General Discussion Triathlon Talk » BarryP in the offseason? Rss Feed  
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2016-09-02 1:10 AM


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Subject: BarryP in the offseason?
A question for people following the BarryP program - what do you do in the offseason?

Let's say there's an athlete that has entered Phase 3 in advance of one of their goal races. That race is now over, and there's probably six months or more to go until the next time they race. Do they stay in Phase 3 during the offseason, or knock it back to Phase 1 or Phase 2 to get in more base mileage?


2016-09-02 5:21 AM
in reply to: bsuball41

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, North Carolina
Subject: RE: BarryP in the offseason?
I don't know the answer to your question. But, how did you like the Barry P Plan. What did you get your weekly milage to and where did you start?

And, how did the race go?
2016-09-02 9:30 AM
in reply to: bsuball41


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Subject: RE: BarryP in the offseason?
You could always go over to ST and PM BarryP.

The idea behind that program is to get people running more. Sounds like you've achieved that objective. I'm not the type of person that should be handing out training advice but I can tell you what I'd do and I'll let other smarter people tell me if I'm wrong. In the spirit of periodization and specificity, over the winter I would eliminate the intensity, but maintain the mileage. If I had six months to go before my next race I may even take two or three of those months and just run (or run A LOT and put the swim and bike into maintenance mode), leaving open the possibility that I might increase my weekly mileage even more (as long as I could repeat those miles week after week...in other words maintaining the consistency). Then a few months out from my races I would reintroduce some threshold runs.

Again that's just me. BarryP or some of the other smart people around here might tell you something differently. This is actually something I'm considering. This, or training for an early year HIM. But I'm leaning toward the run focus.
2016-09-02 9:38 AM
in reply to: bsuball41

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Cypress, Texas
Subject: RE: BarryP in the offseason?

Originally posted by bsuball41 A question for people following the BarryP program - what do you do in the offseason? Let's say there's an athlete that has entered Phase 3 in advance of one of their goal races. That race is now over, and there's probably six months or more to go until the next time they race. Do they stay in Phase 3 during the offseason, or knock it back to Phase 1 or Phase 2 to get in more base mileage?

 

There are two schools of thought.  One is to reduce volume and focus on recovery and speed in the "off season", the other is to increase your base and to wait until a few month out from a race to work on speed.  

I think that it really depends on where you are at with the sport.  It takes about three years to peak in endurance sports. My recommendation would be to spend your time building your base if you are are less than 3 years of continuous training.  If you are pasted the 3rd racing season and have been training though the off season then I think that the speed option makes more sense. 

One rule of thumb that I saw said training volume has to be 2-2/3 your race distance each week to reach your full race potential. if you are training for sprint Triathlon that may only be 4 hours a week.  If you are training for an OLY then that may double to 8 hours a weak, it you are doing a 70.3 that may be 16 hours, etc.   So another thing to look at is what you peak race volume is.  If it is less that 2-2/3 your race distance then it probably makes more sense to build volume.  If you are at the 2 2/3 volume in your peak weeks then your base is solid and it would make more sense to reduce volume in the "off season" and focus on recovery and speed. 

2016-09-04 11:52 AM
in reply to: Nick B


23

Subject: RE: BarryP in the offseason?
Originally posted by Nick B

I don't know the answer to your question. But, how did you like the Barry P Plan. What did you get your weekly milage to and where did you start?

And, how did the race go?


Started BarryP on January 1 after about two months of haphazard running. I go by minutes, so I started at 16/32/48 and worked up to 27/54/81 by the end of May.

May races were ridiculous, did a 41-minute standalone 10K after not running at all for the first 34.5 years of my life, then did a 43:30 run in my first triathlon (Olympic). Better than I ever thought possible.

So I would highly recommend it for anyone getting off the couch. That said, I haven't really gotten any better since May but only recently started incorporating two workouts per week.
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