Triathlon - Time off and off-season

I just completed my last (olympic) race of my first season. Overall, It was a pretty good summer. With the exception of not learning to swim in a straight line, I was able to meet all of my goals. I began training in May this year, and I am looking forward to seeing what improvements I can make starting six months or so earlier.

I was wondering how much time I should take off before resuming training, how to jump back into things the right way, and how I should structure my off-season training. One thing I would like to focus on is strength training, which I neglected almost entirely this year. I have a fear of weights because I have injured myself a few times with them (the main reason I am interested in using them is to avoid injury). A friend of mine let me borrow P90x and I was wondering if that might be a worthwhile investment. It looks like it requires a considerable time commitment. Perhaps some of you have realized success with other, less weight-oriented strength training programs.

Thanks for you input!

you might want to at least keep fit (as in no time off at all), and since you are doing olympics, you might start looking up half and full ironmans. These will require a long base. If you are using a tri bike, use a road bike for a while. have fun,

I start training for next year the monday after my last race. Spin classes, long runs, find something to focus on and focus on it (like swimming drills). Helps you build up your weaknesses for next year. You can take some time off of course, but I wouldn't take any breaks longer than a week or 2.

Start bilateral breathing, it'll help you swim straighter. I speak from experience.
Best of luck with your other training.

Barchettaman--

This is good advice. The irony is I use bilateral breathing exclusively when training. Somehow when race day comes, my dominant right side takes over. I feel like I need more air in the open water (and in a race situation) and breathe every other stroke instead of every three. Another problem (that I never experience in the pool) is that I tend to drink lake water on my left side, which slows me down considerably. In my last race, I swam straight as an arrow for the first two thirds of the course. In the last third, my form deteriorated to the point where the dominant side breathing really led me off course (and into a huge time deficit). Let me know if you have any suggestions for improving bilateral breathing for open water.

Thanks!

Try rotating your body more along its vertical axis, so you don't 'reach' for the air by pulling your head up and out, rather the rotation of the body brings your head out of the water and the breath happens by itself.
Make sure you're not lifting your head - I try and look straight down/slightly behind, and then over my shoulder at the moment of breath. Try to imagine you 're keeping a tennis ball between your chin and chest, that'll keep the noggin down.

Easier to do than to write about.

I never, ever, used to breathe to my right side, but since I started to swim with more rotation and a better head position it's just come completely naturally.

Hope this helps. I am in no way a swim coach so anyone else feel free to chime in and correct - all I can suggest is what has worked for me.

Cheers
Simon