Transitioning Between Triathlon Seasons: Three Purposes

Posted by David in Planning and Preparation, Training & Workouts on October 1, 2009 | one response

With the triathlon season winding down for most of us in North America with the exception of a few late season races like Ironman Florida, Beach to Battleship and Ironman Arizona, it's a good time to think about what to do next.

Sleeping Bear Bears hibernate in winter so why shouldn't we?

Nature sets a great example of what to do during the colder winter months (i.e. slow down activity) but hibernation is a little too extreme, as we'll give up too much of the aerobic endurance adaptions gained from our endurance sports. If you've been in the sport of triathlon or other endurance sport for a few years, your body has adapted to the exercise resulting in benefits like:

Decreased heart rate (HR) at rest
Increased stroke volume (heart pumps more blood per beat)
Increased capacity to do more work at a great intensity
Less body fat, more lean muscle mass

All of these adaptions and more help us go faster and further in training and racing. Deconditioning or cessation of training will reverse these positive adaptations over time so we want to keep doing something through the winter months to maintain a moderate level of fitness.

I've heard several terms for this time between seasons – off season, out season, etc. – but the term I like best is Transition Season. As during a race when we transition from swim to bike to run, we also transition from Season 1 to Season 2 to … season X.

You may be asking, "So, what should I do during the Transition Season?" I see three main purposes for the Transition Season:

Downtime from the current racing season to avoid burnout, refresh mentally and recover from any lingering injuries.
Carry over and further developing an adequate fitness base for next year.
Working on improving technique to become more efficient.

I wrote about the first two purposes last year in a blog article titled "Q&A: Triathlete Training in the Winter" and also in an article for the Fall 2008 issue of Tri-DC Magazine, which you can download HERE. For the third purpose – working on improving technique – the Transition Season is an excellent time to improve efficiency through improved technique.

As author and management consultant Peter Drucker said, "What's measured improves" and "Efficiency is doing better what is already being done."

Here are some good examples of how you can improve technique over the Transition Season:

Swimming: Individual swim instruction, above water and below water video tape analysis, incorporating drills into your workouts, swimming with a Master's team (and coach), using tools like paddles to develop strength and a metronome to help with pacing.
Biking: Getting a proper bike fit (see my write up about my bike fit at Elite Bicycles for an example), incorporating single leg and high speed spinning drills into your workouts, determining your heart rate and/or power training zones and utilizing tools like a heart rate monitor, cadence sensor and power meter to provide feedback.
Running: Working with a running coach for individual feedback, attending a run clinic, shifting to a run focus over the winter and racing running races, joining a running club and running with more experienced runners, working on pacing on the track, determining your heart training zones and using a heart rate monitor.

Live life richly and boldly!

David

—-

David B. Glover
Author of Full Time and Sub-Nine: Fitting Iron Distance Training into Every Day Life