Up & Running: Returning From An Off-Season Break
Published: Jan 26th 2012 12:56 PM UTC by TriEurope
You know the feeling: you’ve got that itch to get out and train, but you’re dreading that first session of the season. This is how to get through it.
Written By Matt Fitzgerald
You don’t have to swim, bike and run year- round to have success in triathlon. In fact, you’ll probably be most successful if you take a short break from training once a year to let your body recuperate and recharge your motivational batteries. Six-time Hawaii Ironman champion Mark Allen used to do nothing but surf for five or six weeks between his last race of the season and New Year’s Day.
With time off comes a loss of tolerance for the volume of swimming, cycling and running that one can handle in peak shape. So when the time comes to start training again, it’s important to ease back into it. The risk of overuse injuries is higher when an athlete is ramping up training after time off. This risk is greatest in running, thanks to its high-impact nature. For this reason, Allen advises his athletes to do as he says, not as he did, and continue running a little through the off-season.
“You can take time away from the bike and the swim,” he says, “but running is important to continue even in the off- season. Go out for easy, short runs to get some fresh air, to sweat a bit and to move your body. This keeps the tendons and ligaments strong so you will be able to handle the workout impact when you return to real training.”
Good advice. But what if you take some time off running anyway? Use these three guidelines to avoid getting hurt when you start running again:
Do the two-step. Divide the process of getting back into running shape into two steps. The first step is to gently allow your body to readapt to the stress of repetitive impact. Schedule only short, slow runs, preferably on soft surfaces, for the first three weeks. Don’t worry about building fitness. Save that for step two, which follows your three-week adaptation period.
Obey the 72-hour rule. Your bones, muscles and connective tissues need time to recover and strengthen in response to the stress of each run. For this reason it’s best to run less frequently than you might normally do during the first few weeks of running—once every three days is a good rule of thumb.
Listen to your body. Stop running and take an extra day or two of rest whenever you feel worrisome pains. A little restraint here will spare you from a much longer forced break due to injury.
