Tri Sabbatical

Triathlon Forum
1

So, I am thinking of taking a tri-sabbatical over the next two years as I focus more on my school/research work and try to finish up my PhDizzle. I really enjoy the Half IM/IM/+ distances but I will just simply not have the time to train for those distances. I know the typical response…“blah blah blah, top AGer soandso has 9 kids, 4 wives, 5 mortgages, no legs, and still trains 27 hours a week.” Sorry, I just really do not want to be constantly worried about getting enough training in to live up to my naturally high expectations. Additionally, I don’t have the money to blow on races where I don’t give it my all and get all of my money’s worth.

Anyway, what I have reservations about the most is whether or not I will be able to come back and continue kicking some AG butt. Not that I’m a super, butt-kickin’ AGer right now, but I have been steadily improving and I think I am on the right track to do pretty well in years to come. So, having to focus on school is bittersweet but I know it takes precendence, because believe it or not, there are SOME things in life more important than triathlon.

So, have any of you, for whatever reason, taken time off to get back in the game later and continue to kick butt? What did you do so that you didn’t totally “lose it” while out? What effects, good or bad, did your sabbatical give/teach you? Would you do it again? etc.

I still plan on having a focus (bike or run) to keep myself sane but I just won’t have any big goals to work towards (IM, PBP, etc) so I could potentially take weeks at a time off when things “come up” in the lab.

2

welcome to the macrocycle knows as training

I took 6 months off for the first time ever, feels great not to have any races scheduled, just training
.

3

Hike. Kayak. Windsurf. Surf. Sail. Ski. Snowboard. Kickbox. Lift weights to try and get huge. Snowshoe. Cross-country ski. ANYTHING!

I think the top AG’er is probably also overtrained, mentally and physically. I’d be surprised if, once you got some specific training in you, you weren’t better than before.

4

First off, what is your Ph. D. in? That really determines most of the story.

5

Electrical Engineering. Opto-electronic stuff.

6

"there are SOME things in life more important than triathlon. "

There are???:slight_smile:

The secret of getting back into shape is to not let yourself get out of shape. Granted you may not be training for tris but you’ll still be active doing various physical activities. Doing well in tri is as much a mind set as it is anything else and for the moment you’ve got other more important priorities. If you decide to get back into it more seriously in a few years it won’t be hard to get back up to speed.

Concentrate on the task a hand and once completed, then come back.

7

Well, I may not be qualified to answer this but after I got tired of/ burned out after a few years of full time training racing I took 2.5 years off compeletly from everything but some rock climbing, hiking and riding 3x per week to work on my bike (12 miles total per week).

I started to run again then hurt my IT band and that forced me to not run for 13 more months. During that time I picked up bike racing. My bike splits returned close to what they were, but not quite as fast. My bike racing became better than it ever had, especially my sprinting.

I got back into the pool and did my first tri this year in 8 years. I previously did duathlons for 3 or the previous four years.

What I noticed is that overall the fast guys are no faster and the depth is not there. Races on a whole are slower, way slower. There are more people in races, way more and way more going slower (sorry to harp on this but it amazes me that previous in a race I did 20 people broke 1 hr. When I raced elite my times never put me better than 6th OV. Now that exact time is winning the race and less than 7 are breaking the hour barrier.)

What did I notice physically? I run much slower for 10k, about 2.5 min slower fresh than what I did in a triathlon (34’s in a tri vs 36’s now when fresh). So never stop running, it is too hard to come back and odds are against it, IMO.

Cycling, no problem being relatively as fast. I’m as fast over shorter distances, 20k and under, but not a fast over 20k. Probably due to much less volume, about 150 miles per week less.

Swimming, once a fish always a fish. Give me one solid month of swimming and I’m probably close to being sub 20. Will I ever break 19 again consistently…no probably not unless the courses are consistently short.

I find that overall, I’m just a few places away from where I was even though I’m about 1200m slower over the sprint distance, and 2-2.5k slower in an oly. That amounts to about 4 and 8 mins respectively.

I think that if your fairly consistent and do some threshold each week during your break you’ll lose very little. If you take years off as I did, your screwing yourself like I did.