Detraining of only 4 weeks is responsible for the following:

• 4-14% drop of your VO2 max,
• decrease of up to 12% of your blood volume,
• a drop of 25% of your endurance time,
• increase concentration of lactic acid during submaximal work,
• decrease of your lactic acid threshold,
• decrease in muscle glycogen storage,

All are important physiological adaptations that make you a great endurance athlete.

Why start over every year? Instead, maintain your fitness (endurance and speed) and improve your technique, strength and flexibility.

When planning your training for the off-season, you should consider the following:

• Decrease your training volume by up to 70 – 80%
• keeping the frequency at 20 – 30% under your in season training (taking 2 to 3 rest days instead of 1).
• keep intensity the same.

For most, it is hard to keep race season intensity levels during the off-season. Keeping higher training volumes (more then 30% of in season volume) can help maintaining fitness level while dropping intensity.

Below you can find some suggestions of what to do this fall and early winter.

Take care of your body – It is a great time to take care of aches and pains that bothered you during the season. Buy the insoles your foot doctor recommended to complete the rehab for your knee. Do that surgery, find a chiropractor, and learn the proper support training you need to stay injury free. You have 3 to 4 months to let your body adjust to the new regiment/product and make sure you start your season injury free.

Plan – It is time to plan an outline of your next racing season, especially your A races, the ones you need to peak for. You already thought about it during the season. Some of you already registered for some races next year because races these days are filling up very fast.

Work on your limitation – While applying the information above, the offseason is a great time to focus on your triathlon limiting factor. After 4 to 6 weeks of acclimation*, plan 6 weeks of single sport focus, while maintaining the other two. If, for example, your cycling is your main limitation, schedule 4 to 5 bike sessions a week while swimming and running once or twice a week.

Other activities – I can recommend many activities that you can do at the off season but your choice probably would be the best. Select an activity you enjoy, but what ever you do, make sure you challenge your energy systems in one way or another.

Team Sport - My favorites are the team sports. The fitness and agility developed in team sport will have a positive impact on your triathlon abilities. Lateral motion, stop and go, short sprints and coordination have an important roll in the development of the athlete and these skills are not a part of a regular triathlon training regimen. And finally, you can interact with other people during team sports for more than 5 seconds at a time. Just remember to take it easy at the beginning.

Cross training – Mountain biking is great for developing your cadence. Snow shoeing, cross country skiing, trail running, and hiking are a few examples of cross training methods. Make sure you are having fun, and do not forget to raise your heart rate from time to time.

Strength training – Weight training is the best way to build strength. The off season is a great time to build muscle in areas that are specific to each sport. Since you do not have to do that long ride or long run on the weekend, you can push a bit harder with strength development. Start with 2 sets of 10 repetitions twice a week for 2 weeks, then 2 sets of 12 for 4 weeks, and finally 2 sets of 15 for 4 weeks. Lifting 3 times a week doing 3 sets for each exercise instead of two, is acceptable during the off season.

Functional training – This training method will develop a strong core, promote balance in strength and movement and also improve movement synchronicity. In other words, functional training will give you strength you can actually use. Most importantly, it promotes injury free training.

Triathlon specific activity – Off season is great for skill/technique development activities. Again, during the racing season many athletes are so worried about split times and distance that they forget about technique. Small changes in biomechanics can improve efficiency. Consequently we can go faster with less energy.

Swimming – Regardless of your swim level, every off season you should focus on improving and reestablishing your swim technique. 10% improvement in efficiency results in an 11% improvement in time. Two inches lift of the head can result in a 12 inch drop of the feet.

Cycling and running - Skill based training is not limited to swimming. Cycling and running have very important skill components. Most triathletes are content to do as much volume and intensity as they can handle without giving a second thought to developing correct technique. Both cycling and running have a cadence as a skill. The reason that cadence is so important has to do with the neuromuscular system. Use less motor units per stroke and reduce the energy requirement for the task. The optimal cadence for biking is 90-100 rpm and for running 85 to 95 steps per minute.

You should be practicing technique heavily during the off season and maintain during training season. It takes time to train the neuromuscular system and change rhythm. It is almost the same as stopping smoking or eating chocolate. The body has a strong memory and will always go back to the movement pattern you normally do. Adding miles and miles in your training program will only make it harder and harder to develop the new efficient form for each sport. The off season is a great time to develop that stroke running style and biking technique.

Summary
Year round training has become the norm for competitive age group athletes. The days of taking several months off from training and still being competitive in the summer are over. Today athletes need to make a 12-month commitment. As we get older, the principle of off season training becomes more important. Remember, what you do in the next 2 to 3 months will predict how well you will do next season.

Sharone Aharon
Well Fit Triathlon and Training
USAT coach level II