Ka’Deem Wynn | Writer

For most runners, cross country season is over. For some, they’re fired up and preparing for the indoor track season. For others, it’s counting off the days until the outdoor season starts in the spring. Whether you’re about to run or not, there’s still that time in between the two running seasons. It’s called the off-season. But what do we use it for other than just waiting for the next season to start?

Resting

Webster’s online dictionary defines the off-season as  “a time of suspended or reduced activity; especially: the time during which an athlete is not training or competing.”

It’s okay to look forward to the off-season as the season nears it’s close, as long as you stay focused on one thing at a time of course. The off-season is a time of relaxation, and a time to recuperate.

After weeks and months of rigorous training and racing, you tend to get to the point where it’s beginning to take it’s toll on your body and mind. Though you may be in your pinnacle condition, it’s hard to stay in that mode for a long time once you’ve hit it.  

Take some time and relax. Some may feel the need to rest more than others, but your body needs a proper resting time. Proper rest helps rebuild and repair the body and mind. When your body exerts an amount of energy due to a physical activity such as running, it gets accustomed to it, but only for so long. Though it’s still accustomed to it after a certain point, it gets harder for the body to deal with the usual activity. You can be in great shape and easily do the task at hand, but you may feel it slightly more difficult to do something that you usually do.

That’s because your body is longing for rest and the restoration of all of the energy it’s been losing due to various activities.

Enjoy your rest, you deserve it. However, resting doesn’t necessarily mean “do nothing.”

No Days Off

While you’re enjoying your break from running, there’s still plenty of things that you can do. During the season, it’s sometimes hard being able to get in the weight room or do your body exercises without worrying about being sore for the next workout or race. With that no longer an issue, this is the perfect opportunity to strengthen your body.

It’s important to do this now so your body will already be stronger and you’ll be in better shape by the time the season rolls around. If you can’t make it to the weight room, or you don’t prefer weights doesn’t mean you have to miss out on getting stronger. You can do the same exercises, or similar ones, right at home.

Here are a few simple exercises that can help you out:

• Legs: Squats, Walking Lunges, Leg Raisers, Heel/Calf Raisers, Planks (with leg lifts) and Step-Ups.

• Upper Body: Push-Ups, Dumbbell Weights, Bench/Military Press, Pull-Ups, or lifting anything with some sort of weight.

• Core: Russian Twists, Crunches, Sit-Ups, Accordions, Planks.

While you’re doing this, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go for a few runs after you’ve rested. They don’t have to be hard, or long; just something to keep you in shape and to get you back on your feet. This is called base training.

Base Training

Base training is to develop a runner’s aerobic potential before implementing anaerobic training in the form of interval work. If you’ve ever listened to runners, such as mid-distance runners who run cross country as well, you might hear them mention base training, or say that they’re still in their “base phase,” and their foot speed hasn’t fully “returned.”

This is just another form of off-season training made popular by coach Arthur Lydiard of New Zealand in the 1960s. He had his distance and mid-distance runners put in a lot of high mileage. In turn, they dominated in major races, including the 1960 and 1964 Olympics.

Maybe you don’t need to put in a overbearing amount of miles during the off-season, but it wouldn't hurt to run a few miles to get your stamina up.

Though we still have some time until we step on the track, the off-season is the perfect time to prepare for the upcoming season, and to make sure that you start it off right. Champions are made when no one is watching. You don’t get what you wish for, you get what you work for.