We’re now well into the depths of the winter. This time of year, best known as the “off-season,” is not exactly what the name implies. Truth be told, the “off-season” is actually critical for setting up the foundation for your entire year. This is precisely why professional runners, cyclists and triathletes are out training hard, rather than sitting around getting out of shape. In this article, I’ll dispel some myths associated with off-season training. I’m not going to tell you this is the time where you should take a lot of time off, but instead, I’ll point to what the professionals are doing — which is training hard.

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Media misnomers. I’ve discovered a common thread in running, triathlon and cycling magazines which is generally misleading. They all paint a picture of winter as a time to rest, relax and generally loaf around for the upcoming season. That way you can start the spring fresh and ready to train, right? Well, the problem is that if you hibernate during the winter, it’ll take you several months to get yourself back to your previous level of fitness in the spring. If your goal is to improve, winter is the time to work on your weaknesses and make marked physical gains. You can’t expect magical, spring time improvements if you haven’t put miles in during the winter.

The myth of peaking too early. “I don’t want to peak too early” is not a strategy, it’s an excuse. Truthfully, it’s very difficult to achieve a real physiological peak. In fact, the vast majority of us don’t have enough time in the day to actually get there. Most athletes just train as much as they have time for, then taper for their main race. By training in the winter, however, you’re more at risk of mental burn-out later in the year. So gear your winter more towards the mental aspect of your training. This doesn’t mean repeating the same sessions you did during your peak phase, weeks prior to your last race. Your training should definitely be different, but don’t let fear of a February peak steer you away from working hard.

It’s not just base-building time. The second winter fable people tend to perpetuate is that winter is your “base-building” time. An aerobic base is certainly an essential component of fitness, but too often people use this as an excuse to be lazy. If you don’t include any intensity in your training over the winter months, you’ll find yourself well behind come spring. And if you want to be fast and strong in the summer, you need to have intensity as a component to your training year-round. You don’t want to lose your power, lactate threshold or VO2 max. While many of your miles need to be done at an endurance pace, you can’t expect to make all of your gains in strength and cardiovascular fitness in the middle of your racing season.

Don’t listen to the pros. Watch them. When asking most professionals about the non-racing portion of their year, usually their first response has something to do with how fat and out-of-shape they get. Don’t listen to them. In general, at the end of the year, many endurance professionals take about two weeks off. That’s it. Then they start training again. European cyclists and triathletes relocate to the Canary Islands, South Africa, Australia or wherever they can to train. North Americans relocate to the warmer climates as well. Professionals know better than anyone this is where next season’s foundation is built, so they’re out there putting in the miles. An Olympian friend of mine put it best, “Winter miles equal summer miles.”

Recovery is still key. Despite what I’ve argued here about the value of continuing to train (and training hard) during the winter, rest and recovery is just as important as your workouts. Besides the physical need to recover, as I pointed out above, a mental break in the winter is essential. As always, you need to keep a close watch on your body, your mental state, and adjust your training and recovery accordingly. At the end of the day, this is perhaps what the top professionals know how to do best.