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Better Off Season Plan???
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After having our first born child, I can now come back to triathlon and want to hit a 1/2 Ironman in earnest in June, but I'm having a tough time deciding what to do for off season stuff. I've loosely been run/bike/swim, albeit nothing structured. So I've decided to follow Friel's Your Best Triathlon plan for the race and I could follow the Prep weeks for the next four weeks, or, after doing research on the almighty Slowtwitch, I was thinking of doing a Run/Swim focus for the next 8 weeks then get into the plan in earnest. So, help me decide what would be best.

A bit about me. Currently sitting at 205, and intending to get back down to 175 for race weight at 6'. FTP is 240 on TrainerRoad. I have a strong run background, with 1/2 Mara Prs of 1:23, 5k at 17:50, and a HIM PR at 5:04. Swim is my weakest sport, although I can honestly say that I've never actually trained it very hard.

If I were to do the Run/Swim off season plan, it would look like this (48 = 48th week in the year):
Run Swim
  1. 30 mpw; 1500-1500-1500
  2. 33 mpw; 1500-1500-1500-1500
  3. 36 mpw; 2k-2k-2k-2k
  4. 40 mpw; 2k-2k-2k-2k
  5. 44 mpw; 2.5k-2.5k-2.5k-2.5k

  1. 48 mpw; 2.5k-2.5k-2.5k-2.5k
  2. 52 mpw; 2.5k-2.5k-2.5k-2.5k
  3. 56 mpw; 3k-3k-3k-3k
  4. 60 mpw; 3k-3k-3k-3k
  5. 60 mpw; 3k-3k-3k-3k

Help me out. Do I stick with the Friel plan, which is 3 Run/3 Swim/3 Bike/3 Strength Training, or do I do the run/swim and then move into the Friel plan?
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Re: Better Off Season Plan??? [Lanceuppercutt] [ In reply to ]
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Most triathletes (and maybe you) won't do it but imagine how much better your swim could be if you invested as much time in the water as you possibly can. In other words, you've got a good run background, you don't need to work it during the offseason. It will come back in plenty of time for your race in June. Spend as much time as humanly possible in the water for the next month or so. Be a swimmer!
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Re: Better Off Season Plan??? [logella] [ In reply to ]
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I do think about that, but since I love running I have a tendency to favor it over everything, and push swim to the back burner. I typically do this for two reason: 1) I can run very easily whenever I want to and it helps me lose the added weight fast; 2) swimming is time limited to only in the morning and maybe Sunday nights.

Ideally this season I would like to concentrate on one 1/2 ironman in June, and do sprints and olympics for the duration. Do you think concentrating on the swim at this point of the year would help more than concentrating on the run?
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Re: Better Off Season Plan??? [Lanceuppercutt] [ In reply to ]
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Lanceuppercutt wrote:
Currently sitting at 205, and intending to get back down to 175

You gain 30 pounds in the off season?!? not only is that stupid (setting yourself up for so much work to lose it back), it is unhealthy
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Re: Better Off Season Plan??? [dgutstadt] [ In reply to ]
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My mistake. I gained 30 pounds over the course of a very stressful past 2 yrs.
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