What is the best way to maximize offseason training and set yourself up for success in the coming year? Mike Ricci, founder and head coach at D3 Multisport and After 40 Reboot, joins the CoachCast this month to talk all things triathlon offseason. Mike shares several tips that any athlete can do to take the offseason into race season with more momentum.
One main point Mike talks about is the power of writing down goals. He references a study conducted at Harvard in the early 1980s, where they found that students who wrote down their goals made significantly more money than those who only thought about them or didn’t write them down at all — highlighting the importance of setting tangible goals and recording them to increase the likelihood of success.
With over 20 years of coaching experience, Mike has worked with IRONMAN age group winners and national champions. He believes in working on weaknesses during the offseason to set up the coming season of success. From goal setting to blood testing to strength and mobility programming, Mike and Dirk discuss how small adjustments to your training routine during this time can lead to significant improvements.
Standout Quotes
“The offseason means fixing or proving all the things we’re weak at. So the low-hanging fruit to me is always mobility, blood analysis, and strength. Those three things you can do without swimming another yard, running another mile, or one more pedal stroke on the bike.”
“I love to see triathletes get out on the trails whether it’s gravel or mountain bike. And not to get hurt, but just to do something different, and get a little hand-eye coordination…”
Other opportunities to work on in the offseason: “A lot of instances, at least in my experience, we have a lot of athletes that undereat sometimes that don’t realize, you know, what a big effort actually takes in terms of carbohydrates and calories and hydration, sodium, and all those different things.”
If you look at the physiology of speed work and intervals and all that stuff, you peak probably at the max at 12 weeks. It’s like a six to 12-week block. Aerobic is longer. Anaerobic is shorter. So, if you peak in those 12 weeks after that race, we’re not doing intervals for a couple of weeks. We’re just going to go ride, go run and ride easy — just chill out. Then, our bodies recover from that. Then, we can start the next block. But for people to do, and I see this all the time, do 20 weeks of intervals and then wonder why they get hurt, it’s mind-boggling.
