Episode 42: Why We Need an Off-Season
The main topic of this week's episode is why the off-season may actually be the most important season of all. We discuss what chronic stress does to our bodies, how to shift our training focus from fitness to wellness, the magic of Zone 1, three levels of recovery and their varied time horizons, what happens if you don't respect the off-season, and a whole lot more. We also share additional insights from Ironman Lake Placid and Sea to Summit, answer a great listener question about how to get into triathlon as a brand-new beginner, and introduce two new sort-of-joking segments that seem to come up in every single one of our podcasts: the "Ironman is hard" segment and the "eat our words" segment. Enjoy!
Coaching & Training Insights
Katie additional insights from Sea to Summit:
A question: should you scope out the competition before you race?
Jim: No. But advance benchmarking of athletes in your AG or top 10, can be pointers of where to improve over months/years.
Ironman is so hard. Hiking 5 miles with 4200’ was a piece of cake compared to running a marathon off a very similar bike, and my body felt so much better after.
Uphill technical power hiking on rocks is not the same skill as road running. I didn’t fully appreciate how specialized of a skill this is, and it comes from time on feets in the Whites.
Jim: A huge aerobic base, superior brain/feet coordination along with dedicated progressive strength work is a winning combination in the mountains.
Sleep issues after a big race:
High cortisol, adrenaline, caffeine
What I’ve been doing to combat it: rest even if I can’t sleep, naps during the day, fueling/hydration etc.
Jim insights:
Be the verb not the noun
You may identify as a Triathlete, Runner, Liberal/conservative
Be careful with identity. Identity can lock you into a specific set of beliefs or ideology about yourself and your world view. Remember, you are a dynamic, open, evolving being. You like doing swim / bike / run but not your not just a triathlete.
Swimmer Lydia Jacoby opened up about the severe depression she experienced after winning a gold medal in Tokyo as a 17-year-old. “I was feeling like my identity was locked up in sports,” Jacoby said. “The biggest thing for me lately is (remembering) that being a swimmer is something I do. It’s not something I am. I have so many interests and passions. I have amazing friends and family outside of the sport. Remembering those things is a big thing for me.
Post summer race season / the off season is a chance to open back up to the world of possibilities.
Connection over perfection: I was talking to one of my athletes and planning out a fall marathon and we settled on two group runs per week. One or both may not end up being Z2 but this athlete has been very disciplined over six months doing mostly individual Z2 / structured training. As part of their next training block, we would place emphasis on social training i.e., connection over perfection.
And emphasizing very different marathon run training than triathlon run training. Between new run training workouts and social partners, this should keep things very fresh and interesting.
Corollary: Play over performance.
With the above athlete we are going for play over performance. In general, I encourage our endurance athletes to incorporate more play into their structured training. An ideal situation is to have the majority of workouts feel like play rather than performance.
Play could include doing a workout with other people, switching up the workout from road to trails, forgetting about pace and choosing hills on your run, playing chase on the bike or in the pool, etc.
Combat sloshy stomachs
We are fortunate to have many new types of liquid carbs on the market. However, I’m seeing a lot of comments about sloshy stomachs on the bike and recommend athletes start experimenting with incorporating solid foods on the bike. You can even go beyond the typical shot blocks and traditional performance fueling products to regular food such as fig bars, cookies, brownies, banana bread, etc. Save the liquid and gel calories for the run.
Another insight -- backtracking on what we said about not being competitive on a road bike
Congrats to Audrey on 3rd AG / qualifying for 70.3 worlds at 70.3 Maine on a road bike after asking us if podium contention in 70.3 / Olympic was possible on a road bike
We love to be wrong!
On very hilly/technical courses, athletes with excellent fitness and bike handling skills can excel :)
Also, congrats to our friend and pod listener J Smitty (Julie Smith) on 1st 50-54 AG
Additional reflections from our athletes at IMLP
Going by feel / losing data: “At the half marathon mark, my watch ran out of battery. This was a blessing in disguise because I had to run on RPE which helped pace myself pretty nicely.”
Highs and lows -- you can feel terrible at mile 4 and great at mile 18. Don’t assume the day is over: “I started cramping pretty much from the start so this is where the mental game started. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable for a long time so I focused on taking in the course and the energy in town. I had to improvise and started drinking 2x the electrolytes and CAF gels than I had budgeted. By the 1/2 marathon mark I was feeling better.”’
Bike handling can be scary on crowded courses / triathletes are generally not great bike handlers: “Maybe this is normal but I was passing people the entire bike course so this definitely brought an additional mental load to my bike (700 new participants this year from what I heard). I also saw some close calls from people passing on the right side which made me ultra vigilant.”
Hitting mental low points during a race & mental tools to continue- Charlie losing timing chip: “The internal spiral starts and I called myself every name in the book “Disorganized piece of shit” and it only gets worse from there (the day before I misplaced my bike computer and this only amplified the negative emotions; bike computer was later to be found in my road shoes). As I’m swarmed with people my first ever big boy panic attack hits and I can feel my mind hit the eject button and think that my day is over before it even started. I was very lucky to find an absolute angel of a security guard who let me on the beach as the pros started. I find the right volunteers that handle the chip, tell me it's going to be okay, and send me on my way. As I line up in the crowd, I go back to breathing and mindfulness exercises (standing tall through your feet, long and slow breaths in and out). I acknowledge that things aren’t going to plan but I mentally throw away all of the earlier dread and anxiety. I have a chip, I’m good to race, and nothing else matters now. Athletes are everywhere and at this point I’m just begging to be in the water. Time starts to slow down but I am eventually within sight of the water. As I head into the lake, I’m thanking every single one of my village by name. I’m remembering how much unconditional love, words, support, and sacrifice I’ve received to be here at this moment.”
Mindfuck by the pros: “Right as I entered the change tent to get ready to run I heard the pros crossing the finish line. This was a pretty big mindfuck. I couldn’t really wrap my head around the fact that these guys are done and I have an entire marathon to go. Should never be worried about them but in the moment it was pretty discouraging.”
Catastrophic GI issues: “the idea that “if you have Gi issues your day is effectively over” was echoing through my head. I couldn’t think of anything except the nausea that I was feeling; I was ready to turn in my timing chip. I kept checking in with myself and asked if the pain of quitting the pain was better than the pain of continuing. It had unfortunately reached that point. Despite the pain, I tried to smile and say thank you to every volunteer or spectator I walked past. Gratitude and positivity are part of who we are, so if I can still live that out then I can probably keep going. Also, if you can still talk, you’re not hurting that bad (another Steve Magness banger). Eventually, the logical part of my brain took over. I try to avoid letting numbers do the driving, but I checked my watch and heart rate and pace looked great when I was actually able to jog. My heart and lungs wanted so badly to give it to me. In addition, I know from experience that GI issues don’t resolve anytime soon or with the wave of a magic wand. Even if I quit, I won’t feel better immediately. If I’m going to suffer, I might as well walk it into the halfway mark and re-evaluate.”
Experiencing a DNF:
“Jim promised a very sore butt by 80 miles but that was the least of my issues. I cramped up big time (quads, hamstrings)and just couldn’t shake it, that never happened to me before and I had no karma for that. I could walk but not pedal up any sort of incline. It was around 2:45 so getting thru the bike before the cutoff was very much in play. But After 30-45 minutes of finagling on and off the bike with plenty of walking, and trying to play catch up with fluids and electrolytes, I set my sights on 2025. It was after 6 when we finally rolled in, the “loser van” (ok that’s a little strong), like the van that transports inmates from the county jail! My family was relieved to see me, having spent 2 hours in a fruitless search to try to find where I was and how I was. I feel like I learned a lot, and I am one step closer to getting one of those “Finisher” jerseys. Congrats to all of you. I tried this race in 2017 for the first time, and the song blasting at the swim start that year was “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”… the older and wiser I get, the more I find that to be true.”
Main topic -- Why we need an off-season
Plato in The Republic: “Have you noticed how a lifelong devotion to physical exercise, to the exclusion of anything else, produces a certain type of mind? Excessive emphasis on athletics produces an excessively uncivilized type..”
(For credit we are pulling a few ideas and quotes from Alan Couzens The Off-Season: The most important phase of all)
“Resuming training too early is much like pulling an onion out of the garden and realizing it is not yet fully grown. One cannot put it back in and expect more growth!” -Peter Coe (Coach of middle distance legend Sebastian Coe)
After your “A” race and 12 weeks of Specific Training, your body and mind need a much needed break. For many athletes, they have been training seriously for nine months for their A race. This is a HUGE ask on body and mind.
Just the Specific period alone is a major stressor: Your brain, the central nervous system, and peripheral system - muscles, tendons and metabolic system are under constant stress and demands. During this time you are probably chronically dehydrated and glycogen depleted and have some level of compromised sleep.
In sum, you need a serious break from the grind! The off season allows for a metabolic reset, muscle repair and a needed break for your brain / central nervous system and hormones.
We take an off season to shed all acute, and more importantly, our chronic stress. While we will feel ‘recovered’ after 2 - 3 weeks of an off season, we should take up to 8 weeks to shed all chronic fatigue. If you continue to carry over even a few percent of fatigue year after year, this accumulates in your body making it impossible year after year to improve.
If your body is under constant stress, it will stop responding.
A key principle of training is stress + rest = growth.
And your body can only progress when it is trained under a novel stimulus. If you continue to pound your body and mind with stress, it will become desensitized to it and stop responding.
Another way to think of it is that your brain is the master controller of your body. Training is really just a way to challenge your mind. It is very taxing on the brain to swim/bike/run/strength. Off season is about giving your brain a well deserved break. And this is why it’s so important to not ‘think like an athlete’ during off season. The brain's primary job is to assess the threat state, internally and externally in order to keep you alive. Off season really starts with giving your brain a chance to stay out of a high stress / high readiness state.
The primary reasons athletes don’t progress the next season is they 1) didn’t take an off season and 2) continued to do train race / specific efforts during the off season.
What should you do during the off season?
Your focus should turn from fitness to wellness. Wellness equates to overall good health. Fitness, at times, can be at odds with overall general health.
For 8 weeks, when you exercise, it should be at Zone 1 or 60% of your max HR. Discover the zone below Zone 2!
Examples are: walking, hiking, paddle board, kayak, garden, etc. Anything that is ‘active recovery’.
After a few weeks of Zone 1, you can introduce some light strength and mobility exercises.
There are no structured workouts in those 8 weeks.
Focus on sleep, rest, fueling, hydration
Mental recovery - switch off the athlete brain that is always chasing fitness, read, social connection, limit social media (the modern cigarette).
Massage, physical therapist, sports chiro -- you may need multiple sessions
Very optional and marginal gadgets & gear
Normatec boots
Hypervolt
Foam roller
Ice bath, sauna, steam room
Listener Questions
How to get into triathlon as a brand new beginner?
Someone asked me this recently, looking for advice as a marathon runner looking to switch to tri. What resources to look at, what to think about?
Basic gear items:
A bike and helmet
Goggles, cap, swimsuit
Running shoes
With all of the above you can do a sprint tri
Learn about Zone 2
Sign up for swim lessons if not experienced and get comfy riding a bike outside
Jim: I had a new athlete interview this week where they aren’t sure if they want to tackle triathlon, and more importantly, the triathlon training lifestyle, or not. They asked me what would be a way for them to preview the triathlon life. I said take a 30 day challenge of 3 x 30’ runs / 3 x 30-60’ bikes and 1-2X per week at the pool. At the end of the 30 days we are going to reconnect and discuss the results.
Challenge of the Week
Katie: Pre-run glute activation with bands
Jim: Practice 1’ walking on your long runs to simulate aid stations
Gear Pick of the Week
Katie: Cheap amazon bike bottles that work well and can get lost on race day no problem, $7 each.
Jim: Large Rubber Bands for securing between the TT bars water bottles.