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Yet another triathlon season has come to a close and you may be left wondering, now what? Many athletes fall into two risky categories:  those that ignore the off season and are already  deep into marathon training, and those that over embrace the “off” in off season and are sitting on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s preparing to hibernate for the winter months.

Jumping right into another intense activity, without proper time for your body (and mind) to fully recover from the intensity of tri season is setting many athletes up for injury and/or burn out.  For many athletes, the idea of taking a few weeks off from intense training and even more time training fewer hours at less intensity is anxiety provoking.
 “What if I lose all the fitness gains I’ve made this year?  If I slow down, I’m going to lose my motivation, become a couch potato, and gain 20 pounds.   What will I do with my free time if I am not training??”  Although some of these concerns may feel valid, in truth, taking time for your body to recover and spending several months training at lower intensity will actually serve to make you a better athlete as long as you don’t take this to the opposite extreme.

The polar opposite of athletes who want to train hard all year, are those athletes who train hard for a few months during tri season and then stop training all together during the off season.  This method also has many disadvantages.  The largest one is that a healthy lifestyle and healthy body require regular physical activity, and walks to the freezer for ice cream and using your fingers to control a TV remote don’t count!  In addition, these athletes truly do lose most of the fitness gains they may have made during tri season, leaving them starting from scratch each spring.  For these athletes, there can be frustration when they do not see improvements in their races from year to year.  They also run the risk of gaining some winter weight and must spend several weeks (or months) each spring trying to lose this weight, a dangerous game to play with your health.

Since neither of these extremes is ideal, you may be wondering what the solution is.  The most successful athletes have learned that the key is finding balance.  For most athletes, this balance is achieved through having an off season training plan.  Planning time to rest and recover, and even putting in days where your “training” may mean riding bikes in the park with your kids, going for a walk with your spouse, or a ski vacation with friends will help ensure that you don’t overdue the training.  Similarly, having a structured plan will help ensure that a “few days off” does not turn into weeks or month of inactivity. 

The off season is a great time to work on your limiters: attend that swim clinic you’ve been meaning to, use your bike trainer to focus on technique work when it’s too frigid to ride outside, sign up for some local 5 and 10K fun runs as this can be a great way to get in some speed work while being social. 

The off season is also a great time to incorporate other activities you may enjoy (yes, there are a host of other activities beyond swim, bike, and run!). Go skiing with friends, head to the mountains for some vigorous hiking, take up skate skiing, volleyball, pilates.  It doesn’t really matter what it is; they key is to find ways to remain active, but allow your body and mind a bit of a break from tri training.  You may be surprised to discover a new passion and your family and friends (who patiently tolerate all the tri training, tri talk, tri gear, etc) will be thrilled to join you on a new adventure!

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