37. DOES 1xWEEK HIT DURING THE OFF-SEASON OPTIMIZE NEXT SEASON PERFORMANCE?

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After the racing period and before the beginning of the preparation for the next season, off-season or transition period is the moment of the year when athletes usually take some time to rest and recover. While this could be a good practice to recharge both mentally and physically, the bad news is that we lose physiological adaptations faster than we gain them. In particular, this concerns the muscle oxidative potential (read the ability of muscle to use oxygen to produce power). (1)

So, many times the first part of the preparation is spent just to come back at the level reached at the end of the previous season. In many cyclists with a solid training history, this could contribute to meet a plateau in performance with no further improvements from one season to another. During the transition period the most common practice is to drastically reduce training volume and performing no high intensity training (HIT) at all. Is it a good approach?

Performing some HIT sessions during the transition period could be beneficial to improve performance in the subsequent season?

A study published by Taylor and Colleagues (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim) on International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance in in 2020 tried to answer this question. (2)