Don’t Waste Your Off-Season

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DEEP DIVE

Many sprinters finish their season exhausted, take a week or two off, then jump back into training because they're worried about losing fitness.

That approach is actually backwards.

The off-season isn't about maintaining what you built during competition. It's about creating the foundation for what comes next.

The issue is when athletes treat the off-season like a lower-intensity version of in-season training. Light sprint work, some tempo runs, maybe hit the weights a few times a week. Keep everything ticking over.

Research shows this is a mistake. Athletes who follow supervised off-season programs with specific phases see better adaptations than those who just maintain general fitness.

The difference isn't about working harder. It's about understanding what each phase actually does.

Elite sprinters take 2-6 weeks completely off after their season ends. Not "active recovery" with light jogging. Actual rest.

This isn't laziness. It's strategic recovery that allows both physical and mental adaptation before the real work begins.

When training resumes, the focus shifts to something most sprinters ignore: building a base that has nothing to do with sprinting fast.

The General Preparation Phase lasts 8-12 weeks. General strength work. Aerobic capacity. Movement quality. Coordination drills that look basic but build the foundation everything else depends on.

This is where Håkan Andersson's insight becomes crucial. He warns about excessive volume during this phase, particularly heavy resistance work that shifts muscle fiber characteristics away from the fast-twitch fibers sprinters need.

You can get stronger and slower at the same time if you're not careful about how you build strength.

That's the paradox you don't see coming. Higher squat numbers don't automatically translate to faster sprint times. Strength has to be built in a way that complements speed development, not replaces it.

The research backs this up. Sprint performance depends on specific neuromuscular adaptations that can be compromised by the wrong type of training volume, even during the off-season when you think you're building a base.

Ryan Banta takes this further with his approach to plyometrics. He emphasizes gradual introduction, starting with low-impact jumps and advancing only after movement mastery is demonstrated.

Most programs throw athletes into complex plyometric work too early, assuming basic fitness equals readiness for high-intensity explosive work.

It doesn't.

The Specific Preparation Phase comes next, 6-8 weeks before competition. This is where intensity increases, volume drops, and training becomes sprint-specific.

Higher-intensity sprinting. Technical mechanics work. Power-based lifting with lower reps and heavier loads.

But this only works if the foundation was built correctly during general preparation.

You can't skip the boring foundational work and jump straight to the exciting speed stuff. Well, you can, but you'll plateau fast and probably get injured.

Studies on resisted sprint training show this progression clearly. Start with heavier loads during general prep, building power and strength under resistance. Then reduce load and increase specificity as competition approaches.

The load progression matters. 15-30% bodyweight for sleds early in the off-season, dropping to 10-15% or less as you move toward competition.

Most athletes do this backwards, starting light and adding load as they get closer to racing. That's training for power when you need speed.

Here's what a typical week may look like during general preparation:

Monday: Acceleration work plus Olympic lifting. Short sprints at 80-90%, sled pushes, basic plyometrics. Power cleans in the weight room.

Tuesday: Strength and plyometric work. Squats, deadlifts, bounding circuits.

Wednesday: Speed endurance. Longer reps at controlled intensity with supplementary lifts.

Thursday: Another strength session with different emphasis.

Friday: Technical drills or tempo runs. Mechanics work, core, flexibility.

Saturday: Speed endurance again.

Sunday: Rest or active recovery.

Notice what's missing? Maximum velocity sprinting. Race-specific intensity. The stuff that feels like "real" sprint training.

That comes later, during specific preparation, after the foundation is built.

The mistake is thinking off-season training should look like a gentler version of competition training. Lower volume, lighter intensity, but fundamentally the same work.

Elite athletes understand the off-season is about building something different. General qualities that don't look like sprinting but make sprinting possible.

Strength that can be expressed as power. Movement patterns that become automatic under fatigue. Tissue resilience that prevents injuries when intensity climbs.

You can't build these things during the competition season. You're too busy racing and recovering from high-intensity work.

The off-season is when adaptation happens. But only if you're training for adaptation, not maintenance.

So are you wasting your off-season? Probably, if you're doing sprint work year-round at varying intensities without strategic progression through distinct phases.

The fix isn't complicated. Take real rest after your season. Build general qualities for 8-12 weeks. Progress to specific work for 6-8 weeks before competition.

It's not exciting. It doesn't feel like sprint training for most of the off-season.

But it's what works when you want to run faster next season instead of just maintaining what you ran this year.