I am often asked what a triathlete should be doing during these long and dark winter months.  How will their actions or inactions affect their upcoming racing season?  In many ways these months are crucial to the racing season that is just around the corner.  The preparation that begins even before you put on your running shoes or pull on your swim cap or bike helmet goes a long way to ensure that you can perform to your best and thus have the most fun.

We know about the triathlon training benefit that comes out of periodization of training disciplines.  Still, even as you balance the three disciplines of triathlon, you must pay attention to your overall exercise exertion and pre-season and off-season preparation. 

There have been studies involving the NCAA that demonstrate that year round training leads to a much greater incidence of injuries, particularly the overuse injuries that are the bane of a triathlete’s season.  It is thus best to segment an athlete’s year into categories such as pre-season, season, post season, and off-season.  Each of these categories has their own tasks and related responsibilities. One cannot face all 12 months with the same attacking drive as during mid season training.  Otherwise you risk the premature termination of racing due to injury.

We are presently in the off-season and you should be preparing for the pre-season period.  The pre-season should be devoted to increasing your aerobic foundation and exposing your body to a gradually increasing physiologic stress.  This will allow you to explode into your season at full speed.  To enable you to perform successfully in the pre-season you have to be primed in the off-season.  Maintaining a base is helpful, but not at the expense of a period of true downtime in which your body is given time off of the physiologic loads imposed upon it through the practice of the three disciplines of swimming, biking and running.  This does not mean that you should be sitting on the couch and allowing dust to gather on your gear.  There is plenty that can be done in remaining active.  One very important component is working toward gaining and maintaining functional flexibility through stretching.

The off-season goal of stretching, which can continue into the pre-season and season periods, is focused toward injury prevention by improving range of motion.  Your joints require a range of motion to permit the body to accomplish the tasks of swimming, running, or biking.  This functional range of motion can be maximized to increase efficiency and minimize injury.  The goal is to ensure that while on the bike the muscles of the leg and pelvic girdle, particularly the quadriceps, gluteus and adductors, allow maximum force creation while permitting a comfortable aero position.  While in the water, your goal is to maintain sufficient flexibility of your shoulder girdle.  This will enable an efficient stroke without resistance from a stiff shoulder joint due to non-pliable soft tissues.  This flexibility will ensure that the musculature of the shoulder generates power in the stroke and not just power to maintain stability of the joint.  While running your goal is to have sufficient flexibility particularly in your quadriceps and hamstrings.  This ensures a full efficient stride length with full extension while maintaining muscular tension to provide muscular rebound.

There have been recent reports questioning the use of isolated static stretching.  These claims have been associated with laboratory measurements that demonstrated a possible temporary reduction of muscle power after holding a stretch.  These studies have been criticized for a number of reasons; one being that the artificial laboratory test environment does not represent the real world environment.  Additionally, a warm up before a stretching regimen is believed to counteract any negative effect created by the stretching event, and thus the muscles will be able to work with full force.  Stretching should be a part of an integrated program with a warm-up.  Dynamic stretching can also be an aid toward increasing functional flexibility.  Either way, there are new thoughts on the approach to stretching.  The old era of cold, prolonged, static stretching does not appear to be of great benefit.  Static stretching following a warm-up or along with dynamic stretching appears to be the most effective approach toward achieving functional flexibility.

Obtaining or maintaining functional flexibility should be an important component of your off-season program.  This flexibility program pairs with light discipline specific training, light weight training and core strengthening.  This move toward functional flexibility will help lay the foundation to enable you to progress into your pre-season regimen and have a successful, fun, and injury free race season.

Written by Andrew Haas MD - Orthopedic Associates of Stamford