Getting the Most from the Offseason

The offseason can be a challenging time for multisport athletes. Some completely fall off the training wagon, eat too much, gain weight, and even become a little depressed. At the other end of the spectrum, many triathletes fear that if they take any time off, they’ll lose their competitive edge.

Unfortunately, high-volume, year-round training is also counter-productive, since it can lead to a plethora of overuse injuries. I’d like to suggest a three-step strategy for your offseason.

Recover
Most coaches agree that the offseason should be a period of recovery, both mental and physical, characterized by enjoying the many pleasures of a normal life (family, friends, sleeping, reading, etc.), while maintaining your overall fitness.

The exact structure of your offseason workout regime is up to you and the thousands of “experts” who have the perfect plan for you! In the most general of terms, you can rest productively by reducing exercise volume while keeping the intensity at a moderate level. Cross training can also help you stay fit while challenging your muscles in new and interesting ways.

Refine
With the extra hours available because you’re not working out as much, you can devote some time and energy to focus on the nagging aches and pains that you managed to keep from becoming full-blown injuries during the season. These minor problems are almost always caused by biomechanical issues, muscle imbalances, or both.  

To identify your particular set of asymmetries, find an experienced sports physical therapist or sports chiropractor who can observe, measure, and evaluate you structurally. They can identify potential issues like overpronation, leg-length discrepancy, pelvic tilt and torque, high shoulder position, and head and neck balance.

Once identified, these imbalances can be treated with a combination of specific manipulation combined with soft-tissue therapy (sports massage, myofascial therapy, rolfing, etc).  

Since they’re often neglected during the racing season, flexibility work and strength training should come to the forefront now. Especially if you’re working to improve your structural balance, specific stretching and strengthening exercises will help you maintain your progress.

As you resolve imbalances, you can begin improving technique in your weakest area of triathlon. Do you need to work on your swim? If so, is it your stroke technique, your body position in the water, your breathing? How do you look and feel on the bike? Do you need to focus on body position, stroke mechanics (see Q&A below), cadence? If the run is your downfall, what needs to change? You can work on your leg speed, stride length, inefficient upper-body movement.

Refocus
Consider your training and competition schedule from 2008. Determine how many races you’ll be entering this year, and whether they’re important, or if you’ll just be using them to get a sense of where you are in your training. Now you can plan backwards to set up your training schedule so you can peak at the right time.

Bob McAtee, NCTMB, CSCS, C-PT is a veteran sports massage therapist, strength and conditioning specialist, and personal trainer in Colorado Springs, Colo. Bob is the author of Facilitated Stretching, published by Human Kinetics, and has been teaching and writing about health and fitness since 1987. For more information visit his website.