Off Season Training For Triathletes

Chris Sweet

Your season is done, you had some good races and now it is time to put your feet up and knock back a few? Right?

If you had a full season it is time to take off two to three weeks completely.

It’s ok to indulge a bit over the holidays as well.

If you take too much time off though, you’ll lose much of the fitness you worked so hard to gain.

You can do more than just maintain!

Two principles for off-season training.

#1 Work on your weaknesses

#2 Improve efficiency (form work)

Most people tend to focus on the sport that they are good at. This does not help you in triathlon. If you have a background as a runner, that should be the discipline that you can neglect until you bring your swimming and biking up to that level.

Example.

Three Categories of limiters:

Efficiency? (form, technique) Strength/Force? Endurance?

How do you know which applies to you? See Joe Friel’s “The Triathletes’ Training Bible”

for a more in-depth discussion of limiters.

Train like a single sport athlete for 2-3 months. If you need to improve your swimming, swim 5 times per week and just do one run and one bike. This is the only way to make significant improvements quickly.

What can you do fix your limiters in each discipline?

A 1% improvement in form is equivalent to 50,000 yards of hard swimming

Drill, Drill, Drill! Some of the best for efficiency: fist drill,

distance per stroke. For good visuals, search youtube for swim

drills Have a knowledgeable swimmer watch and

provide feedback

Have someone videotape your stroke Masters Swim Team at IWU Go to a swim clinic. Get a Total Immersion Book or Video. Tri-Fuel has a great selection of articles on

swimming: http://www.trifuel.com/training/swim

Paddles Short, hard intervals Weight lifting

Swim lots! (but do it with proper form) Masters

Rollers!!! One leg drills- eliminate the dead spot High cadence work Bike handling skills- cyclocross or mountain

biking Spin Classes? Probably not…..

Big Gear Work Hill repeats Short Intervals Weight lifting- lunges, squats, hamstring

curls, quad extensions Spin Classes

Ride Lots! But do most of it at a fairly comfortable pace

(Mostly Heart Rate Zone 2)

Drills, but be careful not to make drastic changes to your natural stride

In general, just running more will also increase your efficiency (unlike swimming and to a lesser extent biking)

Short races 5K to 10K Track work (don’t do this year round,

though) Hill repeats Weight Lifting

Run Lots! But still build slowly. Don’t make a New

Year’s resolution and go from 10 miles a week to 40.

Follow the 10% Rule

It’s called the off-season for a reason! Still, it is beneficial to race, but no more than

once or twice a month. Never been in a swim meet? Off-season may be a good time to do some master’s meets. Late spring is also good time to get in some bike racing (practice group riding first!).

Core Strength (stability ball, pilates, ?yoga?) D3 Multisport:

http://www.d3multisport.com/articles.php Look under “Weight Training and Core Strength”

Weight lifting- lift to stabilize and prevent injuries, not to get huge!

Make those diet changes now! Cross Training for Triathletes: XC Skiing,

Mountain Biking, Cyclocross, anything aerobic

Good off-season training article from MarkAllenOnline: http://www.markallenonline.com/offseason.asp

Free E-book on Off-Season Training from Endurance Nation: http://www.endurancenation.us/

“Triathlete’s Training Bible”- Joe Friel “Going Long” Joe Friel and Gordo Byrn

Formal Dec. 13 Discounted Student Rate of $20 Don’t have to be a member

Tri-Shark Student Membership is only $10. Sponsor discounts, group workouts, club

wheels, etc. Recyclocross! This Sun at Noon.

Dec. 14, Jan. 4, Jan. 25