Offseason Training

Happy rainy, cold, windy, nasty Monday y’all! Ha that sounds appealing right?! Well, regardless of the weather, today was my first day back to “organized” workouts since completing Thunder Road Marathon mid November. I have enjoyed the time off but I think my body has finally completely recovered so it is time to get back into the swing of things. As I mentioned previously, I need to work on building strength. I feel like through the last few months as I was adjusting to working life and my new city I only did cardio workouts which usually meant running and even at that they weren’t exactly the most quality of runs. So now its time to get back in the saddle and get my booty in gear! But before I get to the workouts, I set a couple [broad] goals for myself….

1. Build Strength. I want to feel toned and strong come the start of next triathlon season.

2. Increase Speed. Now that I have been doing endurance events for a couple years,  my body has really adjusted to the longer but slower workouts and thus I have also been slower competing… even when I felt I was in as good, if not better shape than the year previously.

3. Add Variety. I have gotten in such a rut with my own workouts. I feel like I can creatively come up with good, quality, non-boring workouts for others but I struggle doing that for myself.

4. Increase Flexibility. This is not something I enjoy working on. I never feel like I get a workout when I when I go to yoga or am stretching and foam rolling on my own because it doesn’t make me sweat. Nevertheless, flexibility is so important for avoiding injury that I am going to make time for it this season.

5. Have Fun. By this I mean I want to continually reevaluate to make sure I am still enjoying what I am doing. By about June / July of last year I was so burnt out on training that I was no longer enjoying it. So this year I want to make sure I am doing all this for the right reasons…because I love it and I find joy in it, not because I signed up for a race. The race is important but at the end of the day there are ways to keep training fun if you are creative.

….Now for the execution.

To achieve goal number 1, I have put together a strength plan for the next 8 weeks. I keep it to a max of 4 “lifts” and 2-3 core exercises of my choice that day. Since I do not enjoy doing strength workouts I kept these workouts short.

For speed, I have had to do a fair amount of research to see whats best. I had always assumed that building a base during the offseason then incorporating speed workouts (intervals, hills, etc.) during the early parts of season was best but apparently I was wrong. This year, my offseason workouts will be kept decently short but full of tough intervals that gets those fast twitch muscles firing.

Group exercise classes will be used for the add variety for the time being. It is always fun to see what other instructors come up with. It is a great place to get new ideas for workouts.

Increase flexibility…I have added 5min to the end of all my cardio workouts. During this 5min I am to stretch and/or foam roll.

Have fun. This will be achieved by taking the time at the beginning of every week to  actually think about what I am doing and how I am feeling about it. If I find that I am bored or not enjoying my workouts, I am going to step back and adjust that weeks workouts then.

So there you have it, there are my goals and how I am going to execute them through the next couple of months.

Day 1 [today] started with a short strength routine:

3 sets of each of the following:

• 15 Squats with a 12.5lb. dumbbell in each hand.
• Chest Press with 30lbs. 15x
• 15 Lunges with a 8lb. medicine ball.
• Lat Pull Down with 45lbs. 15x
• :30 planks
• 3o Russian Twist with 8lb. medicine ball

Then I headed to take a 45-50min spin class. The instructor was great; she had us climbing hills, sprinting, and laughing all at the same time. Killed three birds with one stone there: speed work, variety, and fun. And once that was over, I headed back to the gym where I spent 5minutes on the foam roller. I tried the rumble roller for the first time today, needless to say, I’m not ready to officially graduate to full time use of it yet. It hurt so good! haha

So there you have it, my goals, my plan, and day one’s workouts. I won’t be updating you daily on my entire workout but I will be sure to keep you in the loop with my progress.

Now its your turn, what’s your plan this winter to combat the want to hibernate in big sweaters on the couch till spring? Comment below letting me know!