Top tri coach Andy Bullock shares his top tips for off-season training, and says now’s the time to maximise recovery.
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220: Can you share your top advice for the off-season?
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Andy: Maximise recovery. Very little in nature flourishes all year round and this is certainly true for athletes.
Take your time to relax and let your body unwind from a hard season of racing. Make sure that when you get back to training you do so gradually, incorporating easy sessions and a good recovery routine.
What are your favourite swimming drills?
My favourite drills fit into two areas. The first is to improve body position by doing drills such as kicking on your side and six kick, one stroke, six kick (6-1-6).
The second is to improve the feeling of catch and propulsion through drills such as sculling.
What do prioritise for bike training?
Along with working on an aerobic base through long and sociable steady rides, it’s good to build strength through the winter.
This can be done by increasing the number of hills that you ride up or if you don’t have too many hills, spend a bit more time in the big ring pushing a big gear.
If you do ride up hills, remember to work your descending skills on the way back down too!
How do your running sessions change in winter?
Run sessions can move to spend a little more time working on a weakness, be it technique, strength, endurance or speed.
Running hills is again useful here as they will help you develop a strong technique (focus on running tall with high hips) and also give you a good cardiovascular workout.
For the remainder of the sessions, working at a steady effort to improve aerobic base is good.
How do you change your approach to nutrition?
Remember that everything is about balance and that the off-season coincides with Christmas, which can be a time to relax a little.
Away from this you might want to consider working on getting into good nutritional habits such as reducing the amount of processed sugars in your diet.
Also, make sure your post-training recovery nutrition is optimised, using something like milk or a recovery drink.
Is there any winter-specific training gear you cannot do without?
Warm clothing is a must for the UK winter; a warm body functions much better than a cold one!
On the bike gloves, waterproof overshoes and something to keep your ears warm is a very good start, along with a good windproof jacket.
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For run sessions some good leggings and a base layer that will help keep your upper body warm.