As fall in North America approaches many athletes are completing or will be completing their goal events soon and be heading into the triathlon postseason. Once the goal event is completed it’s time to rest, recover and then get to work on next year’s goal. Here is a great way to end your incredible race season and make next year even better. The triathlon postseason phase of training is a critical time for success for your continued growth as an athlete. In fact, we at Organic Coaching would argue the postseason is the greatest predictor of an athlete making huge strides in their performance level heading into the following year.
After you have raced your goal event for the year it’s time to rest from endurance sports both physically and mentally. The week or two directly after your goal race should be sport-free away from structured training. This time is well spent relaxing and giving time back to the ones around you who have helped you reach your goals. This rest is very important for long-term physical and mental health in sport. It’s necessary to enjoy the time off and not feel any guilt about laying low and doing other things away from swimming, biking, and running.
After one to two weeks of complete rest, it’s time to add in exercising with little structure and enjoying activities you may not have time to do during your season. This phase is about having fun and being active. It’s a time to do to related but different activities such as mountain biking, hiking, cross country skiing. Not worrying about heart rate, functional threshold power, or pace. Go to yoga, get on the trail or enjoy a watersport you may not usually have time to do. Stay active and stay away from worrying about intensity.
Be careful though, the most common mistake we see athletes make is to take too much of an unstructured break between the last race of the season and then ramp back into specific work. The other is to keep training with the same intensity, fearful of losing fitness.
Finally, after a couple of weeks of rest and recovery, it’s time to start thinking about what you want to get out of your next season. Write the goals down and make a plan to talk with your coach. From here you and your coach will make a plan to achieve the goals and reflect on the race season completed.
Enjoy the postseason!
Carly and Tyler Guggemos built Organic Coaching in 2014 with a simple philosophy that works. The idea is to take what you have and grow it to get faster, fitter and stronger. And to do it with the time you have – not the time you wish you had.
For athletes who are ready to take their training to the next level while still thriving and succeeding in their professional and family life.
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