Things I Learned In My Off-Season
And just like that, it’s over.
I recieved an email from my coach this week that my formal training begins on Monday morning. It took a couple months of unstructured, low volume, low intensity workouts but I am mentally and physically refreshed and very excited to get back to training.
I stopped with formal training plans with my coach at the beginning of September because I had two huge races that month and my training was done. I completed them and coasted into an off-season for October and November.
This was September (aka more rest days than training days):
After RAID, I took a week and a half off running until Ragnar where I did about 50-60 KM over 24 hours. I then took another super easy week. This was my rest and recovery phase.
In October and November, I have averaged about 5 – 10 hours of training a week doing whatever I feel like. For comparison, my onseason is going to be about 14-25 hours a week of training so it is a significant difference. This was my maintenance phase. I was focusing on a lot of cross training and strength in order to make sure I corrected any inbalances leading into my next season.
Here are a few of the biggest things I learned in my offseason.
I need the break in order to play. When I am following a training plan, I tend to have a laser focus on the process and have become pretty good with not making decisions to do events that would jeopardise a big race. In my off season, I played hard and was able to make my training more about other people than me. I was able to just hop into whatever time or distance they were doing rather than worry about getting my own workouts in. This is such an important reset to give my mind the break it needs from a competitive head space.
And I did a lot of amazingly fun training runs with friends.
I need my off season to focus on nutrition. During my race season, I find that I eat more sugar around training which is necessary as glycogen is a muscle’s prefered fuel source. Once I am doing a little less intensity and a lot less hours, I spend some time focusing on cleaning up my act. This year, I focused on minimising sugar, taking some liver support supplements, drinking less coffee, REALLY increasing my hydration and keeping my veggie intake high. Although I wasn’t super strict with the plan, I did break a bad habit of mine which is not drinking enough water and I minimised a lot of sugar consumption. I am coming back feeling awesome!
I need my off season to focus on sleep. I KNOW that racing season is probably the most important time to sleep more, but I have hobbies, friends, family, a relationship and a career and I have not yet found a way to sleep 9 hours a night while doing 25 hours of training on top of that. It is the sad reality but it is part of the fun to try and fit it all in. With lowered training hours, I take advantage of the time and sleep around 8-10 hours every night. I actually find that my body needs a lot of sleep right after race season and again around the time change and then it will go back to needing around 7-8 hours a night.
I need my off season to work on my strength. The moment that I stopped racing, a few things cropped up as weird pains, etc. I went to my physio and he gave me a strengthaning program, mainly for my glutes. This is a plight experienced by most runners and I remedied with with kettlebell swings, squats with perfect form, bridges, and a couple of other exercises that are hard to explain. I was very commited to my strengthaning program and it could just be the placebo effect, but I am just feeling stronger and more balanced out on my runs.
I need my off season to focus on form. I try to make every workout have a purpose. In my race season, a lot of the intensity is geared towards making me stronger and hitting the times in my workout. In my off season, I could care less about my times so I turn my attention to form. I swim in the slow lane at tri club and unpack my stroke into individual parts and do entire swim sessions dedicated to drills. On the bike, I do a lot of single leg drills to find where the weak points in my pedal stroke are. I focus on relaxing and staying present during rides and I do spin classes for strength. For running, I am making sure I do each run easy and with great form. I work on my mental game and try to remain focused throughout each run, especially as the slower pace makes it easy to be hypotic. Focus doesn’t just appear magically on race day.
I need my off season to recharge my energy levels. For a while after I quit and allowed my body to relax, every workout felt HARD. I felt slow and unfit and clumsy. But I just kept slowly chugging along in my base mileage and all of a sudden, with a long enough timeline of sleep, strength, nutrition and rest, I am feeling motivated and strong! I am excited to hop back into an official training program and pushing towards some big goals for 2017!
Why do you take an off season?
Liv says
Sounds like you made a lot of great changes in your off season! Congrats
Lauren says
Wow, you go girl! I could never do this type of training!
Brittany says
I love that you are able to take the time away to better your body. I was surprised that you consume more sugar while training, but it makes sense. I supposed I should be training for a trip around the world with all the sugar I eat. HAHA.
lacesandlattes says
But Britt, it’s vegan so you know it doesn’t count. 😛
Don’t get me wrong, I am totally team sugar all the time. I just like it more than it likes me…
Lydia says
You look amazing! Keep up the good work! I am horrible at working out on a schedule, but try to get atleast 3 30-minute workouts a week
Lydia says
You look amazing! Keep up the good work! I am horrible at working out on a schedule, but try to get atleast 3 30-minute workouts a week
xoxo, Lydia | wheretheprettythingsare.net
Angela @ Eat Spin Run Repeat says
All so many great lessons! I have loved having an unstructured, no-plan-plan this year for the first time in..well, since I decided to start calling myself a runner. Strength training has done wonders and this past month I’ve been all about the whole sleep thing too. Glad you’re feeling awesome and I’m so excited to see what goals you’ve got on your schedule to smash in 2017!
Erica says
Wow amazing girl I couldn’t do all this training, but you inspired me to do more!
Have a great weekend!
http://www.ericavoyage.com
deborah says
Way to go girl ! your training sounds intense. I want to do a spartan race next summer but I’m so not prepared for all the work
Dymond says
Loved reading your tips for the off season training. I’m about to start PIIT28 and I’m going to need stuff to do in between sessions!
Kirsten says
These are all great things. I used to do this during my off season from golf (which is more athletic than you think)! I got way more sleep and was able to go to the gym for strength training more often which helped me gain distance and be more competitive. The off season is so important for getting a head start for your competition season!
enduranceella says
We also take an off season now. For ponies it means doing more varied “fun” and not so planned trainings and doing more dressage to gain muscle and get more flexible and even. For me it means sleeping a lot more and eating Christmas food and doing more “normal people” things. I also intend to work out more at the gym but first I am planning on “chilling out” one more week or so and getting inspired for next year.