"Off Season"

The time has come. The time when you can finally go home after school and sleep in on Saturday mornings. The time when you don't have to feel as guilty about eating that doughnut. The time when cross country is over. After training all summer and into the end of October, it is finally time to relax and..... And what? What do we do now? Maybe we can go home after school and get a few extra minutes of sleep, but that can get a little old after a while. For me anyway, I begin to miss my teammates after a few weeks of not being forced to see them every day at practice. Even if your teammates are still your friends and you talk with them every once in a while at school, it is not the same as being with them 90 minutes a day for six days a week. So I guess you could say that the "off season" is a little bitter-sweet. 

Now you may be asking yourselves, 'Why the parenthesis around off season'?  Well I will tell you why. It's because there really isn't an off season. Yes there is a period of time in which you don't have meets or practices for a few months, but it doesn't mean you should just be "off" your game that entire time. You do not have to train as often, or at the same intensity and level as you do during the season, but you should remember to run at least a few times a week to keep you fitness at a decent level. This will make you a better runner from the start when the next season comes around, because you are already in somewhat good shape and you can start building from where you are at now, rather than having to start from the bare beginning after not running for four months. As my coach once said, “The really good runners, they are 11 month runners, meaning that they train 11 out of the 12 months in a year. They take at most a two week break after the cross country season, and a two week break after track, but then they are right back at it again.” So take it easy and enjoy the off season, but just don let yourself turn into too big of a couch potato.