How to Create Your Best (January) OutSeason
It’s almost time to fire up another OutSeason of training! This will be our sixth OutSeason, and as always it will be chock full o’ hard work and goodness. 
Consider this post to be your official intro to this edition of the OutSeason, but don’t hesitate to be a good do-bee and go read the full OutSeason Information page, courtesy of the EN Wiki
Dates:
- The January OS starts on 1/6/14 -- join the January Group here.
- Your Season RoadMap: if Coach Rich has recently created a Season RoadMap for you, he indicated on that when you should start the OS, based on your current fitness and 2014 race calendar.
- Want more? Please read "When to Start the OutSeason" in the wiki.
- Need more help? Please take the Season Planning Survey and Coach Rich will create your Season Roadmap for you, or you can have a conversation with him in the Macro Forum.
Will my OutSeason training plan automagically show up in my Training Plan Page on January 6th?Sorry, no. You need to insert your own copy of the 2014 OS plan into your account via the Training Plan page, by clicking the Move/Change plan button.
What Do You Need to Know?
- Setting Up Your First OutSeason Webinar:
- Get the testing right! You should do your bike and run tests where you will do them all winter. So if you will be inside come January, you test inside now.
Please make sure that your bike, if you don’t use a powermeter, please put the magnet & receiver on your rear wheel so we can track your progress! - Resting is important! The OS isn’t hard in Week 1 or 3, but by Week 6 you will love some time off...please plan ahead!
Where is the Online Mojo for the OutSeason?
Groups: You can find the groups under the community tab. Here is the January group. You will want to join the page and say hi...the OutSeason is a great time to connect with your teammates and reap the benefits of being on a great Team.
Data: We encourage you to track your test progress and get the evil coaches input on how far you might be able to go this season. We call this the “Heads We Win, Tails You Lose Challenge” -- you can enter your data in the 2014 OS Tracking Sheet (here) and be sure to go back in Weeks 8 and 14 as well! If you hit your targets (or even come close), then you owe the evil coaches some Starbucks points (guidance and specifics are here).
Workouts: Once again you have the OPTION to use Trainer Road for the 2014 OutSeason workouts. Their new interface is pending; for now you can join Trainer Road (here) and make sure your computer / powermeter / trainer is properly connected, etc. Thanks for your patience!!
What’s New in 2014?
We make updates every year...and 2014 is no different. Here’s what’s new!!!
Bike:
- Removed “ON/OFF” guidance for bike Vo2 workouts and replaced with easier to understand and implement guidance.
- Added longer, sub Vo2 sets in the last 6wks.
Run:
- Removed the “if bricking cut shorter” stipulation.
- Added thursday strides run for ADV athletes.
- Changed Sunday extended run time to Zone 2 efforts.
- Got rid of 200s, upgraded to 400s for VO2 effort.
- Added Monday self assessment notes.
- Intermediate – no thursday brick, reduced volume of longer sunday run and duration of FTP intervals.
- Beginner – reduced volume of sunday run from INT levels and the duration of FTP intervals from INT levels
When The Party Ends
You should definitely go back to update you “end of OS” data so we can see how you have progressed (here). We’d love your input via a short survey as well...this helps us do a better job each year and only takes a minute. Click here to take the survey.