Thursday, September 4, 2014

Rule #11: When It's Time to Take an Off-Season, Take an Off-Season


For longer than I can remember, I have a New Year's Eve run that I do with anyone who is open to running it with me. It is a 10 mile out-and-back which starts and ends at Sand Island in Bethlehem. Unlike a normal run on the trail, this run travels over South Mountain with a total of 3.5 miles of serious climbing. A great run to talk about for sure, but the main reason we started the tradition has nothing to do with "starting the new year off right" and everything to do with off-season training.

Seems really strange that I would be writing about the off-season rule here in early September as I prepare myself for a half Ironman and my A-race (Ironman Florida) in less than two months time. Here it is crunch time and what rule do I whip out of my back pocket? Take an Off Season.

You might just start to think my head isn't in the game ...

I assure you, my head is in the game. I write this now as I have had a number of conversations with friends who, like me, are prepping for their big race of the year who, quite frankly, fear the off season. Do they fear the lack of training structure? Maybe ... but probably not.

Me thinks that what the fear is all about is fitness. Or more to the point, losing some fitness.

Before I go on I want to make two things perfectly clear. First, when I talk about the off-season I make a distinction between off-season and early season. The off-season is designed to heal the body and get your mental mojo back. The early season is about base building, building strength and skills, and consistent training. For me, the off-season is generally the time from my last race of the year to about Christmas. The early season is from New Years Day through the end of March. If you don't live on the East Coast, the timing of your off-season could be different than mine.

Second, when I talk about losing fitness it is a relative thing. After completing Ironman Florida on November 1 I will be taking my down time. Come January 1, I promise you that I will be in no shape to complete an Ironman. I'll still be able to swim and bike and run, just not as fast and as far as I could on November 1, when I should be in peak condition for the year.

And I am good with it. Been doing this for years without issue. In fact, it makes the early part of the year feel great as I can feel the fitness coming back.

Seriously. No bull$hit. It's really true.

Still, I can feel your skepticism seeping through the computer screen. It is hard, for the most part, to just stop training. Which, really isn't NOT Training ... it's just not nearly as much volume as you have become addicted accustomed to doing.  And really, when compared to the average human being, is still quite a bit of training. Still, you fear losing all that fitness you gained over the last 10+ months of training AND YOU ARE SURE IT'S NEVER COMING BACK. EVER!!!

So here's the deal: when you stop training like an animal you will lose fitness. But, and this is a big but, if you allow yourself to get "out of shape," taking the time to concern yourself with health and well-being as opposed to just race fitness, your body will heal itself and you will come back stronger in your next training cycle.

Here are the rules for a true off-season:
  • Continue to workout, just not structured or on too regular a basis. If you feel like getting up and doing something, do it. If not, go back to sleep.
  • Train different than you do in-season. When you do train, swimming is better than biking and biking is better than running, although maintaining a base level of running is important. The less stress you put on the joints the better.
  • Strength train. This is the best time of year to strengthen up the body and work on any weaknesses you may have.
  • Keep intensity low. Remember those social runs you used to take? All runs should be social (or social paced).
  • Gain some weight. Yeah, you heard me, gain some weight. Staying at your race weight year round is great for the ego but isn't so good for the body. Come January 1 I will be 5-10 pounds heavier than I was on the morning of my A race.
  • Work on your nutrition. Yes, it is more than OK to partake in holiday festivities, but that doesn't mean your diet should go to complete crap. If there is something you have been thinking about changing - going Paleo, eating more vegetables, whatever - now is a good time to start integrating it into your routine.  
  • Do non-triathlon/sports related activities. Take the extra time you have from lower training volume and do things you don't normally have time for, like reading, writing or taking care of things around the house (Note to The Queen: please don't read this to mean that I should be doing things around the house).
  • Plan out your new year of training/racing. While your training load is low and you have extra time on your hands, reflect back on your past year and look forward to the next race season. Are there any destination races you are ready to check off the bucket list? A new distance you want to step up to? What limiters held your performance back and need to be addressed? 
What the off-season comes down to is balancing the desire to continue to hammer your body and the desire to become a lazy bum. You will continue to workout, just at lower volume and intensity, and not so regimented. Keep in mind, even when you are "barely training" you are probably more active than the average human being.

In reality what I have found is that in the first few weeks after my final race of the year it is easy to get back into the gym for strength training while the desire to swim is about zero, and sitting on my bike in the basement isn't going to happen. Running easy and short is a pleasure as it is running for pure pleasure of running. If I can get outside on the bike on a weekend I'm good as well. By about day 30 my desire to train starts to come back and things get more consistent. I do make sure that I'm not overdoing it, which is kinda a strange thing in this sedentary world we live in. By the time Ryan Seacrest is standing in Times Square rockin' in the New Year I'm asleep on the couch ready both physically and mentally to get back into that training routine.

Getting back to the New Year's Eve run ... that run has never been about just starting the New Year out right or anything like that. I may have said that out loud to people. If I did it was a lie. Really, what that run represents is the chance to go out and see just how out of shape I am to start the early season. Some years I can run up both sides without stopping to walk, while other years have been a bit of a disaster. Either way, I know where I'm at.

Moral of the story: If it is the end of your race year, it is time to rest!!!

Thanks for reading.

Train hard. Stay focused.
Jon


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