So, You Screwed Up Your Off-Season
Almost every athlete who trains year round takes some sort of “off-season”. The amount of time varies from person to person but the goal of the off-season remains the same; decompress your mind and body in order to come back fresh once the race season approaches. As I sit here writing this, I’m staring out my window at the foot or so of snow that still covers the ground but alas it’s almost March. Before we know it Spring will arrive and our fitness will be tested at a race. If that reality makes you nervous, it’s very likely you made a few mistakes during your off-season and are now dreading your first race on the calendar. Don’t worry , there is still time to be ready to race by the summer and I’m here to help! Here are some common ways athletes screw up their off-season and what you can do to turn it around so you can see the results you want this year!
Your off-season lasted longer than planned: I know it feels like the holidays were only a week ago but the time to put the cookies down is now! I get it, time slips by quickly and before you know it the short time off you thought you would take has turned to months and yes you’re still eating the Christmas cookies. Personally my off season is always centered around Christmas and a few family birthdays that fall in late December. I take a day or two completely off of exercise and train as easy or hard as I want for about 2 weeks. By January 1st I’m annoyed at the lack of structure and feel like I’ve gotten horribly out of shape and I’m ready to get back to regimented training. The point is to find what works for you and have a plan. Give yourself enough time to enjoy the downtime but always have a plan to come back to routine training. Without a plan all you have is motivation and that isn’t enough. If you’re relying on your goals to motivate you to get to the pool in morning or to hop on the trainer in the winter, I have bad news for you...they won’t get you there. If you think that having a coach “holding you accountable” is going to give you motivation...yup...more bad news. Motivation is fleeting, it comes and goes in waves for even the most driven competitors and if you only train when you’re motivated maybe you’ll hit 50% of your workouts. What you need is routine.
“If you’re relying on your goals to motivate you to get to the pool in morning or to hop on the trainer in the winter, I have bad news for you...they won’t get you there.”
You didn’t take an off-season: Respect. Honestly I have no problems with athletes not taking a dedicated off-season, as long as it’s done appropriately. A lot of people will see big name pro athletes take 2-3 weeks completely “off” of training (they are still training trust me) and want to follow suit. That’s fine and if that’s what you need it’s what you need but keep in mind these pros aren’t doing it for the sake of their bodies. They are always in shape and at any point of the year roughly 8 weeks away from a peak performance. They are doing it because it’s their full time job. It’s essentially the same as you taking a 2 week vacation with your family. If your training plan is appropriately catered to your needs and you are looking to make some gains over the winter by all means forgo the unstructured time off and get after it. My advice would be, well...think about it before you do it. Doing heavy squats on Friday followed by riding the trainer for 3.5/4 hours on Saturdays in January/February kinda sucks and running 90-120 minutes on Sundays in 15 degrees also, kinda sucks. Trust me, I’ve been there (and am currently there) but I’m happy to do it knowing the benefits that I’ll reap in the Spring. I also make the training different for my athletes (and myself) who train consistent year round. I for one love getting back in the gym over the winter. It mixes up the work and adds another element to the sport that I always seem to forget over the Summer. That doesn’t mean you sacrifice swim, bike or run sessions or training duration, it simply allows you to keep the training fresh over the winter.
Sometimes triathletes have to actually work on this aspect of the sport.
You forgot swimming is a part of triathlon: This doesn’t apply to the off-season, most triathletes forget they have to swim year round, not that it matters you can almost rely on the swim getting cancelled. Anyway. In reality, I mean you should be working on your weaknesses in the off-season, I’m just assuming your weakness is swimming. Oddly enough a lot of triathletes neglect their weaknesses in the off-season because if you’re bad at something you probably don’t enjoy doing it, so you say screw it, and do something you enjoy. Ideally, you thought, you will attack this weakness once your season ends. Dedicate a training block to be swim focused, have a coach help break down your stroke and work on proper technique so you can make the most gains...but you didn’t. It’s okay, you’re human, things happen, you make excuses to not do the work BUT lucky for you there is still time to turn this ship around! If you can ask an expert to look at you in the water so you can break down your stroke and start working on your stroke before you need to put in big volume in the water. Huge volume without proper technique isn’t exactly a waste but it certainly isn’t optimal training and big volume with improper technique can also lead to shoulder issues. If you can’t have someone look at you in the water, my advice to you is spend the majority of your time working on some drills to begin to correct your body position in the water.
A good tool for your off-season but don’t rely on it
You fell in love with the treadmill: Yeah...sorry...running on a treadmill is easier than running outdoors. I’m not telling you anything earth shattering here or anything you don’t already know and if you’d like to argue this feel free to contact me but before you do, try this experiment. Set a treadmill to a certain speed and simply lift your feet off the belt, your “running” on a treadmill. Step outside and lift your feet off the ground...the ground didn’t move beneath you! Shocking. Running outdoors requires significantly more hamstring and glute activation to move forward, because there is no belt and the ground doesn’t move beneath your feet. Running on the treadmill is a fine way to give yourself a quality cardiovascular workout but your muscular endurance isn’t improving nearly as well as it would if you were outdoors. If you do it enough it will also change the way you run which will be detrimental when you get back outside since you’re not engaging the same muscles in the same ways. Most treadmills at gyms also fall out of calibration quickly and often. You might think you’re running a 10 min mile but really it’s well above or below that pace. Now I know what you’re going to say “coach my Garmin watch says I’m running 6 minute miles on the treadmill”...sure. I know it might say that but I highly doubt the watch says 6 minute miles while the treadmill is set to exactly 10mph. Indoor running calibrations can be trusted about as much as wrist based heart rate...not at all.
So now that I have completely trashed treadmills (a tool I used to use so often people would call me out...Spencer), allow me to help you fix this mistake. Start by strengthening the hamstrings and glutes that were neglected by treadmill running. You can strengthen these muscles from the comfort of your own home in about 20-30 minutes a day or in the gym but more on this down below…
“don’t change what is working for you.”
You changed too much: This is a tough one because knowing when to change something in your training, switch coaches or change equipment is tricky. I usually rely on the “gut feeling” when making decisions regarding my training volume/plan and coaching. The only advice I can give is that when you start doubting your plan/coach, have a conversation about it and if you still doubt it, change it. More often than not however, athletes will swing the pendulum too far and change way too much. The year after Lionel Sanders came in 2nd in Kona he had a picture of the winner by his treadmill, he came in 30th the following year. Threw his system (which had gotten him to 2nd the year before) totally out the window and focused his motivation on beating another competitor. Conventional wisdom would say that if you are capable of being the 2nd fastest triathlete in the world you’re capable of being the fastest. So why throw out everything that got you to that level? It’s understandable and an easy pitfall honestly. So how do you change enough but not too much during the offseason? First make a change at the right time. Late fall is the perfect time to switch coaches or begin a swim heavy training block, if you wait till March it’s too late. By the time you race you won’t have spent enough time in your new coaches system and a swim heavy training block will sacrifice your running and riding. Second, don’t change what is working for you. If you have had success with running 40 miles a week, running 60 doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be faster. Always trust the core of what got you where you are today. Lastly, make sure you have given something the appropriate amount of time before you change it. If you have cycled through 5 coaches in 5 seasons because their strategies “just weren’t working for you” maybe look inside yourself for some accountability rather than putting the blame on someone else.
You avoided the gym: Chances are your off season began after your last race in the fall, possibly an Ironman or other long distance race. Chances are you did some walking during that race too. I know...you were in such good shape, you rode 100 miles, ran 20 miles and even swam 4,000 yards that one time to prepare for the race. How could you possibly end up walking? You lack muscular endurance. Someone once said “you can’t put a jet engine on a paper airplane”. Meaning you can do all the aerobic work you want, but if you’re not strong, get ready to walk across the line. Once the off season begins I would get into the gym as soon as possible in order to properly go through the right phases of a strength and conditioning routine to achieve maximum benefits. If you want to know what those phases are and how to appropriately plan that training check out this article, the guy who wrote is handsome and brilliant....it was me. Yes, I just plugged an article written by me for a different publication while writing an article for my own publication. BUT this is about what to do now that you’ve neglected to hit the gym during the season, so what to do now? Well, hit the gym. It’s never too late and you can (and probably should) incorporate some sort of strength and conditioning work year round. These sessions don’t need to be long and most can even be completely at home since getting to the gym these days can be...annoying to say the least. You can’t build a house without a solid foundation, it’ll collapse and you can’t keep building your fitness and adding volume to your training without a solid foundation...you’ll collapse.
Don’t fear the barbell next winter…
I know this off-season and even this past year have felt a little different. The excuses to put off training are everywhere and some of them may even seem valid. If you have large goals for when racing resumes, now is the time to turn your off-season around and get moving! If you need support reach out to us and join Mission Multisport. If you need guidance, a plan or are looking to optimize your results reach out to one of our coaches and we will be happy to help you achieve your potential.
Ben Rotherham
Head Coach, Mission Multisport