I had been training and planning on doing Ironman Florida as my final race of the year and then take some standard time off and recovery in the off season in preperation for Ironman Arizona. I went through the stresses of an entire training program and taper up until the tuesday before the race when I was unable to go. My off-season is now a completely different picture since I didn’t have the end of season race to recover from and with the taper I did in preparing for Florida I feel pretty rested to get back into it. I don’t want to burn out in Januaury and February by not taking time off or having a real ‘off season’ but at the same time I don’t have anything to recover from and feel like this is more of an extended base building period instead of off season. Any suggestions on how I should apporach the next month or so?
Hi Forzagto,
There are a number of different ways to approach this; I’d recommend you stick to your original off season schedule even though you didn’t race. As you said, you went through the stresses of an entire season of training. The off season is a great way to absorb the training you’ve done all season and give yourself a physical and mental break that you need. This will also help you approach next season fresh and recharged on motivation.
Replacing your off season with base building will more than likely leave you flat and tired come spring. Remember one the key points to a periodization based training schedule includes a reduction in training by reducing volume and intensity.
Best wishes as IMAZ !
Mitch