May 7, 2016
As I write this I am just completing my third off season, but it is really my first off season. Huh?
To explain, let me begin by talking about periodization. The idea of periodization is that an athlete can't maintain peak fitness year-round. If he or she could, then it would not be peak fitness. So the idea is that the duration and intensity of training changes throughout the year to give the athlete's body some rest so he or she can then build to peak fitness again at just the right time for his or her A race. There's a nice article about periodization on the D3 Customized Training for Multisport website. There are four basic phases in periodization.
| Phase | How long? | Frequency | Duration | Intensity | Volume |
| Prep | 4-8 weeks | High | Short-Medium | Very little | Low |
| Base | 12-24 weeks | High | Medium- High | Moderate | Moderate to High |
| Build | 4-8 weeks | Moderate-High | High | Heavy | Moderate |
| Peak/Race | 3-5 weeks | Moderate | Short | Heavy | Low |
Here's a graph from Training Peaks that shows the stress of my workouts over the past two years. It clearly shows the periodization of my training. The first "mountain" is the preparation for Nationals 2015 while the second is the preparation for Nationals 2016. By the way, I think my coach is kind of brilliant with his ability to plan my season so that I peak for my A race. I am always 100% confident when I'm toeing the start line that I am at peak fitness with the least fatigue. Of course, for that to happen, I have to do exactly what he tells me to do every day. ;-)
The valleys are the "off" seasons. Of seasons aren't really off. You're not sitting on the couch eating bon-bons. There is still training to do every day. But it's prep and base training with less intensity.
What?!!!! I'm getting slower?!!!!
Typically, in an off season, you get slower. However, in my past off seasons, I was so unfit that my speed continued to improve even though we weren't doing a lot of intense workouts. That is why I say that this is my first off season although it is really my third. This is the first time that I could sense that the workouts were less intense and my times indicated that I was getting slower.
Mentally challenged!
When I think of the attributes that I want to bring to the table, I want to be coachable, patient and mentally tough. Being those things in the off season was one of the hardest things that I've ever done. And I have to admit, I wasn't very good at it. I continued to do whatever my coach told me to do. But having never been in a real "off" season before, I didn't know what to make of my fading fitness and my slowing paces. I could think of all sorts of explanations.
On good days, my head was in control and I knew that this was part of the plan. But on other days, I wondered if I had finally gotten to the age where people just start getting slower. And on my worst days, I wondered if my coach knew what he was doing . . . or if he even cared. If you knew my coach, you'd know how ridiculous that last thought was and the true despair in my mental state. There is no question that my coach cares about every one of his athletes. But at my lowest points, that was hard to remember sometimes.
Other factors.
Trainer challenge: To make matters worse, my trainer was malfunctioning. It operates through my iPhone with regard to setting the resistance in the trainer. I'd recalibrate every time I trained, but some days the same resistance setting would be so hard I could barely complete a relatively easy interval. It didn't seem like I was just fatigued but what do I know? Then, I started noticing that if I got a phone call or text during a ride, the resistance would get harder all by itself. And if I even toughed my iPhone, the resistance would increase. I went back and forth with the manufacturer for months. Finally, after I told them I have a blog, they agreed to replace it. But all those months, every time I had trouble hitting an easy workout, I thought maybe my body was failing me. Mentally, that was really, really tough.
Skin challenge: I really regressed in the swim. We worked really hard on swim technique during the off season but I was much slower. It was so hard mentally as the fastest times I could muster were the same as times that used to be incredibly easy. I kept telling myself that I was supposed to get slower, but the amount that I was slower seemed too much. I kept telling myself to stay the course and I did. In all honesty, I only did 99% of the time. One week, when I was fatigued and undernourished as well, I hit bottom. I was just angry at the world and took it into my training that week. I discovered that anger takes energy - and I was even slower!
Toward the end of the off-season, a light bulb went off and I wondered if my changing body composition was making a difference. As I've lost the last 5-10 pounds, I've noticed that the fat seems to be disappearing under my skin. I have very, very little fat under my skin now and as a result, my excess skin is pretty flappy in the water. It kind of reminds me of how a sea anemoe's tentacles flow in the current. My excess skin does that, (GO AWAY PRIDE!
My coach had me do a workout in my swin skin and I not only swam faster, I set a 100m PR by 15 seconds. What!!!!!? FIFTEEN SECONDS! Oh my gosh! So I will always wear a swim skin or wetsuit in races now (except both are illegal at Worlds, bummer). And . . . I don't need to purchase a drag suit. I have one built in! LOL. I, of course, wish I didn't have that skin, but it is what it is. Everyone has their challenges.
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