Off Season Training!
Happy Monday friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I enjoyed the cool weather as much as I could and spent plenty of time with loved ones. The weather seems to have warmed up again but that’s typical Texas weather. I wanted to stop by today and share a bit of what I’m doing during the off season.
I’m currently not training for any races. In fact, I’m actually working on strength work more than anything. Yes, I do run weekly and I have been focusing a bit on hill training and speed work. However, I’m not really following a plan. The main reason for this is because I’m waiting to see if I made it into the New York City Marathon! I have a plan if I make it and I have a plan if I don’t. While I won’t got into all the details yet, what I’m currently working on will make sense once I have that answer!
Randomly signing up for races does not get my motivated at all. In fact, it actually makes me hate running. If that works for you, that’s great! I think I will focus on one or two goal races per year and tailor my training towards that. Since I don’t really have the answer as to what I’m chasing, building strength is key for me.
Weight lifting tends to take the backseat when I’m doing high mile weeks. I truly love weight lifting and just the feeling I get from those workouts. Being able to spend more time at the gym and seeing improvement in my strength in a month is really freaking motivating. Having friends that show up and push me also helps. Trust me, it’s not always easy to head to the gym at 5am on a Monday morning but I do it! Sure, weight lifting doesn’t replace an hour or two of running but it keeps me from completely losing my fitness.
Another thing I’ve been working on during the off season is new methods of movement. Cycling is always a great way to get a sweat in. When I’m in the middle of a training cycle, I tend to go for more metrics or endurance rides. However during the off season, you can easily catch me doing choreography and live DJ classes. Speaking of which, I’ve also started doing dance classes in place of cardio! It’s helping me get out of my bubble and just have fun. Having the extra time to do this now has been great mentally and physically.
Basically, off season training looks a lot like having fun for me. Yes, I still get my workouts in but some days it’s a dance class and other days it looks like up leveling moves in yoga class. I may even try a Zumba class with a friend soon! I’ll have an answer by the end of the month on whether or not I made it into the NYC marathon. Until then, I’m having fun!
Are you currently training for a race? What does your off season training look like?
