Off-season training? Off-season fun?
Off-season break? Off-season extras?
This, I'm sure, is a struggle for many triathletes. We spend so much time each year training and preparing for our races. Towards the end of the season, we get excited for the off-season. It will soon be over for a while and we can have some extra free time, we can rest our bodies, we can strength train to be stronger for next year, etc.
--- But at the same time, just a few weeks into the off-season, I begin to feel lost. What should I do today? Run? Cycle? Swim? Wait, I don't have to do all this all the time...And shouldn't I be strength training? It's a struggle to wean down a bit.
So this year I set a big goal - I want to work on improving my swim and dropping time. I figured this way I'll meet my goal of finishing a sprint tri under an hour and a half next year. If I can just drop 2 minutes from the 500m swim I'll easily finish under an hour and a half! Here's how I'm doing it:
* I'm swimming at least two times a week.
* I've attended one swim clinic this fall and have another planned for the spring.
* I'm talking to friends who are former swimmers to get workouts that will help me improve my time.
* I've created land workouts to target the muscles I'll need to improve my swimming (check out one of those here - https://youtu.be/Szu9aaa92Uk ).
Outside of all of this, I am trying to run once a week, as I have in previous off-seasons. I will get back to cycling once a week in a few weeks as well. And I strength train at least once a week. However, I frequently end up at home after a long day and realize I didn't have time to run, cycle, swim, or strength train! So I throw together a quick 20-30 minute cardio workout which includes a little strength as well.
I say all of this for two reasons:
#1 - to put this goal out into the world wide web and make it official.
#2 - to have an excuse to share one of my favorite home workouts!
For a quick, fun, and effective cardio workout, here's what you need:
One set of Lebert Equalizers (EQ's)
One timer
Optional music
Set your timer for one minute sets. Each minute you will do a different exercise. After 10 minutes, you can take a 30 second rest, or keep going, depending on how you are feeling. After a few weeks you should be able to go through the entire workout without any rests. Here are the exercises:
1 - agility ladder over the EQ's
2 - jumping jacks w/ a shoulder press w/ the EQ
3 - mountain climbers
4- knees to elbows
5 - playground swing through using the EQ's
Repeat 1-5
6 - side to side over the EQ on the ground
7 - End jumps
8 - jumping lizards (Spiderman mountain climbers) w/ EQ's
9 - running man on the EQ's
10 - burpees
Repeat 6-10
3 minutes jump rope
1 minute push ups on a bosu
If you are a triathlete and have a fun workout that you do in the off-season, please share it below or email it to me at jlo74@aol.com. I love to try new workouts and if it's a good one, it might just be spotlighted in another blog or YouTube video ;)
Thanks for checking in, everyone. I'm sure at some point I'll update you on my swim goal and you know there will be more random blogs coming your way soon!
PS, if you want/need a set of EQ's, follow this link https://lebertfitness.com/?ref=JennyOC and use coupon code JENNYOWENSCRIPE for 15% off :)
