I just finished my last two races, and im now in my “off season.” I thought this would be easy; take it easy, relax, repair, but I find myself bouncing off the walls and looking to go out and push myself. It turns out this off season deal is harder for me than putting together a training schedule. Anyone have any tips on how to make the most of an off season?
This is my first off-season as well. My last race was 10 days ago. I’m mixing up the training a bit for offseason doing some mountain biking. The workouts will drop to about an hour a day, 5 days a week instead of the 1.5/day, 6 days week (with a long brick on Saturdays).
Just like easing into higher intensity training, many people find it neccessary to mentally ease into the off season. Take a look at activities that will help your triathlon but are not neccessarily standard SBR workouts. This way you can tell yourself that you’re still “training”, but also giving yourself a break. Yoga comes to mind, as does mountain biking, underwater hockey (it’s real…Google it), some martial arts, meditation, hiking, etc.
HTH
eric
Definitely allow a transition period with reduced volume, intensity and structure. Keep intensity down hroughout the off-season.
Off-season is the time to prioritize strength training and to make changes to technique. With volume and intensity lower and without pressure to perform in upcoming races, now is the ideal time to make major changes.
Ken
For now I’m going to concentrate on my weakest discipline, running.
I’m not going to just run miles for the sake of miles, the runs will have a purpose. Probably won’t go over 30 miles.
1 LSD run at 1.2 * Threshold pace
2 one hour comfortable pace runs
1 hill run (probably on treadmill when it gets cold)
1 10K pace run, pickups or short intervals
maybe another fun run on an off day.
I’ll start this in November
I will still swim 4 days a week and bike once a week if I feel like it.
jaretj