Week 18 of the Off-Season Program sees a considerable reduction in training load consistent with that required for recovery of muscles, connective tissue, and the nervous system and consolidation of gains made to date. Please resist the urge to do more so that you get the full benefit of the intended recovery. Next week will see the start of the Spring Base Program and a new phase of training featuring more work on the water for those able to paddle. For those still dealing with winter conditions and who are unable to paddle, there will be land-based options for each of the paddling workouts

If you are still unable to paddle please continue to do the work as land-based cardio, following the instructions provided. In this case please continue to consider varying your activities so that you are not doing all the work in one activity. As usual, this is especially important in high load weeks but even in recovery weeks, it will promote better recovery.

As always, if you are able to paddle it continues to be a good idea to incorporate drills into your warm up and cool down if the weather is not too cold. It also continues to be a very good use of your time to spend 10 to 15 min 3x/week doing land drills, video of which you can find on the Paddle Monster website or the Paddle Monster YouTube channel. Investing this time in technique now is important to ensure you are paddling well when you start the more intense paddling work.

Have a great week and please do not hesitate to ask questions if you have them.

Larry