Turn the Corner the corner is when you transition from the off season back into consistent training again. Turning the corner is one of the trickiest junctures of a yearly period of training. Believe it or not, there are more potential pitfalls now than at any other time in the year. Does this sound like you:
"My planned 4-6 week off-season has taken up residence. I was both phyically and mentally prepared, or so I thought, to resume a training regimen of some worth in early October. Well, it's now approaching mid November... [T]here has been zero consistency or commitment. That changes, starting today!!!!!! I think this is the 4th or 5th Monday in-a-row that I have said this"
Coming out of the off-season is hard enough in that it requires you to get back onto a consistent training schedule. To make it even harder, you have these additional adversaries
- Many athletes are wondering why the nagging injuries that they had at the end of the season haven't gone away with extended time off. Why is this? You have to pro-actively deal with these issues or they will persist as you try to rebuild your fitness. Usually resolved through strength/stretch training, you also need to turn an investigative eye to your equipment (running shoes, bike fit) as well as technique (swim stroke, run stride.)
- You remember what it felt like (past tense) to be in great shape. The last time you trained consistently you were peaking for your "A" race. Now you have the extra "jiggle" of the off season loving. Sluggish. Slow.
- The conditions: Shorter days, training indoors, or in the dark. It's cold. Much less stimulating than long glorious days of awesome weather training.
- ...and it is months away before perhaps even your first "B" level race.
These challenges can quickly sap your motivation and commitment to train. But if you are smart you will have already started to lay the foundation for an awesome season in 2010....the kind of season where you achieve some really big dreams, where you are more healthy than in the year before, and you where have a lot of fun in training and racing.
Weekly template. In order to be consistent you need to start a regular training program. This sounds obvious, but how do you apply it? Remember January will be WAY down from your peak-level training regimen. But nevertheless you should block in a few sessions each week. This may be tues/thurs strength-stretch, a saturday morning yoga, or a couple group swim workouts per week. Just plug in 2-4 workouts that are the same every week, then you can fill in the gaps around that. This will give you suitable flexibility to keep things fun, but will guarantee you are being consistent with the workouts you most need right now.
Proactively address your owies/injuries. This involves some serious work on your strength and stretch program. These are not necessarily the hard-grunting, big-weight lifts either. Full body, functional, and core-focused exercises will give you the best results. Spend at least as much time on "true the wheel" exercises as you do on the full body strength work. And don't forget stretching. If you want the benefits of stretching (and they are goooood!) then you need to stretch consistently and put some effort into it.
Do the Right Thing. Starting back feeling sluggish and wanting to return to your peak-fitness feeling, it may be tempting to hit a spin class, track workout, or masters' swim hammer fest. You know...pulse the system and get some "snap" back in the legs. This becomes even more tempting when there are so many "experts" (e.g., Endurance Nation) promoting intensity training (aka, reverse periodization) as the best off-season training.
For a good way to organize your training strategy, look at the figure below:
As you Turn the Corner, you need to start back to working on your Aerobic Endurance Base Training. The good news is that this kind of training is generally easy, completed at a lower intensity than most people realize. (Zone 2, not Zone 3.) The bad news is that it does not give rapid results. But the awesome results will come later...
The other good news is that this time of year gives you the luxury to work on your basic fitness in the form of strength/stretch, and also to improve your technique. Trust me, by the time you are in the throes of hard core endurance training you will not have much time for they gym. And don't wait until you have a huge base to substantively work on your technique. Make this change now and rebuild your fitness with better form.
You will also note that the top of the pyramid is anaerobic speed; this component has a role in your training for most of the year. This might be a weekly spin class, a few sprint sets in the pool, or a saturday AM 5K. Just remember to keep it in proper proportion to the other, more fundamental components of fitness. Speed work is the icing on the cake; make sure you've got some cake before you ice it.
Patience. Patience. Patience. When you turn the corner you are starting to lay a foundation for the "real" training, the long training and hard training that will follow in the coming months. It is time to get consistent, develop some form of a weekly training template, and focus on the main thing: start building your base. For now, just get around that corner and get moving.
