Originally Posted by Racer Ex

I generally don't stop exercising, at 45 you can take a few weeks or a month off and you bounce back pretty quickly. 58 it's a different story.

My off season is a good time to go MTB'ing and enjoy the Fall colors. That lets my brain associate the bike with something other than pain. When the snow comes I will do a lot of downhill and XC skiing, and snowshoeing. I keep up the gym work and/or ride the trainer when the weather gets foul.

Really, the off season is there to refresh mentally more than physically, I have had years where I race pretty much straight through the "off season" without a drop in performance (within the constructs of scheduling in adequate rest). Cut back the hours, cut back the intensity that feels like drudgery (nasty trainer intervals vs. bombing a black diamond run), go off structure and roll in some other activities for a month or two and you'll be fine to restart. Or if you are chomping at the bit to keep training, go for it.

On the improving w/kg thing, depending on what type of racing you're doing you're often better off working on other tools for the box. I wrote a 2 part blog post on the Wenzel Coaching website about the "Myth of FTP" where I discuss how the focus on FTP (which is a component of the w/kg equation) can be a bit of a fool's errand. Part two coming soon. It's not to say that improving that side of things can't be productive, but it's just a fractional part of racing success.