What is offseason?

Offseason for any athlete in an individual sport is very different. But especially in triathlon where we all have different goals and races to prepare for.

To me offseason is the time of year where I don’t have any race to prepare for. It is the period where I don’t have “to stress” about having to do some specific sessions. I can basically just train and do what I want and not necessarily what I need.

Offseason for me is right now and I have had offseason since Ostseeman the 3rd of August. But as offseason is very individually then it is off course also a definition matter. You may also call it Rest Weeks. To some people my training the last month and a half or so would be defined as base weeks. And maybe I would as well. Even though it has not really been my intention. So physically my training load since start September should probably be defined as Base Weeks. But mentally I still define this period as offseason. I have a plan for the training that I would like to do, but that is primarily due to practical reasons. I can change it any second I want and I just do the training which I feel like. It is all though the case that I love to train and the last four weeks the training load has been over 15 per week. So having days where I don’t train is very rare for me. I don’t believe in rest days. I believe in easy days, where I just train 45 minutes or so. But I don’t like days, where I don’t train at all. Then my body the day after needs an electrical shot to get going again. I have to admit that as I love to train and that is the reason why I do Triathlon then I very rarely do sessions which I don’t want to do. I usually always want to train, so this time a year I sometimes also have to tell myself that I must not train more today! No need to peak in January…

Next week my training will be more organized and I will move into my base training for next season. I also wish to be in a decent shape in week 49 and week 50. I will get back to the reason at a later stage.
My training load next week should look like this. But it will still be depending on how I feel physical as well as mentally, so the number of hours are at this moment a bit volatile.

Swim: 3-4hrs
Bike: 7-12hrs
Run: 2½-5hrs

Enjoy your offseason ;-)