Time for a new training plan!

Well, my in-season training plan is finito, finished, fini, carpe d-...wait...

The off-season in any sport is always a challenge. In-season is always easy. Playing football in college, in-season practices were easy because you knew who you were playing and the game was coming up very soon, within days in fact. Off-season was a different story. After the last game of the season, we had a week off, and then it was 6am puke drills... Very tough to keep at it, because you had 10 months before your next game, and because, well, I despise puking...

Some people (you know who you are!) give me crap about this, puff out their chests and say "off-season?! What's this 'off-season' you speak of?!" Well, hey, you don't live in Wisconsin, so SHUT YOUR DANG YAPPER!! Off-season doesn't mean I'm going to sit on the couch, drink beer and watch TV (all the time...). It simply means that due to a simply law of physics, the lakes are FROZEN therefore making it impossible to SWIM, which is the initial and crucial phase of a TRI-athlon... It also means that there are no scheduled races and therefore your training won't include a taper.


Anywhoo, where was I? Oh yes, selecting a plan for this winter. Some people like to change things up a bit, revert back to a balanced plan, working each discipline twice a week, sometimes with no specific duration, just playing it by feel. I can see that working if you've had a chock-full season and need the active rest and recovery. Or, they may take advantage of the extra time and work on a weak spot in their form, fine-tuning their swim stroke or running gait. Ian Poulter once said, (don't know if this is his original quote) "Find your weaknesses, and then work tirelessly to get rid of them."

I've been working on my race schedule for next year, and it's going to be an eclectic mix of sorts. I've got a couple of road races planned, including the "Crazylegs Classic 8K" here in Madison, and the Green Bay Marathon, which finishes in historic Lambeau Field. Tri-wise, I'll be a doing a mix of sprint and Oly distances in the early season as a warm-up for my A-race, which is the Door County Half Ironman. I'll probably do a smattering of races to wrap up the year, but those will be registered for on the fly, and of course, I'll be volunteering for IMWI, to be sure to register for IMWI '10, and I hear that they are changing up the format, requiring you to pay up front, which is a good thing, because then I won't mess up the deadline like I did this year.

Looking at a few different plans and websites. Some good resources are:

www.beginnnertriathlete.com
www.trifuel.com
www.slowtwitch.com


This one also looks REALLY interesting: www.ironguides.net

I am really intrigued by Ironguides because they are a sponsor of Team TBB, which is Chrissie Wellington's team, and she is making waves in IM world, well, she has been for the last year, but it was amazing watching her dominating performance at the IM World Champs this year.

I may choose a basic 2x balanced 70.3 plan for the off-season to keep me moving and improve on some things, including getting plugged in with a master's swim program, getting the bike out and fitted, etc. And then purchase an Ironguides training and nutrition plan to start of the season and get me in gear for Door County. We'll see how it all plays out, as I'll be needing to go pretty heavy on the run training as well to prepare for Green Bay.

Stay tuned! I will be posting my plan as I decide it and tell you how crappy I feel after each workout! :)