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I certainly endured a great year of racing. I was pleased that I was able to take on the increased load for training for an ironman. I was also pleased to have finished two other half ironman distances this year. All of this racing and increased training enabled me to gain a lot of confidence heading into the 2016 season. I was especially encouraged by my finish at the Beach to Battleship Ironman distance race where I finished just off the podium in fourth in my age group and 57th overall. As I was finishing up the final weeks of training for the ironman I began thinking to myself what I would want to do for the offseason.
I knew I needed a break. The last three to four weeks of training became tedious and I was fighting mental as well as physical fatigue. My 2 week taper plan worked flawlessly and I felt good for the race, but I knew that I could not jump right back into training for the 2016 season. I also knew that to improve in the races for next year I would need to do some things differently to improve. Finally, I knew that I needed more leg strength for biking, more core strength for running form and biking form, and more upper body strength for greater pull in the swim stroke.
I settled on a staple for me over the last several years and that is P90X. This series of workouts involve upper body strength building and also a steady diet of lower body workouts. It also has a focus on the core and abdominal areas. I desired to do a 60 day run of the P90X after a week layoff after the ironman. This 60 day P90X series would put me about a week away from the New Year. I knew that we would be traveling during this time to visit family for Christmas and my workouts would become haphazard at best.
I began the P90X and realized quickly that I did not have the strength that I had at one time as I could not do the pull-ups required nor the weight lifting. I also was incredibly sore. I knew that this was working the right muscles for me to get better at triathlon as well as building strength to avoid injury.
I will jump back into Triathlon training right after the New Year.
Update:
11.29.15 – I have now been doing P90X for 40 days or so. I feel really good even though I have out on some weight from not doing all of the cardio I was doing before. I figure that I will lose some of this weight when I get back to training right after the first of the year. My shoulders feel stronger and my back is stronger which will help in the swim. I do feel like my legs are stronger along with my glutes which will help with running and cycling. I will be ready to be finished with P90X in a couple of weeks and then I think mentally ready to jump back into some triathlon specific training. I did do some running during the off week in between weeks 3 and 5 of P90X. I recognized a stronger pace and my core was stronger. I feel like this was the best way to go for my offseason plan.
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Source by Jeff Dowdy
