What is you off-season focus and your weakness?

I am a very weak swimmer. Technique and swim fitness needs major work. I do realize that 2x swim a week is not enough but that is all I can commit for now. Hopefully will be able to squeeze a 3rd session in every other week.

Cycling is more about building base so that I can get comfortable riding a long time in aero and increase average speed. (virtual power with Trainerroad)

This isn't really answering your question but here are some threads about offseason training I found useful when browsing around for discussions about doing exactly the opposite of what you are talking about. (My goal this winter is to run a lot of miles and put my swim and bike into a maintenance mode)

Winter run w/FTP work

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Re%3A_Run_focus_and_trying_for_ftp_increase_%5Bblueraider_mike%5D_P5791949/?search_string=winter%20ride#p5791949



Offseason Cycling Thread

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Edit%3A_winter-run-focus_P5716080/



Kevin MetCalf's 2x20s

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Tell_me_about_your_trainer_road_gains.__P5965237/?page=unread#unread



2x20 conversation
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/2x20_P5984346/?page=unread#unread

I would get some stretch cordz and do some dryland training to supplement. Technique is key in swimming, but you also need a strong pull. Start out with the lower resistance ones and use on the days you aren't in the pool.

5-6x a week running is waaaaaayyy too much for maintenance. Think about an extended taper when it comes to maintaining things. Three short sessions, 30-60 minutes tops with some intensity, that's it. All you're doing by running 5-6x a week as maintenance is digging yourself a hole.

Hill Session
5-7 minutes warm up
20 minutes climbing (using the decent as your recovery)
5-7 minutes cool down.

Tempo / VO2 Max Session
5-7 minutes warmup
5x3 minutes @5k pace with 30s recovery between repeats
5-7 minute cooldown

Endurance Session
10 minute warmup
40 minutes at slow pace (5K pace +1 minute per km)
10 minute cooldown

Now take that extra time and do cords, swimming, balancing your body's movements (mobilization) and getting some added strength in the gym. If swimming is the weakness and you're going to address it then don't be afraid to loose fitness in the areas you excel at a year from the target event. You'll have plenty of time to get your run form back 3 months out from the race.

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

I would run 4-5x but make 2-3 of those short bricks for time efficiency. The other two are your quality runs with tempo and speed work. I would start those around 50-60 minutes, but you could lengthen one up to 90 minutes as you get closer to next season.

Agreed. I run 3x per week off season. Bike 2x per week. Swim more, however. Because my swim sucks.

This is awesome. Thank you!

Will definitly look into incorporating those cords routine to help my swim. After 3 session of master swim, I am very frustrated with my progress. Anything that might help me improve technique is welcome for sure and a must do.

Cheers!

triathlon 'off season' is run more pure running races season. during the fall XC racing is big

I always chuckle when people will write things like, "you just need to run 2-3x a week for maintenance" because most people around here suck at running. I'd say run 5x week, maybe even 6x a week. Dropping the frequency is a mistake, I think. Dial back the intensity. Maybe do just one tempo run a week and make the rest relatively easy aerobic runs. Depending on how good a swimmer you are, you might want to have another session there too.

So if I am to incorporate the 3 types of workout describe by @PushThePace and running the other 2-3x time for 30 min easy just to keep consistency, is that sufficient? I am assuming that there is no harm for me doing those 30 min right after my bike session correct? From what I read, I know that I don't need to work on brick session but logistically, it make it easier for me to just run on the treadmill right after a trainer session. Perhaps it is just me that is overthinking it and should just instead keep it simple and continue running as much as I can at easy pace. (like the 100/100 challenge)

Re: swimming. Yes definitely swimming more would really help me. It is all about logistics right now hence I can once commit to 2x per week but will work on trying to get one more in when possible.

Thanks for everyone inputs! Much appreciated!

I agree. If you want to be a great runner, you should basically run 6-7x/wk year-round. Make it a habit of running 30-60 min first thing every morning. Do it for years. Eventually 50mpw will feel like nothing. You will then crush people's dreams on the run.

Can lay away the bike in the off-season and "cram" with intervals in the spring. Use the extra time to improve the swim.

+1. Dial back the intensity and workouts on your runs so you can have more energy for swimming/biking. You won't lose running fitness but you will feel slower from a lack of workouts but that comes back after a few interval sessions. I would recommend doing "strides" (50 meter "sprints" ~80% effort to keep leg turnover), high knee drills, butt kick drills after your runs though. This will keep some snap in your stride.

What hole are you referring to? The hole of good running? Only on ST would you want to avoid that hole.

The hole of chronic fatigue and fitness loss due to over training. The hole of potentially injuring yourself. This is pretty obvious and I'm rather shocked you'd even try and debate this. You cannot maintain peak fitness all year round, it is physiologically impossible and a fruitless pursuit. What you can maintain however is good form by practicing regularly. You can also keep your anaerobic system in good form by taxing it a handful of times per week.

The goal with any endurance sport is to increase anaerobic capacity and then raise your aerobic capacity to represent as much of that as possible. Once you've achieved this (as the poster stated he is happy with where his run is at) then all that you need to do is a small number of maintenance sessions to keep that from declining. Seeing as though he wants to focus on swimming he will get much of his aerobic work done there rather than wasting energy on doing aerobic work in both disciplines.

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

I have to disagree with you post. Your first paragraph contradicts itself. I do agree that you cannot maintain peak fitness year round which is why you stop anaerobic efforts and only focus on aerobic development. Taxing your anaerobic system is more of a driving force in overtraining than building an aerobic base (which is why distance runners will spend the summer building their aerobic capacity then focus on more anaerobic training during their xc or racing season).

The goal of endurance sports is to increase aerobic capacity then anaerobic, you have this backwards.

If he wants to focus on swimming then he should be focusing on technique and drills. Doing one arm drills floating down the lane will not increase aerobic capacity.

There is so much wrong with your last post it exceeds the time I have available to address it. I'll address a few points.


It's really hard to physiologically train yourself into an over training hole. Mentally much easier. I doubt, unless he's doing 20+ h/wk and working a super stressful job, super stressful home life the OP needs to worry about over training.


Frequency is one of the best injury prevention tools runners have


Endurance sports are aerobic sports, not anaerobic sports. You need a huge aerobic base then add in some "anaerobic" or I'd say fast vo2 type stuff, and only a bit to get fast. You don't need to run hard 3x week. And no one if they want to run well next season should just be running 3x/wk for an extended period of time.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

I can admit what the last two posters said makes sense and I may be wrong. That being said I guess I must be an outlier then. I've managed to increase my run speed on average of 10-15% year over year in the past 3 years using this formula.

I now run sub 1:20 half marathons
I now run sub 17 minute 5ks
I now run a 5:xx minute mile

I'm 36 years old so I'm no spring chicken either. I do nothing other than a variety of what you see in my first post in this thread. I do 0 long slow runs, I do 0 Z3 tempo runs. If what you say is fact (which I have no reason to believe it's not) what would account for my progression? Am I just an outlier?

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"Train so you have no regrets @ the finish line"

I listen when you write something. Can you expound on the above....just a little?

Thanks.

The nice thing about running 6-7x per week on top of hard biking and swimming is that it will force you to run slow. This means you are less likely to get injured. I mostly ran all easy (actually very easy) this season and had my best IM marathon by 20 mins. I never did Vo2 work or threshold work. I just did some tempo intervals a few times per month. However, I was able to run 50+ mpw consistently except recovery weeks.

This seems like a perfect post to offer the comparison between a full ass and a half ass.

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/So_you_want_a_challenge_-_Half_assed_or_Full_on_Ass_You_choose.___Alternate_title%3A_Do_it_right_or_wasting_your_time._P1051716/

I would say you are an outlier for sure. Most people couldn't run those kinds of times with a well structured plan.

desertdude is pretty much in line with my thoughts on the matter. I am around the same speed as you, and like you probably, am among the faster runners in regional and smaller events. When guys ask my how I run so fast I just tell them I run a lot. 6-7 times a week most of the year. And sure, there is genetics in there to some degree. I'm 37, so even older!

I do consider myself a fast, slow guy though. Some guys can take 2 years off, train for 2 weeks and be pretty quick. If I take 2 months off it will take me 6 months to get that back.

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Brian

Oh my... 200 miles per month for the next 4 months.. that is a lot of running. I peaked at 40-45 km prior of my half marathon 2 weekend ago.. but I get the point.It is all about volume and consistency. (only skimmed through the thread and saw that it is not about mileage but basically setting up a goal and hitting the target) Speed come with time along with some max effort near race time.

Now if I was to be more specific in term of being able to get back to my running shape in spring, my question would be:

For those that are running a 1:30-1:35 HIM, what do you do during the off season running wise? The concept of running consistently at easy pace 5-6x time a week for x miles is understood but do you do anything else special?

As far as swimming, just to give an idea how bad it is.. I can barely swim 100m freestyle before being completely out of breath. The master coach said that I need to be more relax in the water and that I need to control my breathing better as I am hyper ventilating which causes me to run out of breathe. As for my 100m pace... let's not go there. That would be for a separate post re: how to get comfortable and breathe properly. Need to work on being more fluid in the water and my pull.

Great replies folks. Learning a lot. Hoping to hear more from you Brian (Desert Dude)

Cheers!