MAKING THE MOST OF WINTER
With winter just around the corner and the race season winding down, many triathletes will be looking forward to their post season training break. Aside from the obvious benefits of letting your body have some much needed quality rest it is a good time to be with your family, friends and eat cake.
Once you have enjoyed the extra cake and sleep ins it's time to start thinking about your winter training. With races months away now and a long cold winter ahead it is all too easy to fall into a familiar routine of easy jogs, slow swims and boring turbo rides....
While this may be good for the first 1-2 weeks back into training after that you're just wasting your precious time and energy! Avoid that plateau by moving out of your comfort zone!
Winter, especially early on, is the perfect time to improve your weaknesses, try new things or work with a coach! Check out my thoughts on these below.
Improve your weaknesses - with three sports to train for, triathlon can be a time consuming sport. As most of us do not have the luxury of being a pro athlete we need to make the most of the time we have to dedicate to training. I suggest sitting down and having an honest conversation with yourself about where your time will be best spent.
For example, if you swim 5 times a week, ride 2 times a week and run 3 days a week but in races you get out of the water at the front but find yourself at the back of the race after the bike then you are burning too many matches in the pool and not enough on the bike.
We only have a certain amount of matches to burn, so don't waste your matches for minimal return on race day.
At the end of the day the athlete with the fastest overall time wins the race. Even if you lead the swim out by 2mins, get off the bike 10mins in front of your nearest rival you will lose the race if you proceed to run 15mins slower than the guy (or gal) chasing you.
It may be nice to claim the 'fastest' bike split but at the end of the day you didn't win the race.
If you are worried about losing some of your advantage on the strengths, there is always time to bring these back up once you have made improvements in your weaknesses - think of it as a short term sacrifice.
Try new things - we all know that saying "don't try anything new on race day". Well since you will not be racing for a while winter is the perfect time to try out new things. Educating yourself and reading up on ways to improve your swim technique or cycling threshold power is time well spent especially if your transfer your findings into your training schedule! But beware to avoid short term fads and trends. Hiring a coach or talking to an experienced athlete can help you avoid wasted time doing one legged cycling drills.
Always remember primary school - K.I.S.S ?? Keep It Simple Stupid.
Hire a coach - the off season is the best time to work with a coach as this is the time when the most changes and improvements can be made to your fitness and skills!
A good coach can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. They can then put together a progressive programme to help you make the most of your training time and improve over winter.
Do not expect miracles to happen if you approach a coach just a few weeks out from your goal race. There is not much they can do except help you avoid overtraining before the race.
