7. Don't forget the off-season

Was talking with a friend this weekend. He had a hard year, finishing at the end of November. Like me, he planned to start January 1 preparing for Boston, but has found it slow getting going this month. He is just now getting in the swing of training hard. It's only an N of 2, but this guy needed about 2 months to get over last year, and that's about what I had from the end of October to 1/1. My lesson from this is that 2 months off is a without which not of getting a good start on the next year's program.