Fun Things to do in the Offseason

Hi! Oh, hey there! I made this list a few days after my last triathlon of 2013. It’s a few things I want to do during my offseason. Some of the items include workouts, a lot of it includes good food, and all of the items involve some time and planning, which are often neglected when I’m balancing 20 hour training weeks and big races. I realize the offseason should be a time to unwind and creating one more “to do” list kind of defeats that purpose, but I didn’t want the weeks to fly by and January to come around thinking, “why didn’t I plan X when I had the time.” So, here’s my list.

1.   Take a cooking class – I attended a Farmer’s Market class at The Pantry.

2.   Ballard Brewery Tour.

3.   Woodinville Wine Tasting – I went with 2 teammates, not far from where we do a lot of our bike training.

4.   Visit Capitol Hill Bakery Nouveau – the West Seattle location is a diva favorite, but I still have yet to visit the one on Cap Hill.

5.   Plan a fall run and brunch with training partners – I went for a beautiful fall 10 miler with teammates Sydnie and Sarah followed by brunch at my house with other training partners and lots of laughs.

6.   Read 4 new books – I’m 1 down, 3 to go.

7.   Start a new TV series with Sydnie (best friend and across the hall neighbor) – Sydnie and I have started House of Cards.

8.   Attend the Seattle Men’s chorus Christmas concert, which is an annual favorite.

9.   Plan a trip to Bellingham.

10. Go to dim sum in the International District.

Cooking class at Delancey, friends at the Mustache Dache 5k, home improvement work & a chance to wear the poor fitting IM hats

 

Some not so fun things that I’ve been doing:

1.  Home improvement projects – currently in the mix of painting my condo.

2.  Getting sick – I spent 3 days in bed last week with the flu and I have a newly sore throat. This time of year, my immune system takes a little break and I find myself forced to slow my roll.

And some not so offseason things I’ve been doing:

1.  A few shorter run workouts for XC Nationals.

2.  I ran (and won, which was a total surprise!) a 5k on Saturday. This was the second year in a row that my friends and I ran the Mustache Dache 5k. It’s a really fun event for a great cause.

3.  Getting up early for Masters swim workouts on days I don’t feel sick (I didn’t swim at all last week) and I’ve also been doing this ab routine by the amazing Dr. Lesko.

I’m trying to strike the right balance of being lazy when I can (my bike workouts don’t last much longer than an episode or two of Dexter), but not a total sloth. I’m also making sure I eat well, visit a sports medicine doctor/massage therapist, and do a fair amount of foam rolling and stretching. Tuesday I found myself trying to schedule out the week with weight training and swim and bike and run workouts. But I caught myself and was reminded that there aren’t many months during the year when I get to shower and get ready at home or go home right after work, instead of heading to the gym. So I gave myself the day completely off on Wednesday and enjoyed sleeping in. And then I did some painting after work and read until I fell asleep. The routine of going from workout 1 to work to workout 2 to bed is exhausting several months out of the year, so I need to make sure I try and stay away from that until training officially starts again in January. Besides, I have a lot of other fun things planned until then.

What else can I add to my lists or what do you enjoy doing in the offseason?

All the Best,
Cathleen