The Off Season
This entry was posted on 1/27/2009 7:19 AM and is filed under Training.
So...what have I been up to on the training front? I decided this year to maintain my hard earned fitness and recover from my race. My first priority has been spending time with my family. Running is easy to work around family events and travel. It really is my best investment for calorie burn and overall fitness.
Last year I had great success with making December and January my "run focus" months. I ran most every day. 2009 has had a similar focus with some rest days interspersed once every couple of weeks. So...my weeks have consisted of 6-7 days of base running. No intervals, some harder runs and some hill sprints. When commitments allow, I bike 2-3 days a week on the trainer. I swim 2-3 days per week. How does 2009 compare to 2008? 
Without going into too much boring detail, my chronic fatigue (blue line) or base has almost doubled since 2008! For a couple of training partners that have expressed concern about me not resting enough, you can see that due to holiday travel and vacation that I have had a nice block of reduced acute training load (purple line).
Why does this matter? My base fitness for 2009 is already at the same level as my base fitness IN JUNE OF 2008! This year will be a great opportunity to build upon my fitness gains of 2008. The best is yet to come.
Run, Bike, Swim, Live, Laugh, Love
