New Year, New Beginnings

At the end of the year I always follow the same trend. Relax and reflect on the season that has past. Detox the body. Then eat all I can over the holidays. Then begin anew. I have tried many diet plans over the years and had successes with some variations. I perform best when in a plan, so I enjoy the structure of a diet. I am going to at the suggestion of my coach try the paleo diet next week as I begin my new training season.
Essentially the principals are eat as a hunter gather. Lean meats, fruits and veggies. The version for Athletes gives a few more specifics for pre and post workouts. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Off season "Brick"

As with any off season workouts, I always try to break the normal routine. Make the workouts a bit more exciting than the usual we do during our regular season. I read about an interesting Brick in Triathlete Magazine it was a swim run brick, with the run being done in the deep water section of the pool.
Now I understand that many health clubs that athletes train at do not have deep water sections, but if you have access during the off season, I highly recommend. As triathletes we are always concerned with the pounding that running places on our bodies. Deep water simulated running offers an alternative to this. Using a floatation belt, you are "floating" with essentially you head and neck above water, and arms and legs below water.
I began with a swim warm up, and then some drills. After I did swim sets, of 400M. Then did "run" sprints for the equivalent of 400M, or about 2 minutes. Then repeated.
There were other suggested workouts in the magazine, but I believe that any combination based on your skill and goal races would help make a fun way to get in some extra pool time.

Pacing

I found a great new site that is a definite help to improving your run times. Knowing what pace to run and or train at, does not have to be guess work. Go to Running Calculator and plug in the info you have. This should be a great addition to your workouts!

Virtual Training

I had always been interested and intrigued by the idea of the CompuTrainer. For those of us in areas where winter can interupt our riding season, countless boring hours on a trainer, can lead one into a deep depression. While I admit spin class, and videos such as those offered by Spinnervals can be fun there is still something missing.

So I purchased and have begun using the CompuTrainer, and can say nothing but wonderful things. If you have not had an experience, get to a local center or a coach who has one and give it a try. It provides an athlete with hundreds of courses from actual IronMan and USAT races. So instead of saying to yourself, I will do hill repeats, you can actually select a program. I would have loved to have ridden Wisconsin before last years race. Now I can. This morning, with snow falling in the northeast I began prep for my frist race of the season and rode the Olympic course at Columbia, Md.
Other than actual races, I was astonished by the amount of data provided to a rider. I was able to receive data on my watts, HR, speed, cadance. Plus this data can then be imported into Training Peaks and or Cycling Peaks which are two of the most popular ways to keep a log and analysis throughout the year.
To an athlete I intend to use the system to keep bench marks on progress. Unlike riding outside, all outside factors can be controlled. No stopping for cars, not traffic lights, no weather changes. This will allow us to see, how we are actually progressing. A ten mile time trial will be just that, and we will print and save the data to mark our progress and make changes accordingly.
In addition to all of these advantages, it is honestly quite fun. Though I felt like the old arcade game Paperboy sans newpapers. So, my recommedation to you is, find a bike shop, coach or fitness center with a Computrainer or similar virtual riding device and give it a try this off season.