ethman, it's hard for me to believe 4 days totally off the bike is needed unless you are injured. Yikes - I'd want to kill somebody.

On a related note that seems to also apply to the OP, what do people think about the off-season break? Coach just put me on 4 weeks of no structured training. I'm supposed to ride for fun, if and when I want, and try not to have too much fun, especially since the rides I enjoy most are the group hammerfests and training crits. I'm also supposed to get into the swing of gym strength training (always hard for me to do consistently) and play other sports (basketball and tennis in my case). Since I just finished my first season, this is my first off-season, and I'm worried that I'll lose too much of what I've gained. I don't have years of base, and feel like I'm missing time I could spend building that. I truly struggle with this aspect of the sport: periodization, where to focus training time, testing to monitor progress, etc. And I'm the type that wants to understand it, as opposed to just leaving it all to a coach. Damn. See? This is the kind of thing I'm supposed to be taking a mental break from. Maybe my off-season should be a break from BF, during which I ride the heck out of the bike!