Training Tip Tuesday #1- How to Negotiate the End of a Long Season

I'm starting a new series this week titled "Training Tip Tuesday." It is sponsored by Cobb Cycling and will air every week on... you guessed it- Tuesday. I'll be offering tips and perspectives that I've learned over 10+ years of racing and coaching. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to post them in the comments section or email me at- thetrilife@gmail.com. I'm sure I'll run out of material in no time and be desperately seeking input for something to write about. If you disagree with something I write please feel free to discuss the topic with me. I by no means think I know everything and welcome the opportunity to learn more from others who may be more knowledgeable than I. All that being said, welcome to Training Tip Tuesday #1!

The triathlon season is starting to wind down. Vegas is done and Kona is just around the corner. After that there’s just a few races left on the WTC North American circuit. One of which is the Austin 70.3 that many athletes here in Texas (myself included) will be competing in. These last few weeks of the season can be difficult to navigate because we feel like we should be continuing to hammer out epic 6 hour rides on Saturday with a 3 hour run the next day to put some more “money in the bank,” “Hay in the barn,” or whatever popular colloquialism you prefer. The problem is, most of us have had a long season already and you may be wondering why you’re struggling with motivation and don’t seem to have that “pop” you did earlier in the year. What I’m going to suggest may blow you’re mind a bit but hear me out- you’re better off resting at this point in the season and focusing on some key, quality sessions then continuing to pound out the miles. (You may be better off doing that year round but we’ll discuss that some other time). There I said it.

Now, if you’ve been injured or sick and missed a good point part of the summer you may in fact need to keep putting some miles in and training hard. If you’re like me though and kicked things off at Galveston 70.3 way back in April (seems like ages ago doesn’t it) and have kept it up all year then you may want to consider backing off and just letting your body rest. Often we forget what it feels like to be sharp because we’re continually training and always trying to increase our training load to gain more fitness. At the end of a long year though sometimes the best thing you can do is back off a little and let your body freshen up.

I found this out last year by accident. It had been a long season (like they all are), I’d graduated college, gotten married, started coaching myself and it was my first year as a pro! I had trained hard since November the year before and by the time September and October rolled around I was so exhausted from working 60+ hours a week and trying to train that I kept bailing on the long sessions I had planned. I resorted to 17min runs in the parking lot when I had a few minutes between swim lessons and a quick 10min strength session with some plyo’s and core work. I was discouraged and convinced that I was ridiculously out of shape because of how tired I was nearly every day. I was extremely surprised however to find myself racing quite well on weekends. I was shocked but pleased to see myself pr’ing swim and run splits and taking Strava KOM’s from the local riding group in Austin.

Hmmm... guess I need to get back up to Austin and reclaim some former glory.

As I reflected on the season and what led me to race so well despite feeling out of shape I realized that my crazy schedule was actually a blessing in disguise. Because I didn’t have the time to train a lot of volume I was forced to focus on short, high intensity workouts. 30 second overspeed efforts on the treadmill, 6 x 800m repeats I could knock out in 45min, an 1:20 group ride going as hard as I could. These workouts were exactly what I needed this time of year and because I wasn’t worn down by tons of volume I could rev my engine and push myself very, very hard when I needed to. I even had a good race at my first half Ironman ever at the end of October. I blew up a little on the run which might have been fitness, might have been biking too hard or nutrition or inexperience or the hills or… any number of things.

My point is that we forget what it’s like to be truly rested and race ready. We have a whole season of gaining fitness behind us and what we might need most isn’t another 5 hour bike ride (how many is that this year now?) I did a quick search and found this study that showed NO decreased in VO2max, Lactate Threshold or 25km time trialing performance in trained cyclists who substituted short, high intensity training sessions for their normal endurance training for 4 weeks- http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss2/12/ If you are feeling flat and struggling to find that fitness and form you had 4 months ago then consider switching your focus from “push through and add more volume” to “back off and increase intensity.” You just might find yourself setting a pr or out touching the French for a gold medal… 

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Racin'

After my midseason break, June, July and August were dedicated to getting back in shape and preparing for a fall season of racing. My original goal was to race a bunch in April and May this year. I think I was a little intimated by the 70.3 distance though and overcooked myself in training. It's a fine line between being really, really fit and being really, really tired and I just missed my footing and went over the edge in May. That's a post for another day however.

Between being really unmotivated for a lot of April and May and then taking a couple weeks almost completely off I was pretty unfit by the time I started training regularly again. It was slow going the first few weeks but I was determined not to get ahead of myself and just let the training come to me. June and July was actually kind of fun because I could track my improvements every week as I slowly regained my form. By the end of August I was ready to stop training and starting RACING.

I kicked things off at the Trifest for MS in Bentonville, Arkansas. This year we were racing a double sprint format of swim/bike/run/swim/bike/run. The total added up to an Olympic distance but with 5 transitions. We'd done a similar format last year and so I knew the 2nd swim and run were going to be really tough. I paced the first round pretty evenly and then tried to push it a little harder the 2nd round. Nick Waninger, was the only other male pro there and he beat me by a good 4 minutes. I felt pretty solid but lacked the ability to really push the pace hard. My plan all along had been to build with each race I did this fall and Trifest was a perfect way to kickstart the next 7 weeks of racing.

I have now reached the part of the season I was really looking forward to but the one that is sometimes the hardest to negotiate correctly. From September 1st to October 27th I have 7 races on the calendar. The work is done and I'm not going to get much gain from training myself into the ground. It is time to start resting and letting the body freshen up so that I can really rev the engine when it comes time to hurt. I think a lot of the time we get so wrapped up in just training that we forget the whole goal of training is to RACE. I love racing and so if lying around and only doing short swims, bikes and runs are going to help me race faster then by all means I'm in!

September 14th and 15th was a double race weekend. On Saturday I raced the Rose City Sprint Triathlon  where I placed 3rd behind Barrett Brandon of Fort Worth and Robbie Wade of San Antonio (local training partner and good buddy). Barrett is an excellent swimmer and absolutely dusted Robbie and I by over a minute on the 650m swim. We worked together on the bike but only pulled 20sec or so back on Barrett. Starting the 3 mile run I had a slight gap on Robbie and absolutely went for it. I ran the first mile as hard as I could then blew up slightly while Robbie didn't let up and kept after Barrett. Barrett was running strong though and Robbie could only get within 10 seconds of him. All 3 of us broke the existing course record.

As soon as we hopped off the podium, Robbie and I hightailed it out to Possum Kingdom Lake for the Trifecta Triathlon the next day. This is a top notch event put on by Cadence Sports, in what I'd argue is the prettiest lake in Texas. Decide for yourself-

This race had a pro field of 6 guys and so I knew it would be a good fight to get on the podium. Brent Poulsen got off to a fast start in the swim and put 2min on Robbie, Mark Hillers and I. I need to work on my "suckitupandhurtmore" pain face in the swim... 

because I came out of the water 12sec behind Robbie and (other) Mark and had to sprint my butt through transition and the first 3 miles of the bike to catch up to them. I've been swimming quite well in training and was disappointed at being 4th out of the water when I knew I should have been 2nd. Those first 3 miles on the bike going all out might have cost me a bit later because after putting 30sec into (other) Mark before the turn around I faded a little the second half and he caught me and got off the bike about 10sec ahead of me. I had a quick T2 and started the run just in front of (other) Mark. Last year at Trifecta we were supposed to run on some trails during the race but rains turned them to mud so we were re-routed. This year though we got the full trail experience. 3.5 miles of twisting, turning, up and down, rocks and roots. It was incredibly hard but also a lot of fun. I was focusing so hard on trying to drop Mark (not myself) and also not falling on my face that I forgot my lungs had crept from their normal location in my chest cavity up into my mouth. It was exactly as I'd imagine an Xterra to be and others who have done one confirmed this. Brent and Robbie were up the road and I ran as hard as I could through the trail section to try and gap Mark. (As a sidenot- it always sounds weird referring to someone else who has my same name). Once on the road my legs felt absolutely atrocious but I kept the pressure on in case he was lurking close behind. I held my spot and was able to walk away with another podium spot to cap off the weekend.

Only a week to recover before Galveston 5150 and I didn't do much other than sleep a lot and have some severe allergy problems. I'm not sure what triggered it, maybe the storm system that was blowing in, but all of a sudden on Wednesday I was sneezing a ton and woke up Thursday with a headache and ridiculously congested. I backed off my training even more know that rest was the key and just kept it to one light workout a day in hopes that I'd bounce back for Galveston. 

I drove down Friday night and should have brought my canoe to get there. What should have been a 3 1/2 trip turned in to 5 hours because of torrential downpours and Texas drivers on oily roads. At the pro meeting on Saturday we were told that the swim might be canceled because the winds were too severe and only supposed to get worse over night. Another guy from Detroit, Brooks Cowan, was staying with me and when we got to race site on Sunday morning we heard the confirmation that the swim was indeed canceled. Even though the swim isn't my strongest suit I was a little disappointed to not race a triathlon and not get another chance to test myself and my pain face. The race was now turned into a 40k bike with a 10k run in a time trial start format. The lined the 13 of us up and started us every 30sec. I was number 7 so I had guys to chase and a few guys chasing me.  It was a tailwind all the way out to the turnaround and I was flying! Definitely a lot of fun seeing your average at 30mph after 12 miles of riding. Unfortunately that 24min trip out turned into 34min back. I tried to stay aero and just keep pushing the best I could. I ended up with a decent bike split of 58min but can see there's still some work to do to get up with the lead guys riding 55-56min. My run has been coming along well and so I hit the run hard. James Burns caught me around mile 2 and kept going to the fastest split of the day. I wasn't losing much time to him until my quad started cramping going into the 2nd lap. I had to back off a little and run steady for the next 2 miles to make sure I didn't completely seize up. I picked it up again the last mile and was pleased to come home in 8th place with a pr run for me. 

I get a weekend off now and then will be hitting it out at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Dallas, Tx on October 6th. The season is already almost over and I feel like I'm just getting started but... oh well. I want to say a huge, huge thank you to Cobb Cycling, Fluid Nutrition, Superfeet, Zoggs USA and SockGuy for their continued support. I only use products that I think are good and that I actually believe in so I mean it wholeheartedly when I say that, in my opinion, these companies are the best at what they do.

Stay tuned for more updates to come and a new "Training Tip Tuesday" series I'll be starting next week. 

Never Give In

One of the great things about coaching is that observing my athletes in training and racing can provide an outlook and give me reminders that I often neglect or forget. A few weeks ago I had an "aha" moment of sorts, if you'd like to call it that. Actually, it wasn't a new realization, it was a lesson I had learned before but it was one I needed to hear again. 


I had two athletes racing in two separate races. Both of those races were important to them for different reasons. Jeremy was racing the USAT Age Group Sprint National Championsips in hopes of qualifying for Worlds next year. Horacio was racing the Degray lake sprint triathlon to try and earn some much needed points for to vault him atop the regional rankings. Both of them have had some ups and down this year. Poor luck with races being canceled, missed training, busy schedules, kids, dogs, school, work, a lot of changes for both them. (As a side note: I've also learned by watching myself and my athletes that you cannot separate the personal life from triathlon and pretend they don't affect each other. They do. They are inseparably related and you MUST treat them as such.)


All that was behind us now and both of these guys had the right mindset going into their races. Both were focused on the task at hand and ready to give it their all. Both of their raced didn't play out as expected. 


For Jeremy it started when it didn't start. His wave was delayed for nearly 2 hours while officials looked for a swimmer who had taken his chip off and not notified the volunteers. Finally they were allowed to start and it was game on. A mediocre swim, mediocre bike and mediocre run led to a mediocre result and a missed opportunity to go to worlds.


For Horacio it was a missed turn on the bike, going off course then getting back on. Coming off the bike and being told he had 1:45 to the leader. If this was Ironman then 1:45 wouldn't be anything to worry about but we're talking about a 3.4 mile run. After a brief moment of despair, Horacio put his head down and ran as hard as he could, caught the guy, dropped him and cruised in for the overall win.


Talking to these guys after their races I could hear the disappointment in Jeremy's voice and the excitement in Horacio's. Having to deal with highs and lows is another part of a coaches job and dealing with the lows definitely isn't fun. There's just no words that can take away that bitter taste you get when you know you didn't perform your best when you really needed to.


As I reflected a bit on that weekend I realized something. THE RESULT DOESN'T MATTER. That's right, the placing doesn't matter. You're going to have crap days. Bad races happen. Good races also happen. The important thing is that you never, EVER give up. In training, in life, in racing that principle holds true. You put your head down and you work. Why? Because you never know what's going to happen. You never know if if the guy in front of you is going to blow up. Crazy things happen in racing just like in life. I was immensely proud of both Horacio and Jeremy after that weekend because both of them kept fighting even when the odds were stacked against them. Sometimes the toughest things is to keep fighting when you think you're going to lose. But you never know... sometimes things come around and you come out on top. Just don't give up.

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

An Aggregation of Disorganized Reflection

Baby steps. I've realized that progress in triathlon is a slow, slow business. Consistency is key and big "breakthroughs" don't happen very often. Instead, we make small, minuscule improvements over time that eventually add up to attaining a higher level than we were at before.

In many ways I am dissatisfied with my spring season. I only raced 3 times (Galveston 70.3, Kemah Aquathon and Tri-Tyler Half) and none of those races were at the level I was hoping for and believe I am capable of. Despite lackluster results one big improvement that I'm very pleased with is my swimming. Even though my biking and running have not been up to par I'm pleased that my swims in races have been consistent with the level I feel I'm at in training. I'm not swimming exceptionally fast but I am swimming consistently, and much faster than I was last year which is a big step forward for me.

To highlight this fact I created a graph based on my swim at the Kemah Triathlon (turned Aquathon) a month or so ago. Comparing the times of the pro's who competed in 2012 and also in 2013. One side represents 2012 and the slope represents an improvement or decrease in performance to 2013.

It's hard to compare swim times directly for various reasons. The course isn't measured the exact same,  wetsuit versus non, different current or amount of chop. However, what I think you can compare is a CHANGE in times across the board. If the majority of top swimmers swim 10-25sec faster than they did last year then you know the course is probably 10-25sec faster. Most of the good swimmers don't actually improve much year-to-year because they are already fast. I was pleased to see that my swim improved by 5.4 % compared to last year while the majority of swimmers only improved 1-2%. 

At Kemah where the waves were quite big and I had to employ my porpoise skills just to see the shore-

 The storm the night before had actually blown over the big archway at the swim exit so our instructions before the race were to- "swim towards the light." The point of all this is that I've had no issues sighting during races thanks to, ZOGGS USA. I stumbled across these goggles last year and immediately loved them. The "predator" model that I use is sleek and gives you great visibility. On top of that they are super comfortable and I don't feel like my eye balls are being sucked which is always nice. 

I'm in the middle of my mid-season break right now and enjoying some down time before ramping up for the fall. No more long course racing for me this year! I'm going back to the Olympic distance. My whole goal with doing some of these longer races was to give me some strength and a good base of fitness that I haven't had before. Even though the results weren't what I wanted I know that strength will pay off when I go back to the shorter stuff. I have a nice little line up of sprints and Olympics starting in August and I'm looking forward to finding some speed again!

A big thanks to Sock Guy, Superfeet for supporting me and making my training and racing that much easier. I have had no issues with blisters this year or shin problems thanks to my feet being taken care of and supported.  Fluid Nutrition is still the best recovery and during exercise drink I've found and I probably drink wayyyyy too much of the tropical recovery drink.

My wife and family is awesome too so thank you guys!

All Quiet On the Southern Front

It's a new year, a new season with new goals and new ambitions. Much has happened in since mid-December and in this case silence is a good thing. I was talking to someone in the gym the other day who was asking if anything new was happening with me. I replied to the negative and we agreed that sometimes "no news is good news."

Oh wait, but there is news. I have a new website! Hurry on over to www.marksaroni.com to check it out! HUGE, thanks to Jeremy Brown for being a designmastergeniuswebguru and putting all this together for me. They guy is good at what he does and if you need a website designed I would definitely recommend him. He's actually worked with quite a few athletes and is very good at capturing the personality of the person and finding a unique look that really displays "you" to the public. I'll still be posting blog updates here for now and there is a link on my site to navigate you over.

To be completely honest regarding my "Top 10" post, by the time I posted my offseason tips my offseason was actually over and I was already preparing for the next season. I planned for the week of Christmas to be a bit of a recovery week as I knew there would be a lot of travel and I'd much rather be spending time with family and eating lots of cookies than actually training. Jess and I spent Christmas in Austin at my grandparent's ranch where I spent 3 days completely consumed with playing Settler's of Catan. My family loves board games and Settler's is especially addicting, if you haven't heard of it than you definitely need to check it out.

Brick for ore anyone?

The day after Christmas, Jess and I flew out to good ole' Santa Claus, Indiana. (It is a real place, go look it up). This is where she was born and raised and we got a little taste of snow while we were there!

Minor league hockey game

 Following our return we had a raucous News Years Eve consisting of my sick wife going to bed at 7:30 pm and me following shortly after 8. Oh what a thrilling life we lead! January 2nd we headed back up to Austin for a training camp with friends Ben Hall, Liz Baugher, Scott Wilkinson, Lauren Lewis and Chris Hoover. We stayed at my grandparent's ranch house which is a perfect place to host a training camp situated between Dripping Springs and Wimberley in the middle of  the Texas hill country. The weather was cold and rainy all week but that didn't stop us from getting the work done. Ben is a man-bear on the bike and Scott is no slouch either and the two of them really made me hurt on our long ride. Overall the weekend was a great reminder to me of how much I can push even when I'm tired. Pictures are below. Unfortunately I am horrible at taking pictures during events but I promise we did some training and didn't just play ping pong and sit on cattle!

Ice bathing it up!

The camp kick started me adding some quality workouts back into my training. Since November I'd been focusing much more on strength, technique and slowly increasing volume. During that time I include a lot of drills, plyometrics and overspeed work in my running to keep the neurological firing there. Biking is similar with a lot of single leg drills, spin ups and also some lower cadence work. Swimming is a bit different but the emphasis is still on technique and speed rather than hard threshold type sets. However, training camp announced the end of all that fun stuff!! Not completely but it was the beginning of much more structured training for me and since then I've been adding some tempo runs in and more quality in my bike workouts. I'm actually really pleased with where my fitness is at for this time of year as last year I was just getting back from my honeymoon around this time and starting from what felt like scratch. I just have to tell myself to keep being patient as it's a long year and I'm not racing until April.

One other thing I'd like add is that I got to go support my wife in running the 3M half marathon in Austin, Texas a week and a half ago. She absolutely killed it!! On a chilly day and after being sick for a week she ran a huge pr of 1:26:49!! Way to go wif wif!! Oh, I also failed to mention that she raced her first cyclocross race ever at the State Championship and placed 8th in the women's 3/4 after dropping her chain twice! I'm truly lucky to be married to such a talented woman!

That's all for now. Don't forget to check out my site at- www.marksaroni.com

Top Ten Tips to Supercharge Your Offseason: Part 2

5. Let your leg hair grow (Optional for the ladies)

I wish I had a picture of the dense foliage that was my leg hair after 5 weeks of no shaving (There was some resemblance to the photo above). It was quite intense. Not like camping in the great outdoors in tents, but like- holy-crap-that’s-a-lot-of-leg-hair-where-did-it-all-come-from intense. Keeping in the theme of doing something out of the norm letting your leg hair grow falls perfectly in line. It’s a chance to step away from the identity of “athlete” we let ourselves get too wrapped up in. We are so much more than just triathletes! Now I know getting past that uber-itchy stage is always a pain but once you do, oh the freedom! You’ll find yourself with at least an extra 3 minutes of time NOT spent in the shower shaving you’ll have no idea what to do with it. On top of that think of the pennies you will save when not burning through razors at a rate of 2 per week. As you can see the benefits are enormous. So chill out a little bit, take yourself less seriously and let your leg hair grow.

For those with difficulty growing their own leg hair
this service provides some sort of way to apply fake her
and make you much more a man. Not sure really.

4. Eat a cookie

Or two. Or ten.  Or some pie. Or ice cream. Or just something that is horribly bad for you and provides no nutritional benefit. I mean, come on, it’s the HOLIDAYS for goodness sakes! C is for cookie!!

Who cares if you pack on a pound or 7? Addressing the issue of offseason eating I know many athletes fear gaining tons of weight during this time of little training. Honestly though I don’t think that has to be as much of an issue. I simply try to listen to my appetite, eat when I’m hungry, don’t when I’m not. If I feel like eating a cookie then I will. (I actually eat cookies year round so this isn’t much different than my normal diet). In all honesty my weight doesn’t really fluctuate much throughout the year. Perhaps this means I’m not getting down to a good “race weight” during my season but I also don’t seem to really gain weight during the break. I usually find the first week or so that I continue to eat like a rabid man raccoon on a crazed feeding frenzy but after a little why my metabolism realizes I’m not training much and I don’t get that hungry. My take away nutrition advice from this post is to relax, listen to your body and EAT A DARN COOKIE!!

3. Workout in a non-linear fashion

“But if I’m not moving forward than it must not be a good workout or I won’t be burning as many calories.” First of all- who cares about calories? “I do. I don’t want to get fat.” Ok, ok well go read tip #4 and then come back and we can continue. But as to working out there are actually A LOT of activities you can do that will get your heart rate up AND don’t involve going forward. Take tennis for example. My wife and I were looking for something fun and different to do a few weeks ago so we went and bought a couple $12 tennis racquets at Wal-Mart. What more cost efficient way to get a good workout than engaging your overly competitive husband in a “fun” game of tennis? Now, when I hear the word “game” I think “WIN.” You play a game to win right? I mean, what’s the point in doing anything if there’s not a winner? Well, apparently there are a lot of benefits I was unaware of such as- spending time with your spouse, getting a good workout in, spending time with your spouse, working on agility and movements that involve going back and forth, oh and spending time with your spouse. Who woulda thunk? Needless to say we had different ideas of what a “game” of tennis involved and there was some considerable marital tension following that match. However, tennis is still a great example of something that works completely different muscles than we normally work. As triathletes we spend all our time going forwards in a straight line (Or as straight as possible depending on your sighting skills in open water). There are a lot of muscle groups and stabilizers that don’t get worked because of this so I challenge you try something out of the norm. Tennis, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, rollerblading, underwater hockey (look it up), full contact tackle football, you get the picture. I challenge you to find an activity that you enjoy (other than swim/bike/run) and go DO IT! My wife and I love to go hiking and trust me, it doesn’t matter how fit you are, walking up and down hills over rocky terrain is freaking HARD and it WILL make you sore. Be careful about jumping right into something like soccer that involves a lot of sprinting and fast turns and cutting because our triathlon bodies are extremely de-conditioned for such activities. (Oh and the suggestion of full contact tackle football was definitely a joke).That doesn’t mean you can’t do it I just put that in as a disclaimer. Avoiding an ACL tear is preferable but total body soreness preventing you from bending your knees the next morning is perfectly acceptable. Maybe the cha-cha slide is about all you can do for non-linear movement and that’s fine just get out there and CHA-CHA!

2. Sleep. A lot

I love to sleep. I really do. I’m a firm believer in the importance of sleep during training to help you recover and adapt to the training load. But I also realize that sleep is usually the first thing to go when we’re doing big training. It’s hard to fit everything in if you don’t start by 5am when working full time and taking care of kids, etc. So use this offseason as I chance to sleep-in a little. Last year I was so exhausted after my last race of the year that I seriously spent about 10 days sleeping 9-11 hours a night, and sometimes taking naps on top of that. I didn’t even realize how exhausted my body was until I let it relax. Now that cold weather has moved in it’s even easier to stay buried under the covers until waaayyy past your usual wake up time. Go for it. Sleep is good for you and will allow your body to recharge after a long season. So take my advice and catch some extra zzzz’s this offseason.

AND the number one Tip To Supercharge Your Offseason…..

1. Reach Out to Others

This one needs a little defining so I’ll do my best. Triathlon is such a narcissistic selfish sport. We spend so much time focusing on ourselves- our nutrition, our training, our performance. Often that comes at a great cost to our friends and family. So take some time to reach out to those around you and spend time with them .Yes, this means your family who has sacrificed so much to let you train for triathlon but it can also mean going above and beyond those immediately close to you. Reach out into the community and find ways you can give back. Christmas is a great time to do this and there are SO many opportunities available. There are so many less fortunate than ourselves and I often reflect on just how blessed I am to be able to do what I do. Participate in Angel tree… or hand out bagels to the random homeless guy on the corner. I also enjoy volunteering at races if I can. It’s fun to see the other side that we don’t see when we’re competing and it really helps you appreciate how much work goes into supporting you out on the race course. So take some time away from yourself this offseason. Take yourself less seriously, have some fun, eat a cookie, sleep in a little, let your leg hair grow and reach out to others and give back. Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know some of your ideas and fun things you have done this offseason! 

Top Ten Tips To Supercharge Your Offseason: Part 1

10. Take 2 weeks off

“WHHHAAATTT!?!?! “ You say. “Two weeks without exercise! That’s impossible.” No it isn’t actually. Millions of people across America do it all the time. You can be a normal American for just TWO weeks. I know you can. If the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, can do it- so can you.

  I often hear people talk about how they like to “keep moving” and “just do some easy workouts” during their break. That’s all well and good and I firmly believe there is a time for that as well but I think total rest is important. If you can’t handle taking time completely off I challenge you to examine yourself and ask WHY it’s so difficult for you to take a break? It doesn’t have to be two weeks exactly, maybe it’s 10 days or maybe it’s a whole month. The point is it’s good to let your body have some down time from ANY sort of physical activity. You have 11 ½ months to beat your body into submission so the least you can do is take a couple weeks off and just rest. I promise you, after two weeks you’ll be so mentally and physically rested that you are just craving activity and it makes it so much more worth it when you do start training. Bernard Lagat takes 5 weeks completely off every year and he’s pretty fast.  

9. Train Unstructured. 

Call it the "transition period" or whatever you want but after some total down time I’m all for doing unstructured training. This is actually one of my favorite times of the year. If I feel like going for a run then I’ll go for a run. But if I don’t, then by golly I’ll just sit on my butt and won’t. And I don’t feel one hint of guilt. The important thing is to listen to your body. Yes, exercise is good for us and as triathletes we typically do it because we enjoy being active. I like to do unstructured training for anywhere from 1-4 weeks AFTER my 2 weeks off. I try to re-discover my love for the sport and remember WHY I love training. There’s no set rule on how long this time has to last but don't rush it. Enjoy the time to stay healthy but not overdo and not have to stress if life get's in the way.

8. Do something fun for a change. 

Like bake a pie

Play croquet

Or maybe just do a little dance

This girl is in full-on offseason mode

Yes, yes, I know we all embrace that identity of being “the boring triathlete” during race season. Believe me, I’m just as boring as the next guy when it’s time to get down to business. In fact, I’d like to bet that my wife and I could compete for the most boring couple in America with our complete lack of social interaction. In a “most boring couple under 30” contest, we’d win handily. During this offseason though I try to rise above “boring” and just be “dull.” Being dull means that maybe I go a little crazy and take my wife to a movie, or dinner or maybe even one of those concert things. Oh trust me we do it big at the Saroni house. The point is to do stuff out of your regular routine that you would normally not do when you have 6am swim practice the next morning or just finished up a 7 hour brick session. You don’t have to be the most interesting man (or woman) in the world, just try being a little less boring.

7. Reflect on your season. 

Yes, this sounds very serious and contemplative and it is. After a week or two have gone by and you’re not as emotionally connected to what went right or wrong in your last “A” race take some time to look back and examine the season as objectively as possible. Look for the area’s you improved and where you could have done better. Don’t be too hard on yourself. As triathletes, we are normally our own toughest critics but the agonizing thing about endurance sport is that improvements come very slowly and often by miniscule margins. We are usually too quick to judge ourselves harshly and not see the steps forward we made throughout the season. There are many other variables too look at other than just time too. Time and splits vary so widely and depending on terrain and conditions. There are other factors to consider- Was your mental approach stronger this year? Did you have a better nutrition? What about time management skills? Recovery? Transitions? There are a TON of different ways you can improve year to year other than just “going faster.” (Though of course going faster is the primary goal). Often the races that weren’t the best are where you learn the most and can help you improve for the future. And if you can’t find a single positive thing to reflect on from last year? Than, ouch. That must have been a really, really bad one.

6. Stay up late- 

This one goes along with doing something fun for a change. Contrary to what your parents may have told you, sometimes good things DO happen after midnight- If you can make it that late. Personally, for my wife and I, staying up late means we don’t hit the sack until 8:30 or maybe if we’re being extra crazy, 9:00. Yes I know we’re boring and dull. In all seriousness though a lot of times I find that I’m not as tired from training so it’s hard to go to bed early. So I’ll stay up and read a book or work on other stuff I don’t have time to do when I’m in full on tri-geek-train-hard-win-easy-race-till-I-die mode. Reading is one of my favorite past times actually-

This is a completely accurate depiction of my utterly-sheltered-
100% homeschooled-childhood. (Actually I give my mom
great credit for instilling a love for reading in me from a very
young age).

Or I’ll go do some of the aforementioned “fun” activities that often involve staying up late. (I’m still astonished sometimes when I’m told that a certain activity or show doesn’t START until 9:00 pm. I really don’t know how I use to do it in high school and college when I’d be out until 2am and then come home to START working on my paper due at 8:00am that morning. Crazy times).







Stay tuned next week for Part 2!!

This actually has no connection to my blog I just thought it was funny
and brings back many other homeschool memories.