The annual training plan for each athlete should include a rest period of 2-5 weeks, depending on how long and hard their season has been. Many people feel a strong temptation to start preparing for the next year as soon as the current season has ended. They are right to want to get started, but getting started doesn't mean beginning to build up training hours or start strength training right away. It means resting first to allow the mind and body to prepare for what is coming next. We have found over the years that athletes who rest enough generally perform better the following year than those who begin training right away. How do you know when you've rested enough? Well, first you take it really easy for about two weeks. Then you ask yourself how you feel compared to a few days before. How's your energy? Your enthusiasm for training? Are your injuries all healed up? If you feel better any of these ways than you did a few days before, you're not done resting yet. When you can honestly say that you are no longer getting better from week to week, you have rested enough. In other words, you rest until you are as good as you are going to get, and then one week more. 

Once you are about ready to train again, it's also time to schedule your annual review with your coach. Hold off on the annual review until you are far enough from the final events of the old season to have a broad perspective on the whole season. In an annual review, you go over what went well in the past season and what could have gone better. You reassess your available training time and set your goals to make the coming season better. Make your goals explicit and lay out the intermediate goals that will help you achieve them. The annual review is key to setting up for a good next season.