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How You Should Train in the Offseason...

Thursday, 25 January 2018 23:10

By Matt Dixon (UsaTriathlon.org)

In “Fast-Track Triathlete,” elite triathlon coach Matt Dixon offers his plan of attack for high performance in long-course triathlon — without sacrificing work or life. Developed for busy professionals with demanding schedules, Dixon’s program makes your PR possible in IRONMAN, IRONMAN 70.3, Rev3, and Challenge triathlon in just seven to 10 hours a week.

In the book, Matt Dixon offers an overview of his top priorities and goals for each phase of the year: the offseason, the pre-season and race preparation. His book offers training schedules and key workouts for each phase. Let’s take a look at how Dixon recommends triathletes training during their offseason.

Postseason Phase: The Offseason

The true “start” of your season comes on the heels of a break at the end of the prior season. The postseason phase can be 4 to 12 weeks, depending on your experience level, when your previous season finished, and your race plans for the upcoming season. You should not be at full training capacity during the postseason. Even if compressed in time, your training load should be nowhere near your max. In addition, you can enjoy a degree of flexibility in this phase. Although hitting every intensity during every week and phase of the year is important, it is all about how much intensity. In these weeks, you will do very little threshold work and will not have event-specific focus....

Here are the key points to remember when you approach postseason work:

Preparatory: This block of work is all about preparing for strong upcoming training. So, the aim is to gently build fitness and muscular resilience as well as to strengthen the tendons and ligaments. When your training does ramp up, you should be prepared to accept the load as the best opportunity to adapt to the hard work, avoiding injury.  READ MORE