The "OFF Season"

Thursday, October 26, 2006

The OFF SEASON
Category: Sports


So it's official – it's Fall. The leaves are falling, it's pitch black in the mornings and pitch black when you leave the office to head home. It's cold, it's windy, and that crap that keeps accumulating on your windows as you stare off into the distance is called RAIN – something that I haven't seen in ages, and I live in Vancouver for Gawd sakes. Swimming? Are you nuts?! Do you know how cold it is in there?! I'm not one for the polar bear swim training program so I'll stick to the hot-tub thank you very much. Biking? Where the hell IS my bike? I think I stuffed it back into the closet somewhere; cast away like some poor summer jacket that won't see the light of day until who knows when. The spokes on my ZIPPS are probably bent into oblivion now with junk piled up against them. And running? Better get used to the idea of putting in a LOT of mindless miles on the dreadmill, cuz the thought of running in constantly wet running shoes (even when rotating between 4 pairs of 'em) just doesn't seem appealing. Yup, it's the off-season - for ME at least.



Ok, so having said that - what the hell is the off-season anyway? When you're a triathlete, Ironman or beginner "sprint specialist" – is there even such a thing?. We aren't like hockey players where we get to hit the links and work on our putting skills, and I'm sure not lucky enough to be living in Phoenix or Miami where I can sit in the sun and sip fruity beverages with those little umbrellas. For many of us, I guess this is the time to work on all those things you couldn't work on when you were triaining 6 days a week and trying to pound out 5 hour rides and 20 mile runs – not *necessarily* in the same day. Some would argue it's time to work on core strength, flexibility, mental focus skills – all the things I haven't done a single bit of in the last 2 months since Ironman – and boy it sure feels FANTASTIC…. Well, in the "lazy-ass / where the hell did all of my fitness go" kind of way. Get on your bike trainer and work on that pedal stroke with those one-legged drills – you know you love em. I haven't ridden my bike more than once since Ironman, and that was only for about 35 minutes at the Peak Center's booth during the Royal Victoria Marathon's race expo while I was their guinea pig to demonstrate the Computrainer. Man my spin-scan sucked…I had so many flat-spots in my pedal stroke, It looked like I was cross-country skiing for crying out loud.



Speaking of the Peak Center, I made the mistake of getting my VO2 max and lactate threshold tests done last night – and not only did I suck the donkey, it made me realize just how much fitness you can lose when you sit on the couch and eat cream-puffs for 6 weeks. Don't try that at home folks, I am a seasoned professional at that. But seriously, when you don't use it, you definitely lose it so I trust all of you have some sort of "plan" to stay on track for an even better performance next year. Work on your flexibility while sitting in front of the TV. Get in the gym and do some core strength workouts – get re-acquainted with that dusty fitness ball that you have stuffed into the corner. If you're really brave, get in the pool and work on your swimming stroke. Get a lactate threshold / V02max test done to establish your baseline so you can train in your proper aerobic zone this winter and BUILD BUILD BUILD that aerobic base for next season. Speed sessions will come and you can "turn the hurt on" when you've got some races to do. No need to do that now unless you've got a race this winter – like the California marathon in December that we're doing. Am I in sub 3:30 shape right now? Probably not but I don't really care – I'm just going to have some fun. Hoz on the other hand is in sub 2:45 shape which is crazy… Comforting to know that he'll be done around 45 mins quicker than me. However I've heard that Slow is apparently the new Fast ;) So I'm all over that.



The off-season is a great time to recharge your batteries. Now that you aren't training 6 days a week (or maybe you still are you crazy nutbars living in California or other sunny parts of the world), you can catch up on all those things you couldn't do during the summer – like take a non-training holiday! I just got back from Chicago and it was one of the best weekends I've ever had – due completely to the efforts of Kathy whom I had the pleasure of hanging out with during the La Salle Bank / Chicago Marathon weekend. We checked out a Bulls game (they lost by 2 points), and then discovered that it is completely impossible to get a cab from the United Center after a sporting event- BIZARRE. We ended up going to some hole in the wall sports bar in the middle of butt-screw nowhere and waited over an hour and a half after calling the cab company – still no cab. The bartender felt sorry for us (actually, they had to go home as the place was closing) so he managed to get one of his workers drive us back into the downtown core… thank gawd. Somehow wandering around the skids of Chicago as a tourist is not a good idea.



Anyway, the marathon was great – I spent most of it running around chasing Kathy and trying to locate Larry – to no avail. However, besides running various bits of the course, managed to run with Kathy for the last 10km right up to the last turn where I peeled off and ended up running another 5km to circumnavigate all the barricades and police to get to the friends and family area. What a gong-show. And I thought Boston was nutty! In any case, so proud of Kathy for shaving about 20 minutes off her previous PB. Awesome – and she looked damn good doing it too ;)



If there's ONE thing you do before the end of the year, it is this – read Mitch Thrower's book – "The Attention Deficit Workplace – Winning Strategies for Success in Today's Fast Paced Business Environment". If you don't know who Mitch Thrower is, just think of the last time you registered for a race via Active.com. Yup, he's the founder of the "ticketmaster for participatory sports". Look him up on Google, you'll find that he's an amazing entrepreneur and 14 time ironman finisher (he also did Ironman Canada this year as well). I'll be down in LA in a couple weeks hanging with my pals Stella, Jen and Dara from the LA Tri Club at the club's year end bash, and I'm going to try and hook up with Mitch to bang some ideas around if he can spare his precious time. I've been emailing back and forth with him in the last couple days so I hope to connect with him at least on the phone while I'm down there – he's like the Bill Gates of multisports and definitely someone I'd like to learn from. Check out his myspace page on here, he's on my first page of friends using the ID of "Gatsby". Mitch, if you're reading this, I take no responsibility for any stalkers that may come your way and wish I could come to your Hallowe'en party ;)



So that's MY off-season so far. Lots of stuff happening with GymSkinZ so that's going to keep me buzzing along for the remainder of the year. Big plans coming down the pipe so I look forward to sharing it with you all when the time comes. Be sure to keep tuning into my podcast as I'll be updating it with the frivolity of our next couple races and trips (the Cali marathon and then Vegas – oh man, gonna be a gong-show for sure).



Hope everyone is enjoying their own version of their "off season" and feel free to drop me a note to let me know what YOU'RE up to!



Thanx for reading this and look forward to catching up with ya'all soon!



Cheers,

Tav!

www.gymskinz.com