Off Season

Never thought I’d ever be so involved in a sport that I’d be tossing around a term like “off season.” It still feels a little weird – like who am I to have an off season? That’s only for football players and other professional athletes.

My next reaction was – “off season” – I can drink more wine and hibernate on the couch for a few months.

In reality though, using this time, before embarking on the upcoming “in season” building and peaking training weeks, as an opportunity to improve my skills – and to make sure I don’t loose too much ground – makes sense.

Still, for the next two weeks, I have no official TriGirl related workouts, until our “off season” indoor bike and weight training starts in December. In January, it looks like Coach S. has squeezed in a special TriGirls Masters Swim Class on the weekends. And I think I’ll be trying to run 3-6 miles one or two times per week. Oh yeah, there is another Masters swim class, on Mondays and Wednesdays, given by the female winner of Ironman Canada (between Coach S. and Ironwoman Canada’s Masters class I have learned so much about how to improve my swimming – haven’t completely been able to put it all into practice yet, but I’m working on it). Pulling it all together, a typical “off season” week will look like the following (subject to change pending review by any of the coaches):

Sunday – TriGirls swim and optional medium run (1-2 hours)
Monday - Swim with non-TriGirls Masters Class, TriGirls weight and bike training (3 hours)
Tuesday – Optional short run (though I wouldn’t be surprised if TriGirl CH (aka TriJinx or devil face) beguiles us all to one of her “hill run workouts”), weight training and/or pilates (1- 2 hours)
Wednesday – Swim with non-TriGirls Masters Class (1 hour)
Thursday – Run (30 minutes to 1 hour)
Friday – Rest
Saturday – Bike train with TriGirls (1 hour)

For a grand total of somewhere between 6 1/2 - 10 hours of workouts per week.

Not too long ago, I would have laughed at someone describing an exercise plan of 10 hours per week as “off-season.” As my husband commented when I mentioned this observation to him – you need to compare yourself to a different standard now.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this year’s “off season” will be less of an adjustment than next year’s.

Closing thought – during the next few “off-season” months – I am going to try to give myself permission to occasionally skip workouts – and the key here is GUILT FREE - to go out to dinner, enjoy the holidays – or even just chill out with a book. And maybe that is what “off season” is really about.