It's fall here in Eastern Canada. Racing is over for good and after a few good days of complete rest, my body is jsut telling me it needs more. I caught the classic September/October cold so it means im on my butt for at least a whole week. Training or just riding when being sick is just silly. That's one thing I could not get my head around when I started training seriously but I now understand the impact of training when ill and the major consequences it can have on your body and on the season's training cycle. So im now more disciplined with regards to training and illness.
The forced break will have its benefits. First it will serve as a mental rest from physical activity in general and from being on my bike everyday. Mental rest is a key to a good start to winter training. I need to be as fresh as possible mentally to be able to cope with the serious intensity planned for the long winter months.
Second, it obviously serves as a physical break. Replenish those energy stores, rebalance the endocrine system which certainly has taken a solid wack during the racing season. It also means giving the body time to heal all those minor injuries, joint pain and other painful body parts.
It is important to get enough rest before the winter training regime starts. In the past few years, I was'nt getting much rest between the end of the season and winter. I was basically just riding along on the road or in the trails and taking a few days off here and there but no structured rest period. That recovery week will leave me very fresh and not too detrained. Hopefully the illness heals fast too.
There is some serious training coming up for winter. Keep following if you like a good dose of training articles and geeky training stuff!
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