The holiday period is a time to take a break from the daily grind and relax. And this also applies to everyday training. In this blog article we will examine what to keep in mind when getting away from your daily training routine and how you can use the holiday season to set new stimuli.
Maintaining performance levels during holidays
For many people, the focus during the holidays is on relaxing and spending time with friends/family. The consequence is that less time is often invested in training than usual.
If you decide to stop training completely, you will face a loss of performance from 1-2 weeks onwards (moreover, you will not be able to work on your progress during this period).
Such performance losses can be counteracted by temporarily reducing training and concentrating mainly on key workouts (intervals, tempo runs and long runs).
Integrating alternative sports can also help to challenge the body during the holidays. Why not go on a cycling trip instead of travelling by car?
The special case of the training camp
The situation is, of course, different when the holiday is used for a training camp. Such a camp aims to increase performance by deliberately subjecting the body to a higher training load. In this case, holidays are used to expose the body to new stimuli through an unusually high/intense training load.
The following must be taken into consideration:
- A training camp must be followed by a rest period.
- Do not overdo the training intensity during the training camp.
- Do not increase the usual training distance by more than 50%.
How to make changes on running.COACH
ENTER HOLIDAYS
In running.COACH there is also the possibility to enter upcoming holidays in the training plan settings.
This function tells the plan that no training should be scheduled for the period entered. The plan assumes that training will take place, but without any specifications. For this reason, no return plan is generated after a holiday absence has been entered.
In case a holiday period lasts longer than 10 days and no sports activities are carried out, the training sessions must be marked as not carried out by clicking on the ‘cancel’ button, in the same way as interruptions due to injury/illness.