The "Off-Season"

Well, that's where we crazy summer sports people are right now, right? This is the time of year that we gain all that weight that we fought so hard to lose the whole summer, right? Time to recover and unwind, maybe finally let that broken collarbone heal, let the crazy weirdo tan lines slowly fade into the winter's paleness. Well, that's the commonly held conception of this time of year. In reality it's anything but.
That doesn't keep the hardest of us off the bike though. I mean, we real cyclists are like, "what's this off-season thing everyone's talking about? I've certainly never heard of it before," and put our heads down and ride on through the snow and endless hours of archived race footage on the trainer. After all, you start winning that national championship at 4 am in your garage on New Year's.
And speaking of the Holidays, don't you dare touch that poison that everyone else calls pie, or gravy, or, the poison of all poisons, egg-nog! After all, the only reason all of your sane family and friends are trying to have you trade your turkey with no toppings and tub of fat free, sugar free yogurt for the contents of the piled platters is to fatten you up. Let us dwell for a minute on the ramifications of accepting the offers of "good cheer." Imagine, your body fat percentage might, I can hardly say it, spike from 7.22% to 7.23%! This would add a whopping .01 kilograms to your already almost overweight body. What would this do to your performance? The results are horrific to say the least. Your functional threshold power to weight ratio would drop from 3.11543 W/Kg to 3.11540 W/Kg, almost .2 seconds loss over 40 km!!!Horrible to say the least.
I sincerely hope, fellow psycho cyclists, that you see the sarcasm in the preceding paragraph. If you missed it, you have a dark, lonely, and very short future on two wheels; don't expect Santa Claus arrive on your doorstep with that sweet pair of Zipp Firecrest 80mm wheels on Christmas. If you did indeed miss it, take a small piece of advice. Realize that there is in fact no such thing as a completely off season, but there is a period of rest and recuperation during the Fall and maybe early Winter. Does this mean you have to swear off the bike and take to the couch, absolutely not. What it does mean, though, is that you need to step back from that addictive speed machine, and relearn what it means to enjoy the simple things of life, like good egg-nog. Just don't forget to start winning the national championships afterwards. Trust me, your power to weight ratio will be brushing 4 W/Kg by time the actual race rolls around if you heed my words of wisdom. And while you're at it, check out this list of the best indoor cycles to help you achieve those massive numbers. http://www.reviews.com/exercise-bikes/spinning/