How To Avoid Losing Your Fitness In The Holiday Season

by | Dec 19, 2023 | Training Insights, Bike, Featured, Sports, Training

Don’t fear the down time and fruit cake during the holiday season. Here is how to stay fit and have fun!

With a few beers around the braai, big family feasts and the opportunity to sleep in more than once or twice a week – the holidays are a time to relax and reset after another big year of work and play. For many of us though, the slide into relaxation can also trigger fears of losing our hard-earned fitness.

Cover Image Credit: Munbaik / Pexels

For some, the holiday schedule is an opportunity to fly full gas into a big training block but for most of us, it means travelling, chilling, and a general reduction in training load. Does this mean we have to just kiss our fitness gains goodbye and work back towards them in the new year? Not necessarily!

We’re going to explore the basics of de-training and fitness maintenance briefly and then share some helpful tips for a balanced approach to the holidays that allows for much-needed rest and still preserves your KOM-chasing abilities.

How we lose fitness

Your fitness might be more robust than you think. A few days off the bike won’t hurt it much, if at all. When that time off goes over one week, that is when we start getting into the de-training effects. Thankfully, you don’t need to keep up the same load to combat the de-training. Intensity is the key player, as P. Darrel Neufer describes in The Effect of Detraining and Reduced Training on the Physiological Adaptations to Aerobic Exercise Training

“Reductions of one- to two-thirds in training frequency and/or duration do not significantly alter VO2max or submaximal endurance time provided the intensity of each exercise session is maintained. Conversely, a decrease of one- to two-thirds in exercise training intensity, despite maintenance of training frequency and duration, reduces both VO2max and submaximal endurance time. Thus, it appears that exercise intensity is the principal component necessary to maintain a training-induced increase in VO2max and submaximal exercise endurance during periods of reduced training.” – P. Darrel Neufer

Kevin Benkenstein
Staying fit doesn’t mean long lonely hours in the saddle, unless you live for that sort of thing like Kevin Benkenstein (c) @maxsulliphoto

Understand the minimum requirement

The takeaway is that we need to keep up the intensity of our training but it isn’t an issue if we reduce the number of sessions we’re doing per week. Essentially, if you were doing one or two interval sessions per week before, keep one of those in your weekly program, and even drop a couple of reps if you’d like. 

Cross-training in the holidays

It is worth noting that, as far as cardiovascular fitness is concerned, you don’t need to be doing the same sport to maintain your fitness. If you like to do some cross-training during the holidays and take a bit of a break from your usual sport of choice, go for it! Just remember to keep the intensity up to your typical standards if you’d like to maintain that cardio fitness.

Sanlam Cape Town Marathon
Mixing up with different sports is a great way to keep yourself motivated and having fun. (c) Zac Zinn / CT Trail Marathon

Planning is your secret weapon

As with anything in life; if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. If you go into the holiday a bit aimless and not sure when and where you’re going to do some exercise, don’t be surprised when it’s week 2 and you haven’t put the running shoes on yet or your bicycle’s cranks haven’t done a single revolution! Planning doesn’t need to be a painful or meticulous process, just jot down a couple of sessions per week in your calendar ahead of time so that they naturally fall into your schedule as you go.

Have some fun with it too! It is the holidays after all. Find a couple of cool cycling routes near your destination if you’re travelling or get creative and explore new routes near home.

Achievability is key and accountability a great motivator

When doing your planning, set achievable goals/sessions that fit your holiday pace. Be realistic about what you’ll be able to fit into the schedule with regard to volume and intensity. Committing to too much and then missing sessions will likely hurt the motivation and unravel the holiday training plans. Remember that it isn’t the volume that we’re after here, just some consistent intensity.

If you know you’re prone to skipping the odd ride, finding a cycling buddy or even a virtual cycling app community can be the antidote. Schedule joint rides, create a weekly challenge with your mates, and share your progress. Accountability keeps you motivated and you’ll be grateful you took the extra effort when you arrived in January, still able to smash the local hills with the same vigour as when you left.

These Are Best Trails To Ride In South Africa
Getting some mates together and exploring new trails is what the holidays are about! (c) Jacques Marais / Tranquilitas

The ultimate trump card for all of this is undoubtedly to get signed up with a coach, especially if you have a notable goal coming up in the first quarter of the year. A coach will be able to tailor a program for your holidays that hits all the right markers as efficiently as possible. You’ll have peace of mind that you’re not losing fitness and there is the built-in accountability and contingency planning to boot. If you’ve never trained with a coach before, this could be the time to start. If you’re unsure, you can always try a couple of months and see if it is worth it for you.

Now all that is left for you is to get out there and enjoy the holidays! Don’t bite off more than you can chew (unless it’s a piece of fruit cake), just keep the legs ticking over. Check out some new trails and roads that have been on the radar for a while and do the things that remind you why you love riding your bike. Happy Holidays!

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