What signifies the start of your offseason? Maybe when the last race of your schedule has come and gone? Is it the first sign of snow falling or maybe when you find yourself tuning into the early World Cup cyclocross races of the year? Maybe you don’t take an offseason at all and you plow through the autumn months with the same intensity as June and July!
Whether you race or not, there’s a seasonality to fitness that often operates in parallel with the calendar year. As we’re now well into the months that end in -ber (brr!), I find it to be a helpful time to take stock, make the most of your offseason, and get set before diving headlong into the upcoming season.
How My Offseaons Have Changed
My time as a competitive cyclist is now entering its third decade and, to be honest, I don’t think I’ve done a single offseason the same, one year to the next. There are generalities, though. I was just getting into cycling in college, so after a sleep-deprived fall mountain bike season, I would park my bike in the corner of my dorm for the entire month of November, while I brought my GPA back up to a respectable level, before starting again.
Racing professionally for the next ten years often meant I would wrap up the racing season by mid-September but then continue riding for a few more weeks to milk the end of a year’s worth of fitness before hitting the hard reset button by mid-October. I insisted on at least two weeks off the bike before a return to training.
Since 2016, gravel has been the center of my riding. A dedicated stretch off the bike is usually just a few days rather than a few weeks, though volume and intensity are reeled way back.
Even though I’m taking less time off now than at any other time in my cycling career, I’m an ardent believer in leaning into this time to rest. It could be a time to let a nagging injury heal. It could be a time to double down on parts of life that have received less attention lately. Your body can be firing on all cylinders, but maybe your mind could use the rest. Much more often than not, in my personal experience and among athletes I coach, cyclists come out the other side of an offseason eagerly bursting out of the gate, ready to take on the year to come.
This Year
I wrapped up my 2026 season the moment I crossed the finish line at Arkansas High Country, a 1,024-mile bikepacking race across northwest Arkansas. That was early September, a time when the outdoor riding is absolutely primo: long sleeves and shorts, no humidity, cool mornings and warm by mid-day. It just might be my favorite time of year. So rather than just hanging up the bike then and there, I used the next few weeks to prepare for the offseason. I loaded mountain bikes on and off the SuperClamp bike rack much more frequently than in recent memory to hit up new zones and explore our new neck of the woods.
Having recently moved halfway across the country I’ve also spent the past few weeks putting some finishing touches on our gym, which will see far more use over the coming four months than the rest of the year. The Saris H3 trainer, and other Saris trainer accessories, are the pièce de résistance of our home gym. Earlier in my career, early season indoor training was entirely zone 2 endurance, but these days it’s more common to inject bits of higher intensity into a winter routine. Once back to winter riding, I enjoy dropping into sporadic virtual races where I know I’ll be cross-eyed from start to finish.
Rest Isn’t Doing Nothing
Using the offseason to let the body and mind rest and recover, this period doesn’t mean doing nothing, though. You might have noticed an increase in cycling media on the topic of bone health. We spend countless hours on the bike, a non-impact sport that can come at the expense of bone density. As a result, running and weightlifting become a huge part of my offseason and early season training, in addition to riding, of course.
Assess, Reboot, Look Forward
Whatever your offseason looks like, a few simple steps make it count. First, assess. Look back at the season and be honest about what worked, what nagged at you, and where your head is. Next, reboot. Rest the body and mind, let injuries heal, get stronger off the bike, and ride somewhere new just for the fun of it. Finally, look forward. A well-spent offseason leaves you hungry rather than burned out, and in my experience that hunger is exactly what you want when the new season starts. So take the time, make it your own, and come out ready to rip.
