Ironman Burnout

Take a break. Some most people can't go 110% for 12 months. You have plenty of time before IMFL, enjoy your time away. Soon you will be itching to get back at it. After that, take it slowly, then go for it. No excuses, no slacking and always remember what you are training for.

Just my .02

I face the same thing.  Last year was tough and I took almost three month off.  Within a month of training my speed was back my prior speed on the bike and the run was off by just a tad.  

What I got out of the break was energy to redo this TRi thingy again.  Good luck!

Yeah, now is the time for some downtime- just do what you want to do now.  But also pick some intermediate goals- November is late in the year and that's just too long to focus on a single goal of finishing an IM, even though it is.

Speaking from personal experience, while the physical recovery from an IM DNF is far easier than the physical recovery from completing one, especially when one doesn't get to the marathon, the mental/emotional recovery takes a lot longer with the DNF.  I've kind of come to the conclusion that in my own personal case, after the debacle at IMLP this year, that the mental/emotional pain of that miserable experience will always be there in trace amounts, but that's not a bad thing, as it will keep me focused when I want to quit in the future.  I cannot imagine the impact on someone that did not finish their first IM.  There's definitely a danger in either pushing too hard too soon, or conversely, of being too defeated to do anything.  Rogillio posted some great advice in response to a thread I started back in July that you may wish to read...

You need a break from training not from swimming, biking and running.  I've run for 10+ years and have never not run for more than a couple of weeks.  Erercise is part of my life just like eating, getting my haircut and doing laundry.  You don't get tired of doing laundry and decide to 'take a break' and just quit.  You change things up somehow. 

Having said that, I totally understand your question. 

My suggestions for off-season:

1.  Run.  This is fundamental to keeping your aerobic engine going.  Don't run tempo runs and fartleks and intervals and speed work....just run.  Run for the simple pleasure of running.  If it's cold and/or wet, run on a treadmill.  If you want to sleep in on the weekend and blow off your long run, sleep in.

2.  Find something else you enjoy that promotes fitness.  Golf, hiking, aerobics class, karate lessons, dance lessons, weight lifting, push-up challange, snow skiing, etc.  The hardest part of IM training for me is time management.  I spent most of my free time training s/b/r that there was not much time to do much else.  Use the off-season to do 'something else'.

3.  Swim and bike for fun and not part of a training regiment.  Don't schedule a bike ride every Saturday or a swim 3x a week but if you get up on Saturday and the sun is shinning and the birds are singing and you have nothing planned for the day, go for a ride.  Not a training ride though.  Just ride to enjoy the fresh air and see the country side and wildlife.

Good discussion post.  I wrote most of that above as consiglier to myself - take whatever you can use and disregard the rest.

~Mike

Definitely take a break! I don’t have any of my athletes going full throttle on training more than 20 +/- weeks otherwise it is easy for them to get unmotivated, lose focus and finally burn out. After a heavy training period (i.e. 5-6 months) I schedule 2-4 of down weeks so the athlete can recover mentally and physically. The down time doesn’t include any structured training; I just suggest them to stay active by doing any other activities they enjoy and try to limit their s/b/r time. If they do want to do some of it is all easy, with zero structure (no goals, no zones, no HR, no nothing, just do it for fun).

After that we get back to training usually one the athlete start letting me know he/she is antsy and eager to train again. After a long racing season I do the same thing (2-4 week of down time) in which I do suggest staying away from s/b/r and just relax and enjoy. If possible they can stay active doing other activities such as yoga, weight lifting, skiing, hiking, other sports, etc. After that we begin the off-season training with light volume (not many hours a week) and focusing on particular things such as technique, focus on weaknesses, etc. Through this time the athlete can also vary his training with other activities none specific to tri training but which will help them keep their mind fresh (yoga, spinning, strength training, etc).

I did my first IM in July which is mid tri season with the hope of doing some races for fun afterwards. I just couldn't...the two tris I signed up for I didn't start. I felt crappy but kept trying to train and tri train. Finally just over 2 months post IM, I took time off...no running for 2 week ideally longer but only go back to running when I really really wanted to for multiple days in a row. I didn't run for 4 weeks, didn't swim for 3-4 months, the month I took off from running I rode 4x and did a cyclocross race.

It made me question why I do tris? I am an athlete but is that my only goal, desire to compete in? I  thought long and hard about what excites me and what other athletic things I want to try and I am trying to expand my ideas of what I want to do. Xterra tris, mountain bike racing, ride across the US, do RAAM as a relay, do 12 or 24 hour road bike race, list goes on and on.

I think it is important to look at the big picture, check your goals, desires, and make sure you are doing what you want not what you think others want you to do or what the normal progress is with triathletes...the idea longer is better.

I started cyclocross racing which is about as opposite as tri bike training which is steady state/time trialing. Cross is off road on windy dirt, getting off your bike jumping over barriers, riding in sand, snow, mud, which takes 110% focus or you fall. I found it exciting, thrilling, challenging but best of all mentally refreshing. I loved it and I didn't even really care how I did..just enjoyed the fun. It was the perfect diversion for me that kept me riding, excitied, challenged, and mentally thrilled.

Mike made suggestions on trying something different. My cross racing was that for me. I hope you find something like that for you. It doesn't have to be s/b/r related.

Having taken the break was great for me. I am back swimming, working with a new swim coach who gives me hope I can improve and I see some progress already. I changed my tri coach as well. Different view of things, and a change I think is good for me. I love my old coach and was with him for 4 years and miss him.

I lost some fitness for sure taking time off, but I know I'll get it back. Running I lost the most but I always do...and it always comes back.  I gained some weight taking time off and I need to work at getting that off as well.

I found my journey to my first IM was more mental/emotional than physical. Afterwards I was surprised how I felt. It took quite a bit of time to process it all and come to the place of accpetance of how I did and having it be part of my history and story and be less disappointed with how I did. The cool thing I learn a lot about me while participating in sport and it is a great growth vechicle. 

Other goals helped me with something to look forward to in maybe May-July time frame. I'd also encourage you to take a mini break after your early season event if in that May-July time period so you are super fired up to do IMFL training.

Sounds like you are going through what lots of us go through but we each bring our own unique view to this.

Another thought I had- what about group workouts?  A lot of running clubs (at least in my area) will have at least one group run a week where people of different speeds meet up and hang out before and after the run.  Maybe you run with someone else, maybe you just run by yourself for 30 minutes and they run a bit longer.  It may give you something to look forward to in your week and if you have and/or make friends from it, it will give you extra motivation to get out there, even if you just do what you want there, which will keep you accountable to at least staying in some kind of shape, so you have something to work off of several months from now.  Or maybe do a short ride with a friend that is just getting into cycling. 

I've never been much for the social aspect of training, except for masters swimming, but right now, I'm finding myself much more motivated when I'm doing a workout with at least one other person.  That way, it's also social time as well

I won't say what's right, but I will say what I did...

I think we were on the same schedule more or less.  I did my first IM in Nov.

I took a week off because I was tired and sore.

I took a second week off because I liked how it felt to take the first week off!

I took a third and fourth week off to travel abroad...

But during that fourth week, my mind started drifting to workouts, planning my race season for 09, the race wheels I just bought that need a test ride....

I have only JUST started working out again this week - exactly one month after the race.  I'm starting off easy, just to get back in the swing of things...  Feeling pretty good about it so far.

I also plan to just s/b/r for the fun of it- not care about HR zones or hitting some specific workout goal.  For example, I plan to just ride my usual route, but ignore HR, stand up if I feel like standing, sprint if I feel like sprinting, spin if I feel like spinning, etc....

Good luck!