Lots of different directions, but I'd add in some sprints or olympic races before the end of the year. That focus on more speed will help you.

For a few reasons, that's not an option. Sorry, I should have included that in my initial post. Saturday/Sunday's are completely booked up from races for the fall. I've committed to my wife that I'm going to take the fall "off" from racing, and just train...

Any other thoughts?

I'm certainly one of the MOP/BOP peeps here, so take it for what it's worth:
I'm in the middle of a sort of "forced" year off. Wife had twins in Sept. (making it 3 kids) and i tried to keep up a fairly aggressive "maintenance" plan while getting ZERO sleep and having an uptick in workload. Fast forward to Feb and ended up in the disabled list and only started getting back to S/B/R in June with any regularity after successful PT. I've found that focusing on intensity over volume on the bike (on trainer via trainerroad) has allowed me to get quite a bit of bike fitness back and I think will help make me better come next season. I have been trying to stick to BarryP running plan and building mileage back up, but mostly hitting 4-5 runs a week as opposed to 6. I was able to swim through the injury, so not much of a fall in fitness there, so swimming once or twice a week here and there just to keep up some modicum of fitness and feel for the water as I've gotten back to more structured bike and run. I've found that by getting these workouts done in the AM or at a lunch break from work, the only way my wife knew I was back to training is through the dirty workout laundry and the occasional weekend run or bike...and those have all stayed under 2 hours for the most part. I feel that if I can keep up the bike plans on trainer road and building through BarryP, that this winter I'll mix back in more structured swim training and feel ready to go for next season. Perhaps something that sounds like it may work for you with the B/R focus?

Any input on how you are structuring your bike workouts?

I'm in the same boat. Mop/bop, just getting back into it now after injury, getting married, and a heavy work load. I'm building back run fitness much like you. But I'm looking for thoughts on how to structure the bike. I also happen to suck the most on the bike.

I do trainerroad.com on the trainer. Tons of programs and variety there.
Trainer lets me jam the workout in right when i get up or even after kids go down to bed in a pinch.

Definitely. Trainer road is great. Are you following any particular training plans?

I guess the best way to put it is I'm trying to figure out how to structure a long lead-in to 2015.

Do 4-6 blocks of training, set a goal for each block, test before and after block. On the next block try and hit your new goal while maintaining the fitness goals you gained in the last block. Keep total training volume within 30% of normal in season training. Try and do a true long ride and run twice a month (for me that's 4:30-5:30 hours on the bike and 2 hours of running). Remember that swimming is a great way to improve fitness without much load on the body, great for rest periods, on an off week i still might swim 17-20k easy simply because its so low impact and then during a big bike week lower the swimming to free up time.

Just my experience, but I've found that I gain more fitness per hour when swimming or running, but bike time is a pretty low return on investment. i.e. the fitness I gain in a week of 45 minute runs, or 60 minute swims, I would have to do at least 2 hour rides.

If the bike is your weakness, you obviously need to spend time on that, but for general conditioning I feel like the run gives the most bang for the buck (i.e. you gain fitness even on an easy 45 minute run), followed by the swim (easy swims do nothing, but swims at or near race pace do lots).

Most importantly though, if you have a long "off-season", is to do whatever is going to keep you motivated. With no immediate goals, then it is hard to keep that motivation up.

To keep that motivation, this is what works for me.

1) train with a group. it is a lot easier to train when you have a bunch of other folks asking where you've been when you miss a workout. Plus the social aspects are nice.
2) set intermediate goals. are there any low-key weeknight races in your area?
3) don't take time off. for me, personally, once I take time off then it might take me months to start up again, because other activities always fill that void. If you need a break, then reduce the intensity and volume, but keep the workouts as a placeholder in your schedule. Maybe change them up so you are doing somehting still active, but not SBR if you need that break.
4) Commit to learning new skills. e.g. I'm now primarily a swimmer again, but was always a crappy breaststroker, even when I swam in college. I've committed to working on that for the fall.
5) buy yourself a new toy every so often (especially for the bike). That carbon bottle cage may not actually help you go faster, but it looks awesome.

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For bike and run do 1 long workout (2-hours @ Z1/2) and 1 hard workout (Z4/5) each week where the threshold level duration is 30-minutes. 2 other workouts for each keeping everything else low intensity (Z1/2) for the duration you feel like or have available and you'll be fine. Focus on quality for the long and hard workouts.

to drop the weight, reduce your carb input for a few months and learn to find your balance for carb/fat/protein intake.


Good Luck.

Some options you might enjoy include racing a season of cyclocross in the fall, doing a cross country running series if one is available or mountain bike races. If there is a local bike racing club, you might enjoy participating in some of their rides and events and getting to know some new faces, same for track and masters swimming.

If my season ends before august, ill mostly get out the road bike and ride...umstructured.

Ive done a run focus in the early fall the last 2 years...since I love running in the fall the most and my season went into sept.

Then lll transition to the pool and running. Then as winter sets in, ill start working on the trainer and swiming more, maintaining run.

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I like a fall and spring marathon to go into winter and come out in marathon condition. Then can focus more on bike when the snow melts. I found a long run every other week (plus 1-2 tempo/interval runs) during the week is enough to maintain.
I also like to hit the pool more in the winter. That never gets canceled due to snow, ice.

If you're that far out, do some races for fun. A Grand Fondo or an OWS swim meet, trail ride or run. Some variety.

Off season?
Summer is triathlon, road racing (bike)
Late summer is MTB, triathlon
Autumn is CX and trail running.
Winter is nordic skiing.
Spring is road racing (run).

Hmm... I think I might need to start taking time off...

Ellsworth - try this link. http://blog.trainerroad.com/...ads/2013/10/temp.png

How do you plan such a long off-season, and plan it for improvement?

While the words "off season" get tossed around a lot, know that in reality for any endurance sport, there really is no such thing as an off season. Why? Because true improvement comes from the long steady build up of fitness over time. And when I say "time", I am not talking weeks or months I am talking years and years.

It's for that reason that the training you do 6 - 7 months out from an A race may be the most important training that you do.

The people that are really good at an endurance sport, often take a few down weeks at the end of their racing season, but after that, it's right back at it.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

+1 on MTB riding and racing.

My biggest gains have come from never taking a break from cycling in some form, year over year. That way I never start from scratch in December, and don't have reason to complain about how my FTP sucks. Plus, biking has lots of carry over to running. Throw some trail runs in there, get out of the "triathlon head space" or "I'm stuck training this whole damn winter" mentality. Make it fun, find some MTB riding partners, and rip each others' legs off. Get a set of lights and ride trails at night - it totally extends the rideable hours in the fall/winter/spring.

Sweet spot, lots and lots of sweet spot. Only start throwing in FTP or vo2 work when you stagnate, then right back to sweet spot.

There are some really good winter cycling training plans out there for the off season. Google them. Here is one: http://www.training4cyclists.com/...er-training-program/

Care to elaborate? Why specifically all sweetspot?

If you read the papers/articles written by fascat and Coggan they talk about sweet spot being great because it is sustainable. You can do a lot of it repeatedly without the fatigue associated with FTP or vo2 work. You could ride 5-7 hours a week all at sweet spot and expect to improve because there is a lot of aerobic adaptation from that level of training. If you did a 15 min warmup, 50 min at 88-92%, and a 5 minute cooldown you are looking at 70 minutes or ride time (trainer or rollers or living in a perfect place for it) and 80-90TSS points. Do that Tue, Wed, Thur, take Monday an Friday off, do weekend group rides or fun rides that land you in the low-mid end of SST with some time at higher intensities and you're going to see a fair amount of gain for as little time as you're putting in. This is obviously cycling centric and 7 hours/week might be a lot for some, but that's my reason for why.

If you have a lot of time, say 15-20 hours a week to ride, it's still not a bad plan because of the repeatability. 2x20 at FTP and similar stuff is super sexy but it's also super stressful on the body. If you back it down the intensity you get a lot of adaptation but you also get the luxury of stacking massive amount of it which is the point of a long steady build.

I find the off season is a good time to become a better athlete. Address weaknesses like core, flexibility, and strength. The trick is to find fun ways to do this. I do yoga, group fitness, speed skating and skiing. More fun than mundane gym work.

Riding on the trainer sucks, but you can do way more quality work in an hour on The trainer than 2 hours outside.

I agree. That's why I swim, bike, and run as much as possible.

OP--It really depends on your motivation levels. Run fitness is harder to achieve than bike fitness (IME, and observing others), so this long of a block is a great chance to really really build here in a manner that will set you up for next season and on. And best of the 3 for losing weight (if you've still more after that 30...congrats on that!). Bubble along in both swimming and biking (maybe 2 sessions of each a week) until a few months from Steelhead, then really go after them. Dedicate the rest of your energy to running. Biking hard and running hard makes for a difficult combination, fyi.

Bonus of running: readily adaptable to almost all weather conditions. Makes the winter more manageable. Seek trails. Seek lots and lots of trails. 4x more enjoyable than any road, anywhere.

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The question of who is right and who is wrong has seemed to me always too small to be worth a moment's thought, while the question of what is right and what is wrong has seemed all-important.

-Albert J. Nock

You need to consider what you like to do and what is available given your location. I love swimming outside but have a limited window for that so if it were me I would be heavy on swimming until the outdoor pool closed. I like cross country skiing but we don't really have enough the snow to that regularly so I substitute trail running and mountain biking. My preference is to get outside as much as possible.