Recovery Periods

If you are a coach who likes to train year round you ultimately come to a point where you consider how long you are going to give your kids off after each season.  You want to give the kids a mental break from the sport for a bit, but you also don't want to waste valuable time, especially if you have cross country in the fall.  There is no fast and easy answer though because every team is different and every team has to think about their goals and what it will take to meet them.

For cross country teams, I don't know a single program that doesn't start their summer workouts at least by June (I'm sure the states where the state meet is in June start a bit later than that though).  Some meet six days a week, some five, some only three but the main point is they are back to work within a month of when they finished the previous season.  One path I like to take is to give more shorter breaks throughout the year rather than two or three longer ones for the simple reason of staying in touch with the kids and making sure their grades are staying in order, etc.  Also these athletes are competing in four seasons between cross country, indoor, outdoor, and summer track so smaller breaks more often fits better into the training.

You also need to make sure your goals are aligned with your training philosophy.  If your goal is to win state and you wait till August to start training, you may be in for a rough year.  July may even be late for most state caliber teams.  But if your goal is simply a top ten finish at state, perhaps that isn't too late to start.

For sprinters who finish their summer track season at the beginning of August and don't play a fall sport, you need to consider if you compete in indoor track or outdoor only.  For indoor track you may want to be up and training in October or November while you can wait till January at the latest for outdoor track.