Last night I was lulled into a false sense of security. When I was heading to bed it just wasn't that cold. I figured when I woke up this morning it would be the same. Chilly but not freezing.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Turns out that wearing shorts down to coaching at Claremont pool was probably the wrong call too.
When I got to the pool this morning my car said it was about 10 degrees. I am not sure I believe it though as it sure felt a darn sight colder. Despite wearing shorts I was glad that I had had a moment of senstible clarity and had grabbed my warmest jacket at least. That is probably the only reason I made it out of the coaching session alive. Probably.
By the end of the session I wasn't quite shivering, but I was pretty close. Chilly enough to really be wishing I was warmer. Turns out you don't just learn about coaching when you are helping somebody coach. Sometimes you learn about common sense dress too. Handy.
The session itself was a nice classic Red Mist session. A few 500s, a few 300s and a nice tasty 1000m thrown in the middle. The tricky bit of the session (other than a 1000m effort) was having to ramp up for the 1000m, then slow down for a steady 300m, before gradually building back up over another 2 x 300m. A lot of people in the squad found that they switched off after the 1000m and struggled to bring themselves back into focus for the 3 x 300m. Slowing down and then having to regroup and speed up again is harder than it sounds. Particularly after 4000m of swimming.
Getting yourself back into gear and finding the will and the energy to push on after the fatigue of a 1000m effort is where the value of these Red Mist sessions really lie though. Getting people to push themselves at the pointy end of fatigue is just the sort of work that people training for Half Ironman and Ironman need. It is not something you want to be doing every session, but I think it is something that real benefit when done regularly. I also think it is something that a lot of triathletes don't do enough of with swimming. Pushing into the discomfort and settling in there, finding a nice comfy little nest and learning to be at home. I think becoming familiar with that discomfort is important for Ironman length races in particular, but too often triathletes take the easy option when it comes to swim training, not doing enough distance, or doing distance but not enough work.
Not the case for the Swim Smooth squad this morning, plenty of distance and work happening there.
That is about all I have for today, but before I finish up, just a quick note. I am doing a bit of travel for work over the next couple of days so I am not sure how online I am going to be. If I don't managed to get online much, not to fret, I will be back posting by next Tuesday at the latest.
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