Hey Everybody.
In April, I fell off the bike and broke my hand, and couldn’t ride for 2.5 months. Also I moved to another country and during this period I couldn’t focus on sport. And next month I have a wedding and honeymoon for 2 weeks so I will be off the bike again. After that, september and cold weather is coming. So I delayed all of my performance and event targets to the next year.
Should I end my season here and start the off season base training now? Or keep pushing with build and speciality phases until winter really comes can give me some benefits for the next year?
After such a long brake you have to rebuild your aerobic base. It’s no other than returning from injury - start over with base. There is no point to do the build as you do not have anything to build upon. Your blood plasma is low, hence vo2 max and after such a long time there is a loss in mitochondria density. So return to training gently and up the volume and intensity gradually.
Use lack of competition to build really strong aerobic engine and crush your enemies next season.
And for more information, look for some Inigo Mujika articles about detraining and retraining. You will find the links also in the forum
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Go back to base and focus for the remainder on building your base. As a rule of thumb, you will need 2x the time to rebuild fitness, i. e. after 1 month off you will need 2 months to get back to where you were.
Now don’t be afraid, you will not fall off a cliff. Just temper your expectations and play the long game.
Also, congrats on moving countries. That is a lot of stress, but also a lot of fun.
PS One addition to my comment: fitness comes in many different guises. I took a month off this April to go traveling with my family for the first time in three years. My loss in fitness wasn’t as pronounced in terms of FTP, but my endurance was complete garbage. (The result of my ramp was so high that I validated it against several workouts and an outdoor ride with several known climbs that I rode in specific power zones. The ramp test result was good.) So make sure to assess your fitness in a comprehensive fashion.
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Base. Offseason. Base. Build. Specialty.
Timed backwards from whenever you want to peak.
Do you mean “base” for Trainerroad style base = SSB and “offseasons” for traditional base?
Offseason is time off the bike to let your body and mind recover. Moderate ‘other stuff’ is fine, but don’t replace all the bike training stress with ‘other stuff’ training stress. Probably a minimum of 2 weeks. Good time for strength training.
Base is whatever you want it to be. Traditional / Sweetspot / Polarised. Take your pick. Mix it up if that helps manage boredom/motivation.
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