derick@duratatraining.com

It’s about that time for many of us. The end of the season is here or is right around the corner. In Austin, the end of the season never seems “finite” as it is not marked by the start of ski season as it was in Colorado.

Here, many people take the “off-season” to train running or even to focus on a marathon. It’s a great shift of focus, but not quite the same as truly taking some downtime and maintaining fitness by getting away from the swimming, cycling and running routine. That being said, I think it is so important to do something different during the off-season. Break from the routine. Explore some other activities.

Back in 2006, when we moved to Austin, I got into climbing. Derick bought me some climbing shoes, a harness and all the basics that I needed. I got a local gym membership and for a month, I spent my evenings scrambling around the rocks, looking for the biggest holds and feeling pretty cool (until I realized there were ‘real’ climbers there who actually knew what they were doing). I finally got outside on real rock with our friend John a few months later, and boy did I suck. I recall getting to one spot and just standing there, trying to reach up for another hold with my leg quivering. To my credit, it was wet and very slippery so maybe I did not suck that bad, but it was pretty humbling. I guess the gym fooled me into believing I actually knew what I was doing. I was also doing some Bikram Yoga at the time, and I simply noticed that my body felt different (read: lean, dehydrated, water-loss- lighter). But, it was kind of cool to take a month or two in the winter here to explore some other activities. I was still running, cycling and swimming but much less and really just enough to make me feel good. You know, sane amounts of exercise.

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The state championship road race was not really a major goal for me in this, my first season. After crashing out of the Tour of Austin and spending the following month barely training while my bike was being mended, I assumed I was not in top condition and finishing at all seemed like a long shot. So little was I thinking about the podium that I did not even muster up the energy to warm up more than the ride to the start line, but sometimes things just work out. I am not one for wet and windy descents so I lost postion on all the downhills, but my 130 lb frame easily caught back up when the road leveled out or pointed upwards. It was clear to me from the start that of all the pack, my former teammates Cody foster and Zach Bergh would be the ones to beat so I stuck to them like white on rice. But in the one instant I was not with Cody or Zach, Cody’s wheel slipped on a white line and the two were down in a flash.

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It’s inevitable as the season draws to a close for most cyclist and triathletes we immediately start looking toward next year and how we’ll do things differently to get better results and reach new levels of personal performance. As coaches we also start reviewing the efficacy of the current season’s training, identifying areas of success and areas in which we feel the athlete could gain that extra advantage next season.

A lot of athletes start asking about gear for the next season. Spurred on by the excitement of new equipment, this bike or that, a new set of wheels or maybe, finally, a power meter (since if you’re a DT athlete there’s no better group to train you with power), racing flats, GPS units, there are always new purchases to be made and budgeting for those is important but is that the best budgeting you can do?

As you start to think about next season, think about the most important budgeting you can do and that’s the budgeting of your recovery, most importantly your sleep. It’s a busy world we live in, family, jobs, social commitments and of course our driven self nature that pushes us to be the best we can be as athletes. A lot of time these priorities start to collide and something has to give, my advice to you practice budgeting for your sleep and recovery, it’ll help. Here is the why and how.

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