Raise of hands -- how many of you live somewhere that experiences inclement winter seasons?  It gets darker earlier, and for a lot of us it is also colder and wetter.  The motivation to get outside for substantial weekday rides tends to wane when we are fighting against the dark, the cold and, sometimes, precipitation as well.  It's tough warming up against biting cold, right?

When we conduct our stress tests to determine our training zones, the gold standard is determining FTP -- Functional Threshold Power -- and then basing our zones off FTP.  FTP is the maximal power we can typically hold for a straight hour's effort.  In other words, standard 40k TT effort.  In my opinion, there's a better, more effective way to establish your Winter training zones for cycling.  

Due to the inclement weather, we tend to train indoors more and we tend to also lower our volume compared to the Spring and Summer months.  It is not uncommon for cyclists and triathletes to cut their training in half through the Fall and Winter.  With a 25-50% cut in volume, intensity has to rise in order to compensate for the lower volume and to also create enough stimulus to create adaptation and improvement.  Focusing on intervals, even intense intervals, based off a power test for an extended time trial does not seem to make much sense.

So, what's the alternative?

Critical Power.  Now, if you look up Critical Power, you're likely to get as many definitions of what it is as the number of links you click on.  So, here is how I define Critical Power (CP).  CP is the maximal power you can hold during a 1min ramp test.  Another way to think about this is that CP will be a power value significantly higher than your L5 power based off FTP.  A CP test protocol looks like this:

Part 1 -- warm up for 10 minutes at 100-125 watts (yes, extremely easy).  Then, start the test by holding 100w for 1min; hit the split button and increase your watts to 125 for another 1min; then 150w for 1min; then 175w; and so on until you completely blow up (if your FTP is typically in the low- to mid-200s, you could increase your 1min ramps by 20w instead of 25).  The last 1min increment that you successfully hit the target watts becomes your CP.  So, for example, if you hit 325w successfully, but could only manage 342w for the next 1min against a target of 350w, your CP is 325, NOT 342.  
Part 2 -- after spinning easy for 10-12 minutes, hit the split button and crank your watts up to CP and see how long you can hold your CP.  This is your Tmax, or maximal time at CP.  If you conducted Part 1 accurately, then your Tmax should fall in the 90-180sec range, mainly depending on how well-tuned your VO2max is.  

With your CP and Tmax values, you can then start a waterfall of workout cycles based on percentages of CP rather than percentages of FTP.  The first cycle should be shooting for 100% CP or just above.  A sample workout is something like 15sec @ 100% CP with 15sec super easy; or 20sec on/off; or 30sec on/off.  Above 30sec duration, the recovery interval needs to lengthen.  For example, 1min @ 100% CP with 2-2:30 super easy between.  Start with 20min TOTAL (so, in the case of 15-30sec intervals, that would be a total of 10min worth of hard work) before trying 24-25min, then 30min.  Complete an average of 2 CP workouts per week.

Make no mistake, these are extremely -- make that EXTREMELY -- hard.  Some refer to them as HIIT (High-intensity Interval Training).  Sure, that's accurate.  But, unlike HIIT or Tabata or some other catch phrase, you are not simply "going as hard as you can".  Rather, you are basing your power zones off your CP test rather than completely subjective, nebulous definitions.  This is how you measure progress one workout to the next and one test to the next.  So, what do power zones based off CP look like?

Critical Power Training Zones
HIT:  95-110% CP (intervals <1min in duration)
MITO:  85-92% CP (intervals <4min in duration)
SPAM:  78-86% CP (intervals 4-6min with less recovery than MITO)
LIP:  72-80% CP (intervals 10-30min duration -- very much like SST/FTP)
L3:  <68% CP
L2:  <62% CP
L1:  <50% CP

Start by focusing on the HIT intervals and take it down a notch each subsequent cycle.  You could even start with 2 cycles focusing on HIT before trickling down.  I would say that during HIT and MITO cycles, re-testing CP is important.  Once you evolve into SPAM and LIP intervals, re-testing is less important (though, you can certainly re-test if you are a glutton for punishment).  After your LIP cycle, it will be time to turn your focus to FTP testing and training zones.  It will be warming up, the days will be already getting longer and you will be squarely focused on the soon-to-be-starting racing season.  

If you've never heard of Critical Power or never tried the above protocol, give it a shot.  You will create stimulus and force adaptation in ways you have not in the past.  You will also be more inclined to stick with your winter training protocol because it is something new, novel and interesting.  And, if you think about it, let me know how it goes.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate

Typically at this time of year, we relax the reins a little bit regarding our militaristic approach to training and racing.  We train less, sleep more, stay up later, pay less attention to exactly what we eat and drink.
 
I love a high-quality Belgian beer.  If I'm at a gathering and the beer selection is cheap swill, I will take a pass.  Beer drinking, to me, is an experience and something to enjoy.  It's not about "getting a buzz" or having a drink for the sake of drinking.  In doing some research on how alcohol impacts athletic performance, I came upon a study done by UC San Diego that states the average college student drinks more than 34 gallons of alcohol every year.  Think about that.  There are nearly eleven 12-ounce beers in a gallon, so we’re talking somewhere in the 350-375 beers in a year.  While this only adds up to a beer a day, most of the consumption comes via binge drinking during the weekends and typically not every weekend.
 
Alcohol may provide as much as 20 percent of calories in the diet of some drinkers. On the surface, alcohol consumption seems harmless and a normal part of the college experience.  And, for adults a drink or two in the evening is a way to wind down after a rough day at work.  However, research overwhelmingly suggests that alcohol use and athleticism do not go hand in hand.
 
Although it may not be realistic to eliminate the use of alcohol altogether, Masters athletes may want to evaluate their alcohol consumption and determine whether or not they could benefit from reducing their consumption.  The following are just some of the effects drinking a bit of alcohol can have on us.
 
DEHYDRATION
Alcohol is a diuretic that can cause dehydration and electrolyte imbalances. The more alcohol and the stronger the alcohol you drink, the more severe the dehydration can be.  If you drink a lot, the ensuing dehydration can require several days to a week for full recovery. While dehydration can lead to things like cramps, muscle pulls, and muscle strains, it can also lead to extreme maladies such as severe brain impairment and even death when coupled with high temperatures and intense workouts (most notable during two-a-days). This reminds me of a 100-mile ride I did the morning after my bachelor party.  I woke up dehydrated and feeling less than stellar.  The group I was with was a “who’s who” of professional triathletes, duathletes and cyclists, and our collective goal was to cover the 100 miles as fast as possible.  My HR was a good 15-20 beats higher than it should have been, but I hung on until about mile 90 before completely exploding.  It was agony.  I limped in about 10 minutes behind the front group, in 3h 51m.  I don’t even remember the majority of the ride because I felt pretty awful.
 
TESTOSTERONE
Alcohol also negatively impacts serum testosterone levels. Decreases in testosterone are associated with decreases in aggression, lean muscle mass, muscle recovery and overall athletic performance. This can also cause testicular shrinkage, breast enlargement, and decreased sperm development in males. In females, this may cause an increase in the production of estradial, (a form of estrogen) which may increase the risk of breast cancer. This isn’t the result of having a single drink most nights.  But, if it common for you to consume a bottle of wine at dinner, you are unknowingly opening yourself up to these types of risks.  At the very least, you are setting yourself up for a less than stellar workout the next several days. 
 
PERFORMANCE
The biggest thing here is that alcohol interferes with lactic acid breakdown and can result in increased soreness after exercise.  The more quickly blood lactate levels rise and the harder it is for your body to process that lactate, the slower you will go.
 
FAT STORAGE
With nearly as many calories per gram as fat (7cal v 9cal), alcohol is stored much like fat in the body. Also, alcohol destroys amino acids and stores them as fat. Alcohol consumption, therefore, increases fat storage.  Powerful energy pathways (like glycolysis) are impaired and large amounts of lactic acid are produced, this results in decreased energy, decreased muscle recovery, and increased muscle soreness.  And because alcohol is typically consumed in conjunction with our normal food intake, we tend to consume a lot more calories than our body needs, leading to even more fat storage.  Carrying around unnecessary weight absolutely negatively impacts athletic performance.
 
SLEEP
Sleep has a huge impact on athletic performance.  Get too little of it and your body’s ability to repair itself is compromised.  The fatigue we feel from a lack of sleep negatively impacts our ability to perform in a workout or a race.  Alcohol has a detrimental effect on both the quality of sleep and on daytime attention.  The effects of alcohol on sleep and attention are complicated to define and have considerable variability in individuals.
 
That said, alcohol seems to accelerate falling asleep, at least in subjects who do not tend to fall asleep immediately. “Great!” you might say.  However, the negative effects arise later and affect the quality and duration of sleep. Alcohol disturbs or interrupts the sequence of paradoxical sleep and light sleep, both of which are essential to a healthy and full night’s sleep.
 
The less and worse sleep you get, the worse your athletic performances will be.  Disturbed sleep stimulates the sedative effects of alcohol during the waking hours. Alcohol consumed late in the evening will noticeably reduce performance the following morning. By producing an accumulation of nights of poor sleep, well-being starts to be impacted to a considerable degree.
 
CONCLUSION
So, should we raid the liquor cabinet and pour all of our alcohol down the drain?  No!  But, should we be more cognizant of what and how much we are imbibing?  Absolutely.  It is way too easy to pass off our consumption.  We are social creatures and socializing leads to greater alcohol consumption.  We enjoy a beer or a handful of them while watching sports.  We tend to use alcohol as a destressor after a challenging day at work.  And so on. 
 
What is important here is that you come away understanding the real and potential ramifications of your drinking habits.  If you have one drink an evening, you’re probably fine.  If you have 2-3 most nights, you’re imparing your ability to perform optimally in your training and racing.  I’m not suggesting you have a drinking problem.  Rather, you can now decide which is more important to you – multiple drinks per evening, or achieving your athletic goals. 
 
At some tipping point, there is a choice to make.  I enjoy one beer per evening.  During the important weeks of my racing season, I cut back to a beer every other evening and even cut it out altogether.  I do sleep better, my body feels better after hard bouts of training because it’s repairing itself more quickly and completely.  My training stats see an uptick, as does my racing.  So, why not cut alcohol out completely?  Because I enjoy it.  I don’t need it, but a top quality Belgian beer is quite tasty.  But, sometimes I do take a pass.  Sometimes a beer does not sound appealing so I leave it in the fridge. 
 
Hopefully you have found this to be somewhat enlightening.
 
Happy Training,
Coach Nate
 

​In everything activity we do, we must assess the rewards and the risks, make our decision to do (or not do) that activity, and then live with the repercussions of our actions -- good, bad or ugly.

Here’s a scenario.  You hop on your trainer this winter to jam out some 3min VO2max intervals.  On the first one, your watts are a little below target.  But, that’s OK – because your body tends to open up in the first 2-3 reps.  Then, your second rep is even lower, and on your third the watts drop yet again.  So, what should you do?  Should you finish the workout the best you can because mentally you’re motivated, or should you instead pull the ripcord and morph the workout into an L1/L2 aerobic effort, living to fight another day?

Unfortunately, the answer is not necessarily black-n-white.  Rather, it depends.  In the example above, are your watts still within range or are you dropping out of L5 and into L4?  How do your legs feel – are they dead or do they feel like you would expect them to? 

Here are some things to consider when you feel you are at a crossroads in a workout, so you can better determine whether to continue forging ahead or tapping out is the better course of action.

Purpose of the workout
Regardless of whether you are a single-sport or multi-sport athlete, and regardless of which sport’s workout you might be completing, the first step is understanding the purpose of the workout.  Simply saying, “I need to go hard today” is not enough.  Is the goal to hit a certain pace or watts or HR range?  Are you trying to complete a certain volume of intervals?  And, what is the purpose of doing the workout at that given intensity?

When you understand what the workout is meant to accomplish and why, you can then start determining whether or not the workout is going as planned or hoped.

Back to the example workout above.  If the goal is to hit a specific wattage (or, say, pace with respect to a track workout or repeat 100s in the pool) then continuing is probably not the best call.  However, if you are within the L5 range and simply might be having a sub-par day, you’re still creating the appropriate stimulus so you should keep going.

Make sure the goal is realistic
If you struggle to hit the targets in a single workout, not a big deal.  However, if you find yourself falling short more often than not, the “sub-par” performance is probably more a function of your ambition outpacing your current ability.  You might be setting your goals too high compared to where your fitness and/or abilities currently reside.  In the case of “goal pace” workouts, remember that you are striving to complete intervals at a pace or wattage for when you are fully fit, tapered and ready to race faster than at any other point in you season.  So, if your key race is 9 months away, hitting goal pace now is unrealistic. 

Pick something in between that allows for a realistic challenge now and serves as a way to bridge the gap between where you are at today and where you want to get to before your key race.  Maybe there are several baby steps you can take rather than one giant one.

Appropriate interval duration
Maybe the pacing and wattage are spot on.  Maybe the issue is with how long you hope to hold the effort.  For example, if you’re trying to complete 45 minutes of VO2max-effort intervals, chances are you’re going to implode.  Or, maybe you’re trying to complete VO2max intervals of 6 minutes in duration.  The overload you would experience in the first 1-2 reps would be massive and the rest of the workout would be a failure.

If you find you cannot hold the pace for the prescribed interval duration, shorten it up and over several weeks work on extending its length. 

Switch to a different type of workout
If you start an interval workout too ambitiously, sure, you’ll crater.  We’ve all done it.  We put too much emphasis on that first rep that we overload our bodies with lactate, our workout muscles feel like bloated balloons and we fall apart.  This is a lesson we all learn (over and over again usually).

Instead, you might just be having too hard a time hitting the desired effort or speed.  If you simply can’t get there, your body’s telling you that you’re not ready to provide the proper stimulus for the target energy system.  Calling an audible mid-workout and shifting its focus to a different energy system is what disciplined athletes do.  “I can’t hit my target pace/watts today and I’m dying trying, so I’m going to pull the plug and instead ride aerobically for another hour because I actually feel good at mid-L2.”  Then communicating back to your coach so that the two of you can better alter the program moving forward is the final critical step here.

Outside factors impact workouts
As much as we like to believe we are bulletproof, we are not.  We are human.  There are 3 buckets of stress that we continually need to work to balance – physical, mental and emotional.  When one or more of the buckets overflows, we have to dial down the other bucket(s) in order to create balance.  If we continually burn the candle at both ends, we will burn ourselves out all the more quickly.

If you just started a new job, or are getting married or divorced, or moving into a new home, and so on, you are piling on the mental and emotional stressors.  You probably feel exhausted when you wake up if you slept at all, and instead of thinking about your morning Masters swim workout, your first thought is about that unfinished “to do” list from work.

Completing key workouts in these situations is a crap shoot at best.  It’s OK to be mortal.  It’s OK to take a step back and dial down the physical stress until such time as you reach stasis again among the three stressor buckets.  You will know when you are out of whack if you pay attention, and you’ll know when you’re back in stasis.

Discomfort versus pain
When athletes tell me a workout “hurt” I immediately ask them to explain.  Athletes need to better characterize what it is they are feeling.  If a workout is hard and you’re pushing your limits, this is discomfort.  It is not pain.

Pain is associated with an injury.  If you’re feeling pain in your knee, for instance, and bending your leg makes you wince, then stop.  Immediately.  Discomfort is good, pain is bad.

Training the next day(s)
Regardless of whether you finished the original workout, altered it, or cut it short, a sub-par session is a sign you need to be careful in the following day(s).  The last thing you want to do is dig a deeper hole, from which it will only take longer to climb out.  Unless you are clearly getting sick or just not feeling good at all, sub-par workouts are usually based on a lack of adequate recovery between key sessions.

Contrary to popular belief, inserting another recovery day will not turn you into an out of shape blob.  Rather, it will allow you to better perform your next key workout and, thus, make more progress faster.

Developing poor mental habits
Again, we all have sub-par workouts for various reasons.  We work out way too much to think we will never experience poor workout performances. 

First, we need to accept this as fact.  Second, we need to be OK with bailing on a prescribed workout when we know it is the best course of action – we need to give ourselves permission to do this.  Third, and most importantly, we cannot beat ourselves up when we stop a sub-par workout or skip one altogether.  If it is best to do so, then have the confidence in your decision.
​
It is much easier to screw things up by continuing workouts you should not have than by stopping short and living to fight another day.

Keep this checklist handy and revisit it every few months as a refresher.  As you better learn when it is OK to continue pressing and when it is better to back off (and be OK with that decision), the more you will be getting out of your own way.  And the quicker you will progress.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate

Ignoring the endemic nature of doping across countries as well as across all sports, there are lots of take home messages from the 2016 Rio Olympics. One is that when governments invest in elite sport, the medals will follow. Another is that self-belief in your capacity to win can be inspirational to others around you. A third is that if you really want to reach the top, you almost certainly need to start your athletic career early - very early. An early start to training seems to lay the foundations for the future.

But, if you did not start athletics at an early age, should you even bother trying later in life?  And, if you’re already past 40, are you already on the downslide of your ability to physically perform?  With the biological clock ticking away, it's hard not to feel like you may have already missed your window of opportunity to make gains in fitness and performance.

Or have you?

Master athletes – good news
In animal species, it has long been known that there is a trade-off between development and maintenance. Animals that grow large and develop earlier tend to have shorter lifespans than those which get off to slower, more modest starts.  Now a new study suggests a similar pattern of a life history trade-off between early and above average physical performance, and longevity in Olympic athletes.

I remember a story from about 15 years ago of the top Masters 5k/10k runner in the world.  I believe he was British (I’ve searched for his name and story but cannot find it).  His story is pretty incredible nonetheless.  At age 30, he was a fairly elite chef.  He was also a sedentary, overweight couch potato and on the verge of dying due to extreme strain on his heart, he was told by his doctor.  He had never been athletic, but his doctor suggested he try running.  Walking on the treadmill evolved into casual runs and eventually into competing in local races.  When he turned 40 and into his 40s, he was the fastest Masters 5k/10k runner on the planet.  That’s pretty amazing!

There are plenty of other stories of young athletes who upon adulthood fall out of sport for various reasons.  Tina Husted is one such athlete.  Playing basketball while growing up, she also flirted with track in high school, running on her school’s 4x800m relay.  As for so many, “life happened” and it wasn’t until 2010 at the age of 37 that Husted got back into running when a friend dared her to do a Warrior Dash.  Three years later at the age of 40, she ran a 2:46 marathon and shows no signs of slowing down.

What I’m getting at is this.  It’s never too late to start getting yourself into better physical shape.  As anyone who listens will hear me say, “The body drives the mind, not the other way around.”  By keeping yourself active and physically fit, by challenging yourself physically (and I do not mean by power walking, but by really challenging yourself), you will keep the mind engaged and live a higher quality of life when other folks who stopped moving are starting to break down.  More and more studies are showing that remaining physically active until your dying day will keep your mental acuity higher.

If you used to be an athlete but feel there’s no use in picking a sport back up because your best days are behind you, or if you have never been athletic and are afraid to give something a try, don’t be!  Take the leap and get out there!  Start with reasonable goals and expectations – you won’t set the world on fire your first day.  But, with an intelligent approach, progress will come and come faster than you probably anticipate or imagine.  That is when things get exciting!

So, what are you waiting for?
​
Happy Training,
Coach Nate

In a recent post, I talked about the best way to approach the off-season.  While I’m a proponent of some downtime, I am loathe to call the Fall/Winter an “off-season” and treat it as such, like many coaches and athletes do.  The racing season can be long and, at the end of it, athletes deserve a break.  For a little while.  After all, if your training plan was well thought out and executed, you may not feel too shelled physically or burned out mentally and emotionally.  Let’s take a look at the conflicting arguments of taking a lot of time off versus sticking with your training in some form or another.

Which Is Better 
To rest or to train?  If I take a break, for how long?  If I keep training, how hard?  Should I continue racing like on the mountain bike or in cyclo-cross?  Which will benefit me more?  Help!!!
What I’ve come to find is that things come full circle.  Training hypotheses and theories come into favor and then fall out of favor before coming back into favor.  And when they come back into favor, they are touted as the next-greatest-super-secret-do-this-or-perish-at-your-own-risk approach to training.  It’s all marketing rubbish.

Common practices used to espouse taking a protracted break from sport-specific training and instead focusing on general fitness.  A cyclist might race cyclo-cross in Europe, but better still would be running or cross-country skiing.  Some cyclists are even reverting to swimming as a great lung buster.  Triathletes might sub-in some hiking instead of running and blow the dust off the mountain bike to avoid training by numbers. And, typically, the off-season would begin with a long period of time completely in sloth mode.

I’m not going to tell you taking time completely off is a “must”.  What I will say is that your body and mind will send you very distinct and clear signals, letting you know that a break is needed and how long it should be.  I’ve hit the end of a racing season on a huge uptick and not wanting to stop for anything, and I’ve also hit the end wishing it had come a month earlier and, thus, took a long break of over a month.  There’s no right or wrong answer, and the approach can easily change one season to the next.

What I will say is that while the days are getting shorter, the Fall is arguably the most gorgeous time to get outside and be in nature.  I’ve got the urge to start trail running again, so this weekend I laced up the shoes and started hoofing it – albeit for 15 and 25 minutes on Saturday and today.  I’m not as young and spry as I used to be!  That said, I can’t wait to be completing run/hikes of 2-2.5 hours up on the mountain trails.  I’ll be getting in plenty of cycling so I’m more than happy to forego a long ride and replace it with a run/hike through the Fall and Winter.

Effects of Detraining 
So, you’re taking some sort of “rest” – whether it be time completely off or time away from your primary sport.  But, we all get a little skittish at the notion of “time off”.  I remember being a year-round swimmer and even as a nationally ranked 10-year old, fretting about the 1-2 weeks of downtime between the end of one season and the beginning of the next season.  How long should we rest and what are the effects of that rest on our fitness?  Luckily, Bryan Bergman at the CU Medical Center has looked at 50+ studies on the subject and written a comprehensive summary on the effects of detraining.

Among all the findings, probably one of the most important is that VO2max can drop by as much as 14% in as few as 4 weeks. In the first 3 weeks, there’s a decrease in cardiac output; in the fourth week, there’s a drop in mitochondria density.  Even with these drops, after 8 weeks of no working out, a high-performing athlete still will stabilize about 50% above consistently sedentary people.  So, while the extended period of laziness might feel good and refreshing, it will also lead to a quite uncomfortable return to training as the body fights to regain its efficiencies.  And, regain them, it will; just slowly.  Similarly, after 1-2 weeks of sedentary living, muscle glycogen stores start to dissipate because you’re sending the signal that those stores are not required anymore.  So the body adapts and adjusts.

Blood volume also starts dropping after several days off and can drop as much as 10-15% in a month.  Most of this volume loss is in the form of plasma (water), but up to 2-4% can be due to the loss of O2-carrying red blood cells.  What is interesting is that capillary volume – the number of capillaries in the muscles themselves – does not decrease in elite athletes when they stop training.
All of this means that in roughly a month, aerobic fitness takes a big hit and can drop by as much as 25%.  Bergman believes that some of this is due to an increased use of carbohydrates as a fuel source because the less efficient the body is, the less it relies on fat the more it relies on sugar as fuel.  Athletes also find a rise in lactate production when compared to RPE (rate of perceived effort), again pointing to decreased aerobic efficiency.

And while there is a decrease in lactate threshold due to decreased aerobic efficiency and the body’s ability to process lactate quickly, this decreased efficiency tends to level off after about 3 months of inactivity.  As Bergman summarizes, “High lactate threshold is one of the most important predictors of endurance performance. It takes a lot of time, even years, to increase lactate threshold to an athlete’s genetic potential, so it is vital to prevent a large drop during the off-season. Only by building upon the current season’s gains in LT, will LT increase from year to year to an elite level.”

Minimizing the Losses 
There are ways to minimize the losses without continuing to train full bore.  Working out 3-4 days a week is plenty, for starters.  And, a focus on intensity rather than volume is a great way to mitigate the drops in both VO2max and aerobic capacity.  Interval training twice a week with the other 1-2 days being aerobic in nature is a perfect mix.  The other days can be devoted to strength sessions, yoga, days off, what have you.  The goal is to avoid returning to “the grind”.  This reminds me of when I stopped racing triathlon as a pro.  I took a few years off and simply exercised.  I did whatever I felt like whenever I felt like it, but also didn’t do anything when I didn’t want to.  After about 5 years, I returned to racing in the amateur ranks, on a diet of 6-9 hours per week.  Even at that little volume, I was able to regain about 96% of my pro-level fitness and speed. 

Many studies have shown that the biggest increase in fitness comes from jumping from 3 days to 4 days a week of training.  There is another but smaller increase from 4 to 5 days, but a negligible increase from 5 to 6 days.  So, my suggestion is to shoot for 4 days to keep things fresh.  Other studies show that if frequency and intensity are largely kept up, that volume can drop by as much as 75% -- just like during taper time.  Now, don’t take this to mean that you can drop that much volume year round.  There is a lot of benefit to long, aerobic-based workouts.  It’s just not required that they be done year round.  Keep yourself fast and fresh, and then worry about going long later come Springtime.

Conclusion 
After a long year of racing and training the idea of taking an extended break is attractive for sure, but the reality is that doing so will cut into the gains you just worked so hard to make, and could do so deeply if you take an extended break. Physiological measures like lactate tolerance, blood volume, mitochondrial density, and VO2max all drop, and do so significantly after the first weeks of stoppage. To maintain most of the gains but still afford yourself some downtime, it is a simple as reducing your training volume by 70-80%, your training frequency by 20-30%, while maintaining your training intensity at 70-80% of your typical in-season interval volume.
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It’s pretty straightforward.  The off-season does not equate to “lazy” or “easy” or “LSD training”.  Rather, it equates to focused, hard training in shortened sessions with plenty of R&R between these hard sessions so that you retain a feeling of freshness despite the hard work.  You want to be looking forward to the interval sessions, and you want both the body and mind to feel fresh for them. Accomplish this, and when you do start ramping up your volume come the Spring, you will be faster and better prepared for the season ahead.  And faster, too.
 
Happy Training,
Coach Nate