What's your base like? How was this year for you in terms of racing, swim, bike and run volume?

Typical spin classes are an hour long to include warm-up, main set, and cool down. If you are not starting with a solid base the workouts may have limited return.

What are you goals? Sprint/Oly/HIM/IM/have fun/ninjamom in a bathing suit?

Do you normally ride on the road for training?

I think my base is strong as I finished 2 olympics and 1 HIM this season but was way slow on everything. New goals would be to get my bike speed and run speeds up and to do 3 HIM this next year. Thoughts??

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COtrimom

Speed is going to come from three key things: solid aerobic base, good form/technique/economy, and stress to bring create the training effect. You didn't mention swimming. Are you a swimmer to start? For the spin classes - quick disclaimer - I am a spin instructor as well as a cycling and triathlon coach - others may have varying opinions. In the off season I think the spinning might be a fun way to break up your workouts, keep mentally fresh, meet potential new training partners, push yourself a little harder since you are with a group, and other benefits.

If you told me you were doing sprint tris and generally having fun I would tell you if you enjoy the spin classes during the off season and that twice a week is good way build base and that you would get some training value - for an event that will take 33-40 minutes. For Olympic and HIM distance the equation is slightly different since you are looking at an events from 1-3 hours. My recommendation would be to do one class a week for the reasons I mentioned above. Make sure your position on the spin bike is as close to your road/tri bike as possible (seat height/fore/aft, bar height). Most spin bikes will have Shimano SPD compatible pedals. Make sure you have comfortable cycling shoes to wear during the classes. Be conscious of your pedaling form and try to be smooth and efficient. The flywheel has a tendency to smooth out your rough spots. Pay attention to the position of your body - guaranteed you will see a large number of hips rocking from bad position and form - maybe even the instructor. Just like a swim workout, think about individual aspects of your riding (breathing, pedal stroke, hand position, body position). Do you own a bicycle trainer? I am thinking two days a week at home on the trainer for about 60 minutes. It may take you a little while to get up to 60 minutes - give it three weeks. Make this quality time. Assuming your position and technique is good to start with a typical hour workout might be warm up/spin, intervals of increasing intensity and duration and cool down. Numerous resources out there for specific workouts but heart rate and/or power will be your guide. Guessing you have a heart rate monitor? As February and March creep up I would look to see if there are any Sunday or Saturday group rides where you can get a good 2-3 hour ride. Many triathletes shy away from this but road cyclists typically use these rides to build good base, refresh group riding skills after being inside all winter, and build endurance for those longer efforts. As a triathlete group riding will make you a more confident cyclist which translates to better technique and working in a group will help make you faster when you rotate in for your pull and get you ready for IM Florida (this one is a joke). You should also be targeting your key events for the year and and thinking where you want to be performing prior to the race. B or C events are great for this as are structured training rides where you can measure your improvement.

For the running, I am not the most popular training partner or coach - I have used a treadmill about 6 times over the past 20 years and hated every minute on it. In the off season I try to run 2-3 times a week outside if the weather is above 35 degrees. Gloves, hat, tights and a little Vaseline on the face to keep from freezing. Off season running is all about building base, working on form and throwing in some trail runs and breaking up the routine, breaking in new shoes - not structured speed workouts. I might go for a few group runs with training partners where we pick it up and throw around a little punishment but nothing like 400/800m repeats.

When March rolls in after a winter of quality base you can start mixing in some speedwork and brick workouts. I love brick workouts. Most athletes talk about them but most avoid them because they suck - but they will make you faster. You can start off with something as simple as a 45 minute ride followed by a 15 minute run and work your way up. This will also help you work on transitions. I set up my kit in the garage and have everything laid out for when I roll in. Guaranteed after a few weeks of quality ride-run bricks your off the bike run will improve dramatically.

Most important thing ro remember during the off season is to enjoy yourself and remember why you do this, work on changes to diet/training/equipment that you typically would not do during the season and lay the mental and physical foundation for the upcoming racing season.

Keep in mind that you still have your swimming to maintain and/or work on.

I hope this was helpful - excuse the length but I didn't want to give you a quick soundbite that created more questions than it answered.

Good luck for 2010.

One time a week of something will not get you gains for ANY sport.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD

Agreed. If you want to swim, ride, run fast you will need regular, quality training in those sports.

In the off season I like t recommend breaking up the routine if the athlete has time - same way I like to throw in some snowshoeing, cross country skiing, mountain biking, trail running, etc. - not when they are 8 weeks out from their first IM.

In addition to what others have said....

It depends on the quality of the class. If it's an "aerobics" style fitness class, the high HR sections may be too short to be of value in your triathlons, especially if they have equal length recovery periods. As well, a one hour spin class is fairly short, taking warm up and cool down into account. Could you try to get there early and stay a bit longer, to get in some extra time?

If the class is only once a week and you do other hard cycling sessions on your own at home, I don't think it would hurt though. It's still more time on your bike, which is a good thing.

Being in a training situation with other people around you can be motivating too, especially during the long months of winter.

Some of the classes have way too much "running" out of the saddle. Not sure how much that helped me.

I respectfully disagree. When coming back from illness (which kept me on the sidelines for almost a year), I did a 1h15min spin class once a week - probably the hardest spin class I ever did. I mean we did nasty hard intervals. After 6 months of doing that and only that, my first few rides on the road were easy peasy - my climbing was very good and my ability to (mentally) suffer was greatly improved.

A lot depends on the QUALITY of the session, and where your starting point is (mine was low and I had a lot of room to improve - once a week will not get you thru the point of diminishing returns).

AP

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS