Off Season Training and Thinking Long Term
Off Season Training Ideas
- Time Off: Most athletes get very scared when they hear the word REST. This is very understandable, because the athlete is afraid that he or she is going to lose all of their fitness. But what does research tell us about detraining and taking time off? Research tells us that the only way you are going to lose significant amounts of fitness when taking time off, is when you do absolutely nothing (like sitting on the couch and watching T.V. all day without any physical exercise). If you were to do some minor physical activity, you would only lose 1-2% fitness in the first two weeks. So give yourself a rest!
- Focus One of the Three Sports: Is there one sport that you felt you needed improvement in this season? Well then take the time and train like a swimmer, cyclist, or runner! For example if you wanted to improve you’re swimming. Pick a race (obviously indoors) or a day were you can swim a time trial distraction free, three months from now. After you have chosen your race, start training like a swimmer. Set up a mini periodization schedule for yourself so you can gradually increase the amount of swimming you do the first 6 weeks. In this 6 week period, focus on form and distance. Then the last 6 weeks start incorporating some faster pace intervals and threshold sets. Then 10 days or so before the race cut your volume along with less intervals so you can peak for your race! You will be amazed on how much your swimming will have improved - especially come next triathlon season. So have fun with this!
- Establishing Good Habits: Ever look at your training partners and wonder how they get out of bed at 5 AM or never drink soda? Well, they did this though establishing good habits. Getting up at 5 AM to train can be very tough if you have never woken up that early. But just like we train our bodies to cycle 50 miles, we must train them to get up at an earlier time. Start by setting a specific bed time for yourself, ensuring that you get at least seven hours of sleep. Also when there are days that you are not training in the morning, do not sleep in! As for nutrition same concepts apply. First thing you can do is attend the nutrition clinic that will be held on October 15. Take baby steps in improving your nutrition. If you want to stop drinking soda, I would suggest not cutting it completely out of your diet. Instead of drinking 4 glasses a day, cut it down to 3. It is when you decide to completely take soda out of your diet that increases the likely hood of you not staying with the new habit.
- Increasing Flexibility: Within each and every one of your joints, there is a optimum range of motion (flexibility) and it is impossible to reach peak performance when that optimum range is not met. Also I can’t stress this enough, the tighter you are the more susceptible you are to injury. So what can you do about this? Start incorporating some flexibility sessions after each workout. Ever think about taking a yoga or pilates class? Yoga will definitely help with flexibility and as an added benefit help with some stress in your life. Pilates doesn’t just target flexibility but also overall strength, balance, and core conditioning.
- Try a New Sport: Now is the time to try something new! There are a ton of other sports out there that will keep you in great shape. Mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking, ice skating, skiing, hiking, and wiffle ball are just some of the sports out there to try! Ok well maybe not wiffle ball but I swear it has helped my swimming J
- For the Hardcore Triathletes: Still want to train? First take at least a week or two of down time. Then use the off season to establish a long and healthy foundation for the following season. Your focus should be on two aspects for the next few months: volume of training and improving your technique in all three sports. Start by gradually increasing your volume of training. A good rule of thumb to go by is increasing your volume 10% every three weeks. This is a conservative approach; you know your body so it’s a trial and error process. Also make sure to take a down week every 4-6 weeks. Your training pace should be 60-73% of your maximum heart rate, RPE of 9-12, or 50-60% of Vo2 Max. After weeks 4-6 start incorporating form drills in each sport once or twice each week. Try to stay away from interval training during this period of training. This will only hinder your foundation building and possibly cause you to peak earlier in the 2007 season. Research shows that although slower training does not target or improve your Vo2 max and lactate threshold significantly, it will still increase by 3-7% depending on the athlete.
- Strength Training: Strength training is a great way to stay injury free and make you an over all stronger triathlete. There is a ton of research on the positive benefits of strength training for cyclists and swimmers. Some of the benefits of strength training:
- Increase tendon, bone and muscle strength
- Injury prevention
- Increased efficiency and speed
- Prevention of muscle imbalances
- Decreased body fat percentage
- Increase in lean muscle
- Increase in your metabolism (burn more fat)
