Off Season for you???

I usually run marathons in the off season. (Tri Season Spring/Summer, Marathon Season, Fall/Winter)

My last Tri (Carpinteria) is this weekend and my first marathon in is in 3 weeks. (Long Beach)

This has worked well for me but will get interesting next season since my last Marathon is in the Spring (Late April) this year and my last Tri is in the Fall. (Late November)

Not sure if Off Season applies here

We don't have Off Season here in South Florida....We race almost all year round...LOL

I never stop my trainings....

Awesome race. Did it back in 04 and would love to make the trek cross country again someday and run it again.

my off-season will last for the next two weeks, then me and my coach are getting down to business for the long road ahead for next season...

...will be doing running and cycling races when available...  

I havnt had an off season yet, but im planning some things to make mine official.

I was thinking about adding 2 days a week of weight training.  cutting back to 2 days a week of biking and 2 days a week of running.  And 1 day a week of swimming.  We will see as winter approachs.

Last tri on 8/2/08

Marathon training for race on 11/1/08

Take 4 weeks "off" until Thanksgiving - no structured training

Swim focus for 8 weeks

Run focus for 8 weeks

HIM program begins 4/1/09

If you don't take some down time or unstructured time you will in time get burned out. Maybe not in year 1 or 2 but in time yes.

I take down time twice a year...sometime in the fall and again after my A spring race. 

Off season is a confusing word and has different meaning for many folks.

I find if I don't take off time or unstructured time my mind and body rebel later on. You want to have a good season next year take time off some time. Time off for me will be a week or more with no running, then free and flexible stuff ideally doing no s/b/r in the traditional form we do for tri training for maybe a week then have flexible if you feel like doing something do it for 1-3 more weeks...in that time I try to run 3x a week even 15-30 minutes otherwise I lose a lot. Spring down time is shorter but mentally more important and refreshing for me.

Usually, around mid-November, I'll start to roll back my tri-related training and focus on other types of training.  You can quickly become numb to getting in the pool at 5:30 3x per week unless you get a chance to step back and realize why you do it.

I focus on using the off-season to do weight training and getting stronger for the upcoming season and focus less on maintaining the aerobic endurance.

I'll probably do a marathon and a bunch of shorter distance stuff just to keep the competitive side happy, but nothing crushing.

There are only two seasons - ski season, and tri season.  What is this off season of which you speak?

 D