The main topic of this week's episode is why the off-season may actually be the most important season of all. We discuss what chronic stress does to our bodies, how to shift our training focus from fitness to wellness, the magic of Zone 1, three levels of recovery and their varied time horizons, what happens if you don't respect the off-season, and a whole lot more. We also share additional insights from Ironman Lake Placid and Sea to Summit, answer a great listener question about how to get into triathlon as a brand-new beginner, and introduce two new sort-of-joking segments that seem to come up in every single one of our podcasts: the "Ironman is hard" segment and the "eat our words" segment. Enjoy!

View extended show notes for this episode here.

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