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Key Takeaways
1. Your off-season shouldn’t be “do nothing and get soft” or “pretend it’s still race season” – the sweet spot is 7–10 days of unforced training, then a deliberate flexi-season focused on weak links, strength, and health.
2. Off-season is the only realistic window to change body composition, fix technique, and build real strength without blowing yourself up – but you need a plan, not vibes and holiday leftovers.
The Off-Season Isn’t a Holiday. It’s a Weapon.
This blog comes out of a Fuelin Sessions episode I recorded with HumanGo’s Rae Harrie and Matt Hanson talking all things off-season – or as Rae likes to call it, the flexi-season. Everyone’s heard the clichés: “You’ve earned your break”, “It’s time to switch off”, “I’ll just get fit again in March.”
And then April comes, you feel like a bag of wet cement, you hate the pool, and the TrainingPeaks chart looks like a crime scene. The goal of this piece is simple: give you a clear, practical framework for your off-season so you don’t start next year from zero, and you don’t mentally burnout either. Matt put it bluntly: for most athletes, 7–10 days of very low or no structure is enough. Not 4 weeks on the couch. Not “I’ll start again next year.”
But there are two lenses:
Psychological – If you’re sitting in your car outside the pool thinking, “I’d rather eat my goggles than get in,” that’s a sign you need a short mental break. For that first 7–10 days, nothing should feel forced. Move if you want to: walk the dog, play with the kids, ride to the café. If it feels like punishment, skip it.
Physiological – This is where people panic. Yes, detraining is real, but it’s not binary. Short breaks (up to ~2 weeks of reduced training) cause measurable but modest drops in fitness, especially if you’re still doing something aerobic.
The big red flag is complete inactivity – true “bed-rest” level – which can start reducing plasma volume and VO₂max within a few days. That’s not what we’re talking about. So the simple practical rule:
Days 1–7 (or up to 10): No structure. Move your body if you feel like it. Zero guilt if you don’t.
Weeks 2–3: Light structure – aim for ~60 minutes of “something” most days (walk, easy spin, light jog), but still low intensity, low pressure.
Week 3+: Start a purposeful flexi-season block with a clear goal: zone 2 base, strength focus, technique block, or body comp phase.
Don’t Let “Super Fit to Super Fat” Scare You
We joked on the podcast about the paper titled “From Super Fit to Super Fat” and the social media spin that “two weeks off and you lose everything.” Reality check:
1. Studies show most training-induced gains are only partially reversed after 2–4 weeks of detraining – and more so if you stop completely, not if you cross-train.
2. VO₂max and performance markers drop faster the more highly trained you are, but they also come back faster once you restart structured training.
You do want your fitness metrics (CTL/AWL, whatever platform you use) to drop 15–30% in the off-season. If your fitness line never dips, that’s not “dedicated”; that’s a plateau and a fast-track to chronic fatigue. The aim is “mitigate the losses, don’t fight them.” as Matt said. Let the graph drift down while you protect health, rebuild strength, and work on things you neglect in season.
Metrics, HumanGO and the Art of Letting Fitness Drop
HumanGO uses rolling training load metrics (like AWL: a 7- and 42-day heart-rate/time based training load) to show your fitness trend. In off-season, a controlled drop of those numbers is desirable – not a disaster. Coach Rae’s rule of thumb: 15–30% drop in fitness score. How far you let it fall depends on when your next key race is. March/Boston? Don’t nuke it. June or later? You’ve got more room.
On the Fuelin side, we think in the same way about nutrition: Race season: your priority is performance and health, not aggressive weight loss. Off-season: this is your window for body composition work – either adding some lean mass (and yes, some fat with it) or strategically losing body fat without compromising training.
This mirrors what long-term case studies and reviews on body composition periodization show: you can’t and shouldn’t sit at peak race leanness year-round. The best athletes periodise both training and body composition across the year.
Off-Season is Prime Time for Body Composition
Let’s be blunt:
1. If you’ve been too lean all year, your off-season job might actually be to gain a little weight – some lean mass, some fat – to restore hormones, immune function, and sanity.
2. If you’ve been fighting your weight all season, off-season is the only sane time to run a mild deficit while keeping training load lower and strength work higher.
Trying to chase peak training load + calorie deficit + life stress is how you earn yourself a nice dose of low energy availability (LEA) and under-recovery.
So in practical Fuelin terms:
1. Off-season body comp focus
- Slight energy deficit (or surplus if you need to build) on low-load days-
- Protein high (~2-3 g/kg/day) to protect/build lean mass
- Carbs scaled to actual training (not “last summer’s FTP dreams”)
2. In-season performance focus
- Fuel the work: carbs matched to session intensity and duration
- Avoid large chronic deficits that flatten you by mid-build
Strength Training: Stop Treating It Like Optional Extra
Every endurance coach says “do strength,” and every endurance athlete gradually ghosts the gym from June onwards. The off-season is when you fix that. The evidence is pretty solid: proper strength training improves running economy, time-trial performance, sprint ability, and doesn’t wreck body composition when programmed alongside endurance work.
Matt’s view (which I fully agree with):
1. In-season: many athletes barely manage 1–2 light, “functional” sessions and then drop to 0.
2. Off-season: flip the priority.
- 2–3 sessions/week
- Higher loads, lower reps (for those with adequate competency and supervision)
- Big rocks: squats, deadlifts/hex-bar, lunges, step-ups, calf raises
- Plus multi-planar core and stability work: farmer’s carries, single-arm carries, loaded planks, lateral work, balance-plus-load drills.
Think of it as Matt’s slightly modified quote: you can’t shoot a cannon from a canoe. Your run form, bike position and injury resilience all sit on the foundation of strength and stability. The flexi-season is when you build the battleship hull, not sit in a blow-up dinghy.
Technique: Stop Just “Adding More Laps”
Swimming and running technique came up a lot. This one hit home with me as I loathe swimming yet recognise I need to make it a strength rather than avoiding my weakness!
Swim – Feel for the water falls off fast, especially for weaker swimmers. Matt tries not to go more than 3 days without getting in. Even short, easy swims maintain feel better than “I’ll restart in February.”
Run – Don’t chase some textbook “perfect form.” What matters most is where your foot lands relative to your centre of mass, not whether you’re a heel, mid- or forefoot striker. Overstriding way in front of you is the real knee-wrecking culprit.
Off-season is ideal for:
Stroke analysis and technical swim blocks
Run gait assessments that start with mobility and strength, not “change your foot strike because Runner’s World said so”
Bike fit refresh after a year of creeping compensations
Get assessed, then let HumanGO build blocks around those weaknesses – and let Fuelin match your nutrition to those new training blocks.
Wearables, HRV & Why You Still Have to Feel Things
We also went down the wearable rabbit hole: Oura, WHOOP, Garmin, Polar, all the toys. The core message: data is only useful if you know what you’re using it for. HRV, resting heart rate and sleep metrics are all interesting, but they don’t replace your brain. Multiple reviews have shown that simple subjective measures – mood, fatigue, soreness, stress – are often more sensitive and more consistent than isolated objective markers like HRV for monitoring day-to-day readiness.
So in practice:
Answer the subjective questions honestly (How tired am I? How sore? How’s my mood?)
- Use HRV/RHR/sleep as context, not commandments
- If every marker – subjective and objective – is screaming “red”, that’s your cue to back off
- If HRV is a bit low but you feel good and you just slept badly because the baby was up all night, that’s a different story
Long term, both in HumanGO and Fuelin – integrates these data streams so we give you actionable, not anxiety-inducing, feedback.
Big Food Events: Thanksgiving, Christmas & the Body Comp Trap
We finished the episode with something very real: how not to blow up your off-season goals at every big food event. For athletes aiming to improve body comp, a few non-negotiables:
1. Don’t arrive starving
Eat normally beforehand. Go in fed, not ravenous. Under-fuelled + overloaded table = “eat like you’re storing for winter” behaviour.
2. Have a plan, not a ban
“I’m not eating anything bad” usually ends with you parked at the dessert table. Decide ahead of time: have the foods you love, but in reasonable portions. It’s a meal, not a 2000-kcal eating contest (which, for the record, is roughly what many Thanksgiving meals hit before the day-long snacking).
3. Move like a normal human that day
Do your usual easy run, strength session or walk in the morning. You’ll feel healthier, regulate appetite better, and be less likely to say “stuff it, I’m all-in.”
4. Control some of the menu
Bring a big salad you actually like and a protein option you trust – salmon, lean meat, a good plant-based dish. You’re contributing, and you know there’s at least one plate you can load up that aligns with your goals.
5. Work on your relationship with food
If these events send you into anxiety, guilt, or all-or-nothing cycles, the off-season is a powerful time to work with a professional on that. Fixing your food mindset will do more for your long-term performance than any marginal gain gel.
Final Thoughts: Mitigate the Losses, Add New Stimulus
If I had to boil the whole conversation with Rae and Matt down to one line, it’s this:
The off-season is about mitigating losses while adding as much smart, novel stimulus as possible.
- Let your fitness drop a bit on purpose.
- Protect your headspace.
- Lift properly. Lift with purpose.
- Fix something technical.
- Use HumanGO to build a flexi-season block that targets your weakest link.
- Use Fuelin to eat with intent – whether that’s rebuilding, leaning out, or simply supporting health.
Do that for 8–12 weeks and next season won’t just start better; it’ll feel completely different. In a good way.
Thanks,
Scott