The Offseason

At least in my neck of the woods, the triathlon season has come to a close. The days are getting shorter and temps are on the decline. I thought I’d share what I do during this time of year, AKA the “offseason.” I think it’s beneficial and healthy to take a little time off… personally I like to stagger it by discipline. Following my last triathlon of the season (Sep 14th this year) I take 2-3 weeks off swimming. Take more if you feel like it. Everyone’s wired differently, but after a few weeks I actually start to miss it... I’m an addict for sure. Once I hop back in the pool though, it’s only 1x a week and not a hard effort for the next 4-6 weeks. Training is fun for me most of the year anyways, but especially during this time. If nothing else my once a week swim is an effective wake-up technique. After resuming this limited swim routine, I then take a couple weeks off biking. Similar to swimming, when I come back to biking it’s in a leisurely way. I’ll typically ride 2-3 times a week, but only for 30-60 min and at a joyride pace. I think a kid passed me on his scooter the other day. 

I have been mixing up my speeds a bit lately, thanks to the opportunity to test ride some sweet new Reynolds wheels (I’ll write up a review in the next week or two). I often have a fall road race, so running is the last thing I take off. This year it’s a half marathon, actually just a couple days away. This was a free race entry as a “prize” (some may argue punishment) for 2nd in my age group last year. With a focus on shorter, olympic distance triathlons this year, I really haven’t done many long training runs… this might be a rare race in which I don’t give absolutely 100%. I’ll see how I feel. Anyways, once that’s over I’ll take my two weeks off running, which may get reduced to 10 days if I’m getting antsy to at least go for a short jog.

As a previously mentioned addict who also works in Excel spreadsheets all day, naturally I’ve got my training plan written up for when I start back “for real.” I can create one for you as well if you’re interested... just let me know! I’ll be heading back to Ironman 70.3 St. George in May, and my 6-month program (“The Blueprint” as I refer to it) begins in November. Technically the offseason is all the way through April, and the Blueprint ramps up over time. It’s not balls to the wall suffering or anything from Day 1… more my annual attempt to stay active and maintain sanity once Old Man Winter rears his ugly head!