Curious as to what everyone’s “off season” amounts to.
For example, if you put in 20-22 hr. weeks for peak weeks, what is your hrs for a week in the off season?
What defines too much and what defines too little?
Thank you.
I’d say it’s more about intensity than about volume, because I try to get more hours in the winter months than I do in the spring and summer.
A lot depends on what’s happenning in my life. A few years ago I was training 28-30 a week through the winter and cutting back to maybe 20-24 as the racing season approached, and even less in season because of taper and recovery from events and down time to travel. Obviously you can’t do a 7-hour ride on Sunday if you’re racing that day, and you probably would trim something from Saturday’s long run as well.
Back then I was unattached and had a really cushy job. Now I’m lucky if I can get 15 hours in any one week and I have to try to make up for it with more intensity.
Your question maybe best answered by a good coach.
For me, I double my training duration to maybe 10 or 12 hours (Assuming family & work responsibilities allow), but I back off from tempo & speed work in the off season. My races tend to max out at 2-3 hours. If I was doing IM or 1/2 IM, it would likely be different.
I taper the weekly volume & ramp up the temp/speed work around mid-march. After the 1st race of the season (mid May) my training drops to 4-5 hours per week but it’s all recovery or tempo/speed.
Most of the books that I see put it around 60-70% (e.g. Friel, Sleamaker, Bompa).
Other sources: Scott Tinley (1986) 17,000m/560km/100km (68%/82%/75% of peak week)
Mark Allen (1989): 14,200m/464km/83km (70%/60%/78% of peak week)
As for the survey, I haven’t collated it yet but, at a glance, I’d say STer’s are somewhere between 40-50%
Hope this helps,
Alan