I take a break every fall to do Cyclocross. It's THE BEST.
Gravel road races are a good crowd oftentimes also.

I did bicycle touring, a great chance to stay fit and bike at a leisurely pace. I'd consider that along with some swimming since you enjoy it and your body probably won't miss the pounding from running at all.

Climbing/Bouldering , good time, chill people

More from life circumstance vs injursy but I've mostly switched to road bike racing. Racing my first tri since 2010 at the end of june (Pac Crest HIM), so I'll see how bike-centric training treats me there. Other things I've done during the hiatus is XC skiing (racing, albeit poorly), rowing, standalone running, and long distance hiking. I'm better at tri's than any of those though (long distance hiking notwithstanding as there's no real metric).

That being said, I've wanted to race the Pacific crest tri nearly as long as I've raced tri's, so I am looking forward to that.

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All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. ~Gandalf

I take a break every September. A couple of weeks of nothing. Then I run for a while. Then I toss in some cross-training, such as swimming and biking. I repeat that until tri season starts up again in June.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

I span 29 years from my first tri. Came to it from cycling, break from tri to road race again, off for 2 years due to work travel and played way too much golf, back for about 3-4 years, dropped tri for running a bit and skydiving my balls off for 5 years, back to tri for long stint and now swim only for about last 4 years.

Guess what? Aquabike this fall. I'm the sure the trend will continue! When I get bored I switch up the program for something new. The one constant activity in my life that has never changed is fishing.....hope it never does either! If there is a choice to be on the water vs any other activity fishing wins.

Tri is my break from bike racing. Actually, after 15 years of nothing but road bike racing I took up cyclo-cross, running races, and (sprint) triathlons. And Sunday will be my first ever mountain bike race.

No doubt specificity is key -- I'm not as focused or as strong in road races as I was when it was my only passion, and those speedy masters racers remind me of that every time I toe the line. On the other hand, at 50 years old I enjoy racing as much or more than I ever did, and it seems the variety keeps me fresher physically and mentally.

Remember: this is fun.

^^This^^

If you are looking to try something new I definitely recommend climbing/bouldering. It is a great way to challenge both mind and body at the same time. I climbed in college (infrequently) and had a blast.

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"Just don’t abandon everything you’ve ever learned because of something someone said on the internet." - Eric McGinnis

I've been dealing with pretty bad knee pain since November (patella femoral pain syndrome) and couldn't run, bike or skate ski much. It kinda sucks because I had a solid season last year, and this year was gonna be my first year racing pro. But I ended up getting REALLY into backcountry skiing and skimo/rando racing over the winter (great snow on the east coast), and have been loving it. It's the one activity that doesn't bother my knee, and actually serves to strengthen a lot of the imbalances causing the issue in the first place (glutes, hips, vmo).

It's pretty much awesome. And despite only doing some easy spinning over the winter, I retained a lot of my bike fitness. My bike endurance suffered a bit, but I still only saw a pretty minor drop in my ftp. Putting in 4-7hr days in the mountains with 6-8k+ of vert keeps you crazy fit!

People get into the sport from all backgrounds - Cycling, Tri, Nordic and Alpine Skiing, Running, etc. Lots of fit dudes. Tim Johnson (in black) was a beast on the climbs. If he learns to ski well, he'll be crushing it. His wife, Lynne Bessette was a two time Olympic Cyclist and I think finished ~12th in the TT. She cleans up at this. Not getting chicked requires a big effort!



The sport is huge in Europe, pretty big in UT and CO, and is growing rapidly in New England. One of the cooler NE races goes from Mad River Glen, traverses the Long Trail, and finishes and Sugarbush. That one had over 100 people, and was basically the 'North American East Coast Champs' with all the studs from New England, NY, and Quebec present. Canada got the better of us.





The Jay Peak race was one of the tougher courses, with steep moguls, tight trees, and tough bootpacks



Meanwhile, some of the races out west feature some actual mountaineering. My buddy Josh, who got me into it and is a triathlete in the "off season" at the Powderkeg in UT.



The end of the race season coincided nicely with the snowpack consolidating at higher elevations around Mt Washington and has allowed us to ski and climb awesome lines over the last few weeks.





Ice Climbing in Huntington Ravine




Pretty rare to ski ~15 inches of Pow on April 25th in New England, but I'll take it!



Unlimited couloirs, chutes, gullies, and ravines to explore.



Skinning is one of the more exhausting activities I've done, and an incredible fitness and strength builder.

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Twitter | Kancman | Blog

Yeah, I'll follow up what snackchair said. I skin and backcountry in the winter, as well a telemark at ski areas. Skinning is almost a perfect balance between running and biking. From a workout perspective I like tele skiing because it is dynamic, it's movements are in three dimensions and it is more explosive than most of the stuff I do, so a nice change. It is also an athletic endeavor whereas triathlon isn't really all that athletic. I also take time off from triathlon...I'll race for two or three years and take two or three off. I don't get out of shape, and will R-B-S over the course of the year, but no structure or pressure of a training routine and if something hurts, I'll do something that doesn't hurt. Also, I've been migrating more toward mnt. biking and trail running.

IN THE TREE, PART OF THE TREE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PZE6NmN5KA

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Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

obstacle courses event , Spartan, warrior dash, savage, tough mudder, etc...

good people, overall body work out, short distance running between obstacle,

triathlon for 28th years

Depending on where you live do Ultra's. Great crowd. Great challenge, paces are slower but technical courses very challenging. What part of the country you in?

I play ice hockey Oct-March and field hockey Sept-Nov. These give me a chance to do more with other people vs S-B-R which I was predominantly doing alone.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Just ride!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'd second the ski-mo thing. Just ski touring in general is such a good thing for overall body conditioning. Can go as fast or slow as you'd like. Can hone in on your rope skills and do all kinds of crazy things in a day.

 
First full IM last summer. Switched to just cycling this year. I still enjoyed the swimming, but I have never been much of a runner and don't have much desire to become one. I enjoy riding and there are many different forms it can take. Fast group riding or road racing, chill gravel rides on the cross bike, TT's, or hitting the mountain trails. I rode road, gravel and mountain last week, had a blast!

This!

While I enjoy 70.3 and IM distance tris, I've never quite enjoyed the culture. Too much Type As who talk nothing but race times and training times. This year I've started running 50Ks and 50M ultras and am loving it. Super chill attitude, good beer, nature, trails, rocks, dirt, mud and way easier logistically.

Mountain biking is awesome, works a ton of muscles, works on cycling skills and great endurance and cardio. Tougher than IM training if you're doing it right and fun as all get out, even (sometimes especially) when you take a spill!

MTB.. at any distance.... short course XC, long course Enduro, 12 and 24hour races.. (ALL MUST BE SOLO OR ITS CHEATING ;) )

Just a whole heap of fun and hard work and most involved had the poles fall out of their asses a long time ago...

Just hope you like bike maintenance..

4 years of Triathlons, now soley focused on Cyclocross, at least for the time being. Training is intensive, but you don't need to put 20+ hours in a week. I think that it was mentioned to me that 10 hours of high intensity training a week, so 1-2 hours at max of intervals or threshold pacing would allow you to be competitive. That helps me while i'm working on my doctorate. Plus you get spring and summer off, which will be nice to take a week long vacation to Alaska and not have to worry about my sweet cardio gains going away while I'm drinking beer and hiking.

I've always wanted to do a biathlon... I was a competitive shooter in high school and competed for 4 years, plus my military experience. That, with my desire for endurance sports would be a fun thing to try.

I've climbed a little bit and loved it. But here in Mississippi, the boulders are scarce. We do have long summers though so if you're into watersports those are also great activities. water skiing and wake boarding are loads of fun. Plus, any sport you can do while drinking beer and not totally killing your performance gets a thumbs-up in my book.

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The best pace is a suicide pace, and today is a good day to die. -Steve Prefontaine

When I finally accepted that I was never going to learn to love swimming I went back to focusing on running races (road, mountain, mile to marathon, whatever) and racing cyclocross. CX racing is the single most fun thing you will ever do on a bicycle.

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The plural of anecdote is not data. :-)
- Andrew Coggan

I decided that I really don't like waking up at 4:30 am to get in the pool. And that 3+ hour bike rides weren't good for my family. Sure, I gained (waaayy to much) weight and now even a short run hurts.
I started playing soccer 3 nights a week. Not nearly the same shape I was in when training, but I really like team sports. And I really like the challenge of taking on another player. And possibly a high impact collision (now that I'm heavier, i usually stay upright. The other guy falls). And last week, I took a hard shot square in the nose from point blank range. It's the first time in probably 20 years that I've been hit in the face. The adrenaline rush and blind rage was like nothing i ever experience while swimming, biking or running. I hope it doesn't happen again soon, because it hurt like hell and caused some nice bleeding from my lip.