- When you come to the end of your race season
you're quite likely in very good shape.
Perhaps even the shape of your life.
So the idea of taking a break and coming off the gas
might seem quite strange but actually it's super important
to allow yourself time to recover
both physically and mentally.
- Yeah well with that off season break fast approaching
we've got some ideas for you to help you relax
and rewind after that last race.
And some tips on how to get ready
before your pre-season training starts.
And on top of that, we've got some tips from the pros.
What they recommend you should be doing
with your off-season break.
- When it does come to the end of the season,
it's a good idea to put away all that race stuff,
put away that TT-bike away, put your swimsuits away,
and just go and enjoy it.
We're not saying stop it all, because in the end of the day
we are triathletes, we love swimming,
we love cycling, we love running, we love being active.
But just take the structure away from it, go and enjoy it.
- Yeah why not maybe a little bit of mountain biking,
or even go trail walking, for example.
Or you could even go for a swim
but leave those hat and goggles behind.
And go for a little paddle, you might even want
to keep your hair dry or you might want to dive right in
and go for a surf.
- And on that note Heather, I think we should get it.
- I think we need to.
(upbeat music)
- As a triathlete, you're training for three sports
and it does take up a huge amount of time every week,
so in the off season, why not add up all those hours
and think about what you could do with them.
All those things that you've wanted to do
whilst your training that you didn't have time for.
Whether it's a luxury of reading a book,
reading a newspaper, or even just sitting
and watching the world go by.
And the same goes with coffee, you might well have used it
as a caffeine hit before your next training ride
or before a competition.
But now you can just sit back
and actually enjoy the coffee for the taste of it.
(chill music)
So Joe I was just wondering if you got any tips for our
viewers or anything that you do you could share with us.
In your off season just to help you recover from
you know, what is, a long tough racing season.
- So for me personally, I'll like either go on holiday
or something for a week, you know 10 days.
And then when I get back, or if I didn't go on holiday,
I'd probably try and have about three weeks
where like I don't necessarily do nothing,
but if I feel like doing something
because for me, I quite like going our with my friends
because I'm a bit of a social,
but I don't really put any pressure on like doing training.
If I wake up on a day and I don't feel like
doing anything then I won't do anything.
And I'll try and do that for about three weeks.
And then I'll get back into training
and just gradually build on it for the next year after that.
- Yes the season is long, and you might well have
used up most of your allocated holiday already
but if you do have any days left
then booking a vacation is a great way to switch off.
And one of the best things about travelling,
aside from triathlon, you can book somewhere
where you don't need to think about
having to fit in your training or finding somewhere to swim.
And you don't need to travel with a bike or loads of kit.
You can just go into the plane with hand luggage.
If however you've got time left,
but you're actually fed up with travelling,
and you don't want to go anywhere
then why not take a stay-cation
and just spend it with friends and family you might
well have neglected through all your training.
(chill music)
Controversial one for some, but if you've got really lean
during the race season then it can be a good idea
to allow your body to repair a little bit
and put on a bit of weight.
And it can hard to allow yourself to do this
cause you might be in the best shape of your life
and ready for that beach holiday,
but trust me your body needs a bit of a break.
Cause during training, you're constantly stressing
your body so having to repair and recover to get stronger.
And that's how you do get fitter.
But having a break from this is a positive thing.
I personally tend to put on a few pounds in the winter
but then I lose weight, ready for summer race season.
And as a result, I seem to have less illnesses
and injuries than quite a few of my athlete friends.
(chill music)
Well this one leads on quite nicely from our previous point.
If you've had any niggles throughout the season,
now is a great time to sort them out.
You've might've had little injuries that you've managed
to just get by with your training or racing around them.
And when you stop, quite often they disappear,
but that doesn't mean to ignore them.
Now is a great time to address those problems,
so that when you do start back
in the pre-season, you're ready to go.
And if you want to take it one step further,
maybe book in for an MOT with your doctor
or your physiotherapist, just to give your body a once
over to check that it's ready for the rest
and if you do need something a little bit more serious
like some kind of intervention,
try to book it in now so again,
you are ready to hit the road running when it comes to it.
And yoga's another alternative you can try.
It's great for flexibility, something you might be lacking
after hours spent on the bike and running.
And it's also a really nice way to switch off
and unwind at the end of the season.
Dave I've just wondered if you've got any tips
or insight to our viewers, and what or how to recover from
a tough race season, with that off-season break.
- I think the first thing is, you have to
sort of like mentally switch off.
I think, especially if you've finished in a bad race.
- OK.
- A lot of people will sort of,
you almost sort of like mentally talk to themselves.
- You can wind yourself, yeah.
- And it's just yeah, it's done now,
it's time to relax, switch off,
so maybe two weeks of yeah, you can still do exercise
just do what you love, you know, we all love this sport,
so I'm not really saying don't do any exercise.
I will be very much, I will get back to Jordan
and I will go and ride my bike, and so I'll meet some fans.
You know probably cycle for an hour,
stop for coffee for three hours.
You know, all of that.
- I like the sound of that.
- It's the best time of the year for it.
And yeah then, yeah first of all mentally recover
and then once you've done that sit down
and analyse your season objective.
Look to see what went well, what went wrong.
And then it's time for formulate the plan.
There's no point of getting to race season
and being like OK it's time to train,
what do I need to do?
- Yeah.
- The off-season is very much mentally
and physically recover, and then plan.
So much about this endurance sport
is down to being well organised.
(chill music)
- There's also a really good idea
to have a post season debrief.
So if you have a coach, use them,
if you don't, and if you're self trained
and it's still a really good thing to do.
So just write a list of things that've gone well
over the past season, things that haven't gone so well,
things that you've learned, and also,
what you could do better.
- Yeah it is often quite tempting to switch off
as soon as the season's finished
and then you could lose those valuable learnings
so write them down now, and then you can forget
about them for a while and they're there
when you come back to your pre-season.
So you've not wasted that opportunity.
And actually a friend recently did his very first triathlon
and afterwards, he sat down with me and he went through
his top 10 things that he learned
and that he would do differently next time.
I think it's a really good idea.
(chill music)
- Now with it being the end of season,
you may have found that some brands and some shops
are doing some end of season sales.
So they're selling off their kit at reduced prices.
So if you are looking at repairing or even maybe
replacing your kit, now is a really good time
and a good chance to get that kit
so you're ready to go when you do start training.
Now if you are thinking of making any bigger changes
maybe perhaps buying some new running shoes,
now is also a really good time to get that
in preparation for when you do start training.
You start to increase that training load.
So you really bet that kit in.
And for those really big investments maybe a set,
a bike, or a set of wheels,
you could find some good deals in the end of season sale.
- Well after all of that,
I am definitely ready for my end of season break.
- Yeah quite frankly, to be honest,
I think I've been having my end of season break
for about a year now but very interesting.
If you liked this video, hit that thumbs up button.
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- And if you want to start thinking about your pre-season
and you want a body-maintenance video,
we've got one just here.
- Yeah, and if you'd like to see our ask the pros about
their off-season training, then just click down here.