New year training: how to properly increase your mileage for best results
Don't go all out in your training just yet
As it is the start of the year, you might be getting ready to ramp your training back up and commence your build to your first race. Hopefully you took a nice long break from training after a long and arduous 2024 season, giving your body some much-needed recovery time. You’re likely eager to hop right back where you left off, but it’s best if you don’t do that. Instead, slowly increase your mileage and training load, easing yourself into 2025.
Easy workouts
You can do set workouts as you get started with your new season, but after taking a break from training, you shouldn’t jump right into hammering out hard efforts. You can of course toss some tougher reps into the mix in training, but you’ll want to work on rebuilding your base more than your top-end speed. This will feel tedious, but it’s worth it, as you will slowly work back to where you left off last year. Then you can get back to all-out sessions.
Control your mileage
For cycling, you can get away with riding long right off the bat in the new year, but for swimming and running you’ll likely want to keep things shorter at first. Your shoulders have had a lot of time away from the pool, and if you decide to hammer out multiple long, hard sessions this week, you might wake up one morning to find you’re in pain. It’s the same on the run. Your legs aren’t used to pounding the pavement for dozens and dozens of kilometres, so you should slowly build your mileage back up to where it was in 2024. This is the best way to keep yourself healthy and free of injuries.
Don’t force things
Since you’ve had some time off, you might be a little rusty. Your first week or two of training might feel tougher than expected. This is OK, and you shouldn’t try to force anything. Your body is just waking up from its brief hibernation—it’s going to get back to its former fitness soon. If you force it to do something it’s not ready for just yet, though, you might get hurt, further delaying the start to your season.