Posts Tagged ‘offseason training’

Ski Weekend as Ironman Training

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Last weekend Sam and I headed up north with some friends to Bretton Woods for a ski trip.

One of my favorite things about heading up to northern New Hampshire is the scenery. Driving through Crawford Notch with huge mountains on either side so high that you have to crane your neck just to see a slice of sky is so inspiring. We even saw some ice climbers out on Sunday morning off to conquer some frozen water falls. SICK!

Bretton Woods is right in the shadow of Mount Washington and is right at the end of the killer 90 mile/4 mountain pass bike ride that I’ve done the last two springs with my team’s training weekend. Just driving that route and thinking about doing it again makes me smile.

But back to snowboarding….

Given that I average (at best) one trip up to the mountain per year, I definitely wouldn’t call myself an “expert” but I’m definitely good enough to have a blast ripping up the mountain. Doing that just sometimes involves getting a butt full of snow…

We even each got a roll of mentos and decided to film our own “freshmaker” commercial while jumping over this fallen tree. Pretty cheesy. Pretty hilarious.

YouTube Preview Image

I’ll try and post a fully edited version with music later this week.

There is also a second video of us ducking under the other side of the tree and popping out the other side. I think I caught a branch or something and took a digger, but still came up smiling with the roll of mentos in my teeth. GOLDEN! Once I find out where that video is, I’ll try to share that too.

Last post, I joked about logging both days in Training Peaks. NOT joking about it anymore. After two days of snowboarding pretty challenging (for me) runs, my entire legs are torn up and I love it!

This whole ironman training thing can be pretty fun if you let it…

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Purposeful Nothingness

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the offseason.

The fun part is that I’m taking it just as seriously as my mid-season peak training. After Timberman and then cramming in lots of run training for Ragnar, I was pretty beat up and worn out. During August and September, I was itching to race every single weekend. It is all I wanted to do: beat up my body and challenge the clock.

Now, things couldn’t be any more opposite. I barely have any motivation to work out, and I love it. I’m milking every single day of it. Normally my schedule outside of work is filled with lots of swimbikerun. Now it is filled with lots of yoga, napping, cooking (I’m testing out some new pie, cookie and soup recipes) pumpkin carving and spending some quality time around the house with Sam.

I was planning on doing some cyclocross racing this fall, but decided to save up my training mojo to hit the ground hard training for next year’s tri season. That will start back up again next month. Without ‘cross, the last time I was actually on my bike was to ride to the bar last Thursday night to hang out with my triathlon team. It was perfect and I had a blast cruising through Cambridge on my cyclocross bike at night and catching up with some great company.

bike bar

Here are the pumkins that Sam and I carved last night.

pumpkin carving

So these are my goals for the offseason before I get back in to base training next month.

  • Work out when I want to, never when I don’t
  • Stretch, sleep and do yoga to stay rested, relaxed and loose
  • Fully replenish my training mojo tank for 2010
  • Maybe gain a few pounds (Sam has been complaining that I got too lean this season and I’m not as good to cuddle with.)
  • Have fun playing outside doing things other than swimbikerun

What are your offseason plans? I wanna hear ‘em!

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Tags: | Posted in Life, Training Log, Triathlon | 4 Comments »