How to Properly Spend Your Cycling Off-Season

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The off-season is simultaneously the most relaxing and stressful period of a bike racer’s life. But how is that possible? After a long and grueling season, you can finally put your feet up, sit back, and relax. Hundreds of hours on the bike have given us a healthy fitness bank, yet many cyclists stress about the time off the bike.

Sometimes, we worry about losing our fitness, throwing all those miles away for a few weeks off the bike. Other riders lose their direction in life. With cycling as their passion, what are they supposed to do instead of riding? Are we supposed to take up a new hobby for two weeks and then give it up as soon as we jump back on the bike?

In this article, we’re going to explain the cycling off-season: when you should take time off the bike and how long to rest before returning to training.

The Case for the Off-Season

Cycling is an extremely demanding sport for beginners, professionals, and everyone in between. There is so much time, emotion, and mental and physical energy that goes into training, bike maintenance, travel, and racing.

The average amateur may train five hours per week, while the average elite rider spends more than 12 hours on the bike. Once you add in the time it takes to clean your bike, travel to races, plan training routes, and stretch out the lower back pain, you can easily spend more than 20 hours per week on cycling-related activities.

Taking an off-season allows you to relax and recharge, both mentally and physically. Like anything in life, a constant grind can lead to burnout. Even though most of us spend 40+ hours a week at work, we still take the weekends off, with a vacation once or twice a year.

You won’t lose as much fitness as you think during the off-season, even if you take a few weeks completely off the bike. But the ideal length of your off-season depends on a number of factors. Let’s take a closer look.

How to Calculate the Duration of Your Off-Season

Planning your off-season is both an art and a science. It’s like pacing a time trial without a power meter. You probably have a good idea of how hard you can go, but you also need to listen to your body every step of the way.

If you take one week off the bike, just like you planned, but you still have no motivation or energy, then you should listen to your body and take some extra time off. For most cyclists, two weeks off the bike is the sweet spot for the off-season. By the end of your time off, you should be itching to get back on the bike.

That is the art of the cycling off-season, but there is also the science behind detraining and the off-season. The more you train, the longer you can take off the bike because you will regain your fitness quickly. Beginner cyclists who ride 4four hours per week, for example, don’t typically need a three-week off-season to recharge. Here is a rough guide of what to expect.

If you have been training an average of…

• 1–4 hours per week… take 5–7 days off the bike
• 5–8 hours per week… take 1–2 weeks off the bike
• 9–14 hours per week… take 2 weeks off the bike
• 14–20+ hours per week… take 2–4 weeks off the bike

What To Do During the Off-Season

Take your average weekly training volume and add it back into your calendar — that is all of the free time that you will have during your off-season. For beginner cyclists, it might not seem like much. But for elites and professionals, adding 20 hours of free time to your schedule can actually feel daunting.

For most cyclists, it is best to keep yourself busy during the off-season, physically and mentally. The physical part doesn’t have to be difficult. Keep your body moving with activities like walking, hiking, or yoga. You can also keep yourself busy with art, such as drawing, painting, or creative writing.

Spend more time with family and friends, visit a new coffee shop, or knock out the item that’s been on your to-do list for nine months.

During longer off-seasons (>1 week), it is certainly acceptable to ride a bike. Some coaches are strict about taking time off the bike, but I believe that it’s okay to return to cycling as long as you are not “training.” That means no intervals, no racing, and no power meter. Off-season rides should be purely for your own enjoyment. You don’t even have to track your mileage or post the ride on Strava — remember what life was like without it?

How Quickly Do You Actually Lose Fitness?

Every cyclist worries about losing fitness during their off-season. Of course, taking time off the bike will reduce your fitness. But it’s not as much as you would think.

We’ve compiled some physiological data from a number of studies on cycling and detraining. As you look through the numbers, notice the changes between one week and four weeks off the bike. It’s not as significant as you might think.

After 5–7 days off the bike:

• VO2 max decreases by ~5%
• Blood volume decreases by 8–12%
• Aerobic capacity and cardiac output decrease
• Muscle glycogen stores are reduced
• Blood lactate increases

After 12–21 days off the bike:

• VO2 max decreases by 8–16%
• Stroke volume decreases by 10–17%
• Mass of the left ventricle of the heart decreases by ~20%
• Aerobic capacity and cardiac output decrease (again)

After >30 days off the bike:

• VO2 max decreases by 6–20%
• Aerobic capacity and cardiac output decrease (at a slower rate)

Did you notice something about those numbers? The changes are significant at first, and then they slow down rapidly. In other words, four weeks off the bike is not hugely different from 1-2 weeks off the bike when it comes to your physiology.

This is part of the reason that we’ve seen professional cyclists return to peak fitness so quickly after a crash. Even after three weeks off the bike, a few months of consistent training can help them regain the fitness they lost.

Remember, the numbers from each study offer wide ranges. There was a rider in the third study who only lost 6% of their VO2 Max after >30 days off the bike. That is incredible! Pay attention to your off-seasons and recovery rates each year. You may be a rapid detrainer or a slow detrainer, and there’s only one way to find out.

How Quickly You Can Regain Fitness

Most cyclists can regain their fitness in just a month or two. The rule of thumb is that it takes 2–3 times longer to regain your fitness than to lose it. So, if you take a two-week off-season, it may take 4 to 6 weeks to regain your fitness. That’s not bad!

This is a good time to remind you that a crash or illness will not ruin an entire racing season. If you take two to three (forced) weeks off the bike in April, you can regain your fitness well before the end of the road season.

One final note is that better-trained people regain their fitness faster. Thus, the longer that you’ve been riding, the easier it will be for you to regain your fitness after a two-week break.

Above all, remember that the off-season is the time to relax and recharge. Don’t spend your off-season running, getting a knee injury, or stressing about training. You’ve earned this time off, so enjoy it as best you can. The off-season is about doing the things you want to do, not what you think you should be doing.