ironguides

Following up Steve’s great article about planning ahead for off-season, apart from doing some x-training, one way to keep some fitness and yet have a mental and physical break, is to set some fun challenges to be done by your self, with your family, training buddies and at special places and times.

Those events have nothing to do with fitness, training or performance, it is all about having fun with special people, at a special time of the year doing what you truly enjoy. Celebrating the reason why you first started doing triathlons

Christmas and New Years Eve are very special dates for most of us, so why not go beyond the traditional turkey and champagne? Just make sure to schedule them a few days before/after the actual date, as your family and friends who are not involved in the sport is priority in the off-season and you don’t want to be the “sporty freak” that spent your X-mas day in the pool!

Here are some ideas for each discipline

• Swim: 100x100 -- If you are a beginner triathlete, invite some training buddies and do a relay, each swimmer can do 25x100.

• Bike: Pursuits at a velodrome or short out and back road -- Do this with a friend or even as two teams. Each athlete (or team) starts at one point of the course, whoever catches the other athlete wins!

• Run: Chocolate milk mile -- This is a healthier version of the beer mile challenge. Each competitor drinks four glasses of milk and runs four laps on a track (Start - milk/lap, milk/lap, milk/lap, milk/lap - finish) – Whoever has the best time, wins!

One other fun idea is to o something that triathletes are generally terrible at. How about a soccer game with your training buddies? Or a Push up / Pull up challenge? Swim kicking race?

If you have worked hard enough all year, you deserve a bit of a down break to relax, evaluate your season, relax and think what this sport is all about.

Have fun!

Vinnie