Off-Season Planning
Nationals in April will mark the end of your competitive season. And while that might feel like it is still a long way off, time moves quickly. Training blocks compress. Travel, school, work and competition stack up. Before you know it, the final race is run and the season is done.
The off-season will arrive faster than you think. Some athletes panic and keep training immediately because they are afraid of “falling behind.” Others disappear for weeks and come back flat, heavy and underprepared.
Both approaches waste the opportunity.
The off-season is not accidental time. It is planned time. And when structured properly, it becomes the most important development phase of your year.
As discussed in high-performance environments, the in season expresses performance, the off-season expands capacity and builds the engine. You cannot stay in competition mode year-round. So how should an athletics off-season actually be structured?
The Framework
For most athletes, the off-season window sits somewhere between 10-12 weeks before structured training restarts. That period can be broken into three clear phases:
2-4 Weeks - Regeneration
4 Weeks - Rebuild General Qualities
4 Weeks - Targeted Preparation
Each phase has a purpose. And skipping one usually creates problems later.
Phase 1. Consciously Recover
The biggest mistake athletes make? They don’t actually stop.
They feel they “should be doing something.”
But research in periodisation (Issurin, 2010) highlights the necessity of regeneration phases to allow accumulated fatigue, neural, hormonal and connective tissue, to dissipate. This is not laziness. This is physiology.
Two to four weeks of very low structure allows:
Tendon irritation to settle
Central nervous system fatigue to reduce
Minor niggles to calm down
Emotional reset after competition stress
You are not losing fitness in 2 weeks. In fact, you often return fresher due to supercompensation effects.
Light movement is fine, walks, swims, easy jogs, but no structured loading.
If you start thinking, “I’m ready to train again,” that’s the sign this phase worked.
Phase 2: Rebuild General Qualities
This is where structure returns, but not intensity overload. Think of this as rebuilding your base, not chasing peak outputs.
A simple athletics structure during this 4-week block might include:
2 total body strength sessions per week
2 on-track sessions
Optional light technical drills
Optional supplementary work (pilates, mobility, low-intensity circuits)
Strength training during this period begins progressive overload but remains general. Research consistently shows maximal strength underpins sprint and power performance (Seitz & Haff, 2016). However, this phase is not about testing maxes, it is about rebuilding capacity.
Tendon and connective tissue adaptation responds well to heavy, controlled loading (Bohm et al., 2015). Strength training also significantly reduces injury risk (Lauersen et al., 2014).
Motor learning research (Schmidt & Lee, 2011) suggests technical refinement is most effective under lower stress conditions. This is your opportunity to clean up posture, projection angles and rhythm without chasing maximal velocity.
The goal here is simple:
Feel better than you did at the end of the season. Move better than you did in March/April.
Phase 3: Target One or Two Key Qualities
Now intent increases.
This is where you become more specific, but still avoid “doing a pre-season before pre-season.”
The biggest mistake athletes make in late off-season is trying to simulate full competition load too early. Pre-season will already be demanding. You do not need to cook yourself beforehand.
Instead, pick one or two key qualities:
For most track and field athletes, that is:
Maximal strength
Speed development
Power expression
Speed is often underdeveloped during heavy competition schedules. This window allows progressive speed exposure. Strength work may increase to 3 sessions per week depending on tolerance, with more event-specific orientation.
The key word in this phase is intent, not chaos.
Don’t Neglect Skill
One of the most common off-season mistakes is abandoning event-specific skill entirely.
For athletics, that might mean:
No block starts for months
No approach runs for jumpers
No rhythm work for hurdlers
No throwing pattern exposures
You don’t need full event intensity, but you must maintain a thread of skill. Skill decays when ignored completely. A small amount done consistently is far more effective than restarting from zero in pre-season.
The Big Picture
The off-season should not feel like:
Random gym sessions
A few jogs “when you feel like it”
Six weeks disappearing and hoping pre-season fixes it
It also should not feel like:
Six days per week of maximal loading on track or in the gym
Constant soreness
Emotional burnout
The sweet spot is structured progression with room to recover.
Within the long-term development philosophy supported by Athletics Australia, respecting training phases is what allows sustainable progression from year to year.
When you return to structured pre-season, you should feel:
Fresh
Structurally stronger
Technically cleaner
Slightly faster
Mentally switched on
Not exhausted.
The off-season is your chance to quietly raise your ceiling.
Plan it.
Respect it.
And don’t waste it.
