, maybe you took some time off completely during the holidays and it’s not time to start ramping up for your next race yet.

This is actually the part of your season that can set you up for your best success during race season.

So what should you be doing during this time?

There are four things to focus on that are going help you build to a faster, stronger racer.

The first is rest and recovery. It’s really important to take the time to step back, give our bodies a chance to recover before we ramp up the training again. Often runners are afraid to lose fitness so they continue to push high levels of mileage or intensity. You can only peak your fitness about two times per year. Part of that requires slower periods that promote recovery and prepare your body to get stronger and faster. Following a race training plan allows requires a lot of mental focus as well. Building lower intensity into your offseason gets you both mentally and physically ready to perform your best.

The second one is to build your base mileage. Base mileage is really going to be useful as you get into your race training season. This is the time to slowly build, run those easy miles. Building your weekly mileage over time means that there is less risk of injury. It also allows you to start your training plan at exactly the right base mileage.

Third, build strength by focusing on weight, plyometrics, and mobility training. The off-season is a great opportunity to really dialing in your strength training protocol. For some runner, this may mean starting one from scratch. For more seasoned athletes, this may mean switching the number of days that you run and strength train so that you have a heavier emphasis on the strength portion. It is a time to lift heavier, do some general, non-running specific work, and add some muscle. Everything you do here will carry over into your training block. It sets you up to continue your strength training into your race block and brings you into it more injury resistant and primed to run faster.

Finally, this is the time to work on your run form. These are the sort of the fundamentals that runners don't generally get to do during race season when we're so busy doing workouts and higher mileage. Incorporating running drills, really focusing on those things that improve form will pay dividends in the long term

The offseason is the perfect time to set yourself up for a successful training and racing season for the rest of the year. What you do now is the foundation for everything to come.