In my previous Substack article, I wrote a much lengthier explanation on how to avoid overtraining, mental burnout, injury, and staleness. As a shorter follow-up, here are some healthy reminders regarding the Recovery Period, which is the term used to describe the proactive method of resting your joints, tendons, and ligaments (and immune system) at the end of the spring and fall race seasons. The Recovery Period doesn’t imply zero training takes place; rather, it refers to significantly cutting down on either the total mileage, or at least the distance of the longest runs, as well as potentially staying away from the track for a few weeks, which can also apply to the swimming pool and spin classes for triathletes. Similarly, there could potentially be fewer Group X classes at the gym (and all the peer pressure that comes with it), and more days totally OFF. It is the calm before the storm (of training).
It usually makes obvious sense for this downtime to November and/or December, and it tends to do happen naturally because it’s a long holiday season, often filled with travel, family obligations, social events, and not to mention the race calendar has pretty much dwindled away at that point. However, it should also make sense to embrace a Recovery Period following a peak spring event, or a long spring race season. Meaning, in mid-May through early June, it's beneficial to reduce the training in selective ways so that you are physically recharged to crush the summer training, including a chance to hit a mental reset button. Therefore, this approach applies in terms of, a) avoiding physical overtraining and staleness, b) avoiding mental burnout, and c) also having had a chance to get fully caught-up on personal, social, and/or travel priorities.
In other words, unless you only recently began training in a structured, intense way for the past few weeks or months, then you need a mandatory 2-5 week significant downshift in order to rest your body after the solid training you've been doing since Dec 1st or Jan 1st (for example). Therefore, the Recovery Period applies to most (but not all) athletes, as again, some athletes are just getting the ball rolling in terms of a structured/committed training routine and don't need this extensive recovery. And based on personality types, it is very difficult for other amateur athletes to imagine a Recovery Period at all, as they’ll resist strongly with every molecule in their body, and unfortunately, these are too often the athletes who ‘DNS’ (“Did Not reach the Start line”) for their main fall events, as their body was broken-down by the time they reached late August.
Also, mentally backing-off in terms of hardcore data and exact pacing might be much needed at this time for some athletes. So, we're still making gains, but it has a different facade/face to it. And for some athletes, the Recovery Period is a time to rejuvenate via more sleep, as in getting closer to ~8 hours on a more frequent basis due to more overall free-time in your schedule. Most of you have learned/read that the body absorbs training loads during rest/recovery/sleep. And if you truly believe that, then this is a time to practice what you preach/read. Two to five weeks is a range, and it depends on who you are, what you've been doing since Dec 1st, or Jan 1st, and what main event(s) you did in April-May, hence the Recovery Period is individualized.
Coinciding with the Recovery Period, your goal is to be honest with yourself about how much you can improve your own inner-machine, by making more time for adequate sleep and healthier eating options. Perhaps you’ll feel much more energized as a result, including ween-ing yourself off any potential caffeine reliance (little by little) in this process. I wrote a separate article regarding the relationship between Sleep & Performance.
The Purpose & Pleasure Pendulum article would also be related to re-prioritizing goals throughout the year, which accounts for your busiest times of year versus other periods when you have more time for leisure activity. For some of you, this is relevant for a wise approach when choosing your race calendar for the year.
Train Smarter, Not Harder!
Mike