Maintaining Your Base

Don't let a long layoff reverse your hard-earned gains

Your base is what you carry over — and build on — from last season. It's your foundation of technique, endurance and mental toughness.

It's your springboard to success. But unfortunately, it's highly perishable.

When you stop training, even briefly, it shrinks and shrivels. And if you take too much time off, it disappears, along with all your hard-earned gains from last season.

Generally, if you miss one training session, you lose one week of base; if you miss one week of training, you lose one month of base; and if you miss one month of training, you lose an entire season of base.

So How Do I Get It Back?

You recover your base the same way you built it — with hard work. You may also find it necessary to rebuild your self confidence, which can be badly shaken by finding that you are no longer as fast as the skaters you beat last year.

How to Take a Break

So is it a bad idea to take a break? No, in fact, taking a break can help restore you, physically and mentally, at the end of a long season.

But you shouldn't overdo it.

If you take a break, don't quit skating (or training) completely. Instead, just cut back. If you were training twice a day, cut back to once a day. If you were training five times a week, cut back to three.

Or you can simply reduce the intensity of your workouts; train the same number of times a week, but don't work as hard.

Whatever you do, don't lose the habit of training. Once that's lost, your base is sure to follow.