Over the past few years of hard training and riding, I have found that if I take a break from the gym or riding for a week at times throughout the season, I come back much stronger than before.

Sometimes it takes longer than a day or two of not hitting the gym to come back in full force. I recently just took a week out of the gym to teach spring break camps and when I came back, I noticed I was way stronger and had a lot more energy than the couple weeks before I took the break.

The same is somewhat true when riding, sometimes a shorter break like a couple days off the bike can make me more motivated to go out and progress. I find that in mid-late summer when I’m on my bike almost every day, I didn’t see much progression. I found that some of my best riding and most the progression in my riding came in the spring.

Maybe it was because I was on the bike so much that I just wanted to have fun? Maybe I felt like I was already into the race season and didn’t need to push myself?