Post 70.3 maintenance plan

As easy as it sounds.....

take a few days off, then just do casual swim/bike/run for a few weeks. You will lose your "peak" level of fitness, but that cannot be maintained, just keep the aerobic engine going. Fall is a good time for mountain biking, cyclocross, or shorter running events (5k/10k, trail runs, etc)

Do you have any races set for 2016? Was this your last race for 2016?

Thanks Ben, I'm in Aus, so we're just in Spring. I'm keeping my eyes open for another, but meantime I'll keep turning things over. What about volume in week 1,2 post 70.3?

Ha ha in same situation here. I thought about taking time totally off swim/bike/run but then realized I don't actually have anything else to do after work here other than watch TV or read, I'm not really a couch person, and I'd go nuts just doing weights and yoga or something (or, God forbid, might end up taking up Crossfit just to work off energy!). Just doing fun stuff and avoiding what I find difficult to get motivated for unless actually training for a race (early AM trainer rides, long runs in the heat, run speed work). I always swim about 3X a week, even during "off" season. It's a nice break from the heat and always makes me feel better physically and mentally. But I tend to go for workouts with more variety and fewer of those long freestyle sets at threshold pace that HIM plans seem to feature. Sometimes I do the kids' club workouts just for kicks. I like swimming fly and IM so I do a lot of it when not training for an actual race, or just do random workouts. (Box of Sara McLarty's masters' workouts. I close my eyes, take one, if I don't like it, I take another until I find something I want to do. All are similar total distance/pace.)

If you have access to other sports or outdoor activities, then it's a great time for that--hiking, kayaking, bike touring, etc. Sadly, I really don't most of the time, so it's pretty much just the more enjoyable aspects of swim, bike, and run for me. In some other years, I have wanted a bit more structure and so have focused in the off-season on just one event while putting the others on the back burner (i.e. training for a December HM while just doing maintenance with bike and swim or doing Jorge's bike program with just maintenance for run and swim).

Just realized that depending on your season plans this may be more of a HIM recovery or shorter mid-season break plan than a true off-season. I did two HIM two months apart this year.... What worked for me was a week off of pretty much anything except a couple of easy recovery-type swims (at any rate I'd been sick on race week so really wasn't up to much the following week), then another week of daily 30-40 minute easy efforts at swim, bike, or run--no doubles, no longer stuff, no speed work. The following week (I think), I think I went back and did the first week of a two-week taper, which had a bit of intensity but only about 2/3 of my peak volume. Then I did four more peak weeks before a one-week taper for the next race. This worked well as I was able to do a PB at the second race.

After the second one, I think I made the mistake of getting back to running too soon. I "ran" three and six days after--easy efforts but felt pretty hideous. In retrospect should have just stayed in the pool that week! It was weird--I wasn't sore at all beyond the second day after the race, and would feel fine until I started running. So clearly wasn't as "recovered" as I thought I was!