An off-season training plan?

Same here... last race is over; my first 1/2IM next June. My "home-made" plan is to work smarter AND work harder:

Concentrate on running between now and EOY* .
*Army Ten Miler this weekend and Phlly 1/2M in November
** Don't gain any weight over the holidays. Heck ... loose weight over holidays.
***Groove an 8:00 pace ... muscle memory and all that.

Through December, about 3 runs +1 speed run*, 2 swims and a fun bike** .
*Once per week focus on speed with intervals or mile-repeats on fabulous Fridays.
** Get back on the mountain bike and have some fun this fall.

Figure out how to swim more efficently ... something like Total Immersion. Watch some videos and read some books to gain some knowledge for next Spring.

Get a coach after first of the year. 2007 1/2IM age group World Champ Herb Spicer has a gym/studio three blocks from work so I gotta take advantage of that.

January-March = Swimming form!!!! Including a swim camp somewhere warm? Depending on what Herb can teach me about swimming, maybe.... Oh, and the annual Costa Rica surf camp with my brother!

April - June = 14 week 1/2IM plan.

So you just do the same workouts each week? I wasn't sure if I should be "building"--volume or intensity...

I think IM is a whole different level of off-season than a 1/2IM .... and I'm only two seasons into this triathlon gig ... but yep ... I am keeping a same number of workouts at a lower level of intensity plus  focusing on two or three key things: (1) better swim form (2) some speed tools like intervals and bricks to groove an 8:00 pace for 13.1 and (3) a few key off-season events like Sea Gull Century ride and Philly and Central America surf camp so I can stay a little sharper than last year off-season.

I'm freakin' stoked hearing about your and other's first M-dot preparation, tho.

Spend one -three weeks on transition, this is the time to recover... slow runs, bikes and swims in HR zone 1 or 2...  After that spend 8-12 weeks building a good base this is the time to establish endurance, speed, and strength.  After that spend 6-8 weeks in the build phase  spend time working on race spacific things, while maintaining your endurance... After that you want to peak b4 race time.  Taper and be ready.  If you are unsure please hire a coach...  If your not carful you will over train and burn out.  If you are shooting for longer distance races like IM you don't need to train alot in LT, just maintain a good aerobic base.  For shorter races LT is important...

Everybody has a plan and for most multi-sport athl  they tend to overtrain and burnout... This is not going to help you

"if" this were me. i would do soemthing like this:

i would take 2-3 weeks away from tri training, or at least a solid 10 days with nothing tri related.

then i would slowly get back into it, and start focusing on my weakness (for me this winter its going to be the run).

build that up first, running a lot for me, and try to get the volume up high by new years. slowly add in more swimming, and the bike last. i'll hit new years looking like 6-7 runs a week, 4-5 swims, 1-2 rides

after new years structured trainer and swim workouts start instead of jsut getting the time in.
run volume will stay high.

winter offers you a good chance to make some nice gains in your weak sports by having the time to focus on them, and simply maintain the others, and make some big bike gains on low total volume through some short, hard trainer workouts (you can do a lot on three 50-70 min rides. )

dont overdo the early parts of the off season/winter training. you should be doing an amount that leaves you feeling good, not tired all the time like in season training. you want to arrive at your training plan come season time in as good of shape as possible, and this means being physicall there and mentall ready to undertake teh seasons training to come.

Does anyone have suggestions on a quality bike trainer? From what I have researched I am leaning towarrds the Kurt Kinetic Road Machine.