Plans for the Off Season

Looking at my strengths and weaknesses I’ve decided to go back to work on my run and swimming again during this off-season. I need to run faster and lose some weight this winter :(

At Racine I rode a comfortable 2:25 and had a good run afterwards. The fastest bike split in my AG was a 2:19 so realistically I will probably only be able to pick up a few minutes on my bike for a HIM. As long as I can repeat that for next year I feel I will be in good shape.

My swims have been in the top 15% for most of my races but that is comparing myself to triathletes and not real swimmers. I would like to drop down below 22 minutes in my 1650 in the pool. That would be a little more than a minute improvement than I did last spring. I went to a clinic about 4 weeks ago and worked with a few coaches. They gave me a lot of little things to work on and I’ve seen improvements already. I’m able to swim long sets under a 1:25 pace where last year I was swimming near 1:30 for longer sets in training. My thoughts about my stroke are a little different now and it seems better. There are still things I need to work on to get me down to 1:20 per hundred for longer distances.

I’ve kept my swim volume at a medium level for right now to keep myself from getting shoulder problems. I’m trying to stay around 13,000 yards a week for another month before I pick it up again.

Running is where I’m going to focus my time this year. At Racine I was 20 minutes slower than the fastest run split of my AG. I ran a 1:44 and the fastest guy ran a 1:25. I figure that I could realistically take 5 minutes off my run time, which is about 23 seconds per mile. That may be a stretch but I feel it’s realistic.

I’m not 100% sure as to how I’m going to go about increasing my run speed. I’ve played around with the idea of going through Daniels Marathon A plan again which I think is a good mix of intensities for me. I’ve completed 4 weeks of building my run volume back up and have 2 more weeks before I would go into any sort of structured plan. Right now I feel a need to bring my threshold pace up and I think that the other paces will follow. That kind of training would include 3 to 8 minute intervals but I don’t know how to mix them yet. I need to ask questions.

Anywho, races and goals for next year are to match my best Triple T performance in the first 3 races and then drop 10 to 12 minutes in the Half. That would be dropping 5 to 7 minutes on the bike and about 5 minutes on the run. I still need to find a second “A” race for next year and possibly qualify for Long Course Nationals. Possible races include Spirit of Racine and Steelhead but I would really like to do something else.

I’m going to stay local for my smaller races instead of doing the HFP series again. That was a lot of traveling and despite the fun I had at those races I don’t really like all of that driving.

Lastly, I’m going to be taking a day off per week from triathlon training this winter. Not to rest but to go snowboarding and have fun. Expect to see some snowboarding pictures in the near future.