I love this time of year: Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, each complete with gatherings of family and friends. Yet, all of this merry making, combined with colder temperatures, dark mornings and evenings, and busy days, comes with a price with respect to training and health.
I’m by no means an expert in overcoming these holiday hangups with training and nutrition. But, I have few key guidelines to keep in mind during the holiday offseason.
All training and no playing makes me a cranky pants.
We can’t train hard every day, all year long. Well, I guess we can if we want to invite burn out, injuries and a generally poor attitude. Hence the first axiom: All training and no playing makes me a cranky pants.
I am not a training machine, as much as I might wish to be. More importantly, however, I have, surprisingly enough, other interests beyond training for triathlon and running. Since the next major race isn’t for several months, this time of year is perfect to call your family, remind your friends that you still like them (and pray that they reciprocate), and have a chocolate chip cookie with a red wine chaser.
So, I’ve been enjoying the indulgences of offseason, rather than feeling guilty about them (well, most of the time anyway). Once the 2011 training season gets underway, time for friends, jollies and shots of jager will be cut first in half, and then by May, these will become a hazy memory, a nostalgic reminiscence, a nonexistent extravagance. Now is the time to enjoy my family and friends who will likely wonder if I’m still alive in about 3 months.
All playing with no training makes me a fat pants.
This axiom is a corollary to the first. While this time of year is great for letting loose, let loose too much and you won’t be able to loosen your pants enough to fit your growing a$@ inside of them. So, while it’s important to have fun and enjoy the cornucopia of food and drink that comes with the season, it’s also important to remember that hills hurt and speedwork can be deadly. Adding an extra 10 pounds to the mix is just asking for painful trouble.
I’m hardly suggesting that you deny yourself – goodness knows I haven’t. Between Thanksgiving and my birthday, I’ve seen the bottom of many o’ bottle of red wine, partnered with culinary treats I would even think about during training. (Hello, big fondue pot of cheese!)
Buuuutttttt, those calories don’t burn themselves off. So staying active in some way is a must. I’ve been taking advantage of this time to hone my skills in cycling and swimming. And, if you can imagine, there are other activities beyond running, cycling and swimming–scandalous, I know!
Go for a hike. Hit the slopes. What about a good old fashioned long walk?
Plan for the next season to avoid antsy pants
It’s been nice to get up in the morning and select whatever type of workout I want to do, rather than being glued to a training plan. But, at the same time, I miss the focus of structured training. I’m looking forward to getting back into it, and have started adding more sport-specific workouts back into my rotation. To avoid doing too much too quickly, and risking injury or burn out early in the season, I’ve started planning out my races, my goals, and my annual training plan. This helps me see the big picture for the 2011 season, and keeps me from doing something stupid because I’m anxious to train hard.
For example, just this past weekend, I thought about running 37 miles for my 37th birthday. Sure, this sounded like great fun–in theory. But, with the big picture in mind, I realized I couldn’t spend the time I needed to recover from a run like that, and after being injured for 7 weeks with a hamstring injury, let’s just say I might be starting to learn my lesson. No promises on that score, though.
Thanks to that same injury this offseason was about 4 weeks longer than I wanted it to be. But, I’m looking to come back stronger and faster in 2011 with “A” priority races at the Boston Marathon (April 18, 2011), Ironman Lake Placid (July 24, 2010), and the Vermont 50 (September 25, 2011).
Training gets underway in two weeks, and for that, I’ll be putting on my happy pants.
