Off season is a great time to allow your body recover from a busy season of running. This doesn’t mean sitting in front of the fire watching TV (well not all of the time anyway!). It’s all about getting your body prepared and injury free for your big challenges next year.
Here are our tips for off-season training.
Rest and Listen to your body
If you picked up an injury during the race season, now is a good time to go to a physical therapist, physiotherapist or chiropractor to resolve the underlining cause of the injury. If your body is sore and tired give it a well-deserved rest. A few weeks rest now could be the different of staying injury free for the whole race season.
Focus on Strength and Flexibility
Signing up for a course of yoga or pilates can help gain strength, flexibility, balance and body awareness, as well as reduce back pain or other general pains.
Cross Train
It is wise to take a break from long distance running for a few weeks or months every now and then to give your running muscles time to recover. Cross training keeps up your fitness and works different muscles.
Swimming- builds aerobic fitness, increase lung capacity, works arms and legs. Can train at a high intensity with less risk of injury.
Cycling- builds strength in the quads, hamstrings and glutes. Less stress upon the body compared to running.
Speed Work
Doing short interval runs can help increase your speed. Also taking part in 5k races can help develop speed.
Stretch and Foam Roll.
Having a stretching and foam rolling routine is critical in both off season and in race season. Foam roller has many benefits including giving tired muscles a deep tissue massage and decrease muscle tension. Stretching increase flexibility.
Make sure to enjoy your down-time before you start to emerge in the Spring fully refreshed and ready to get fighting-fit for Run Killarney 2018!
Run Killarney 10km and half marathon takes place on Saturday 18th July 2020, you can register here now for the early bird price until the end of January.
