Distracted

Sorry for the late blog tonight I got caught up.

The thing I got caught up was watching the movie Deepwater Horizon. Wow, what an intense bit of a ride that was. I usually struggle to watch TV and write a blog at the best of times (and walk and chew gum) so with a fairly compelling movie to watch I had no chance.

You see my real job (the one that isn't pro triathlete or coach) is in the oil and gas industry. The safety side of it to be specific. I won't lie, I don't go offshore often, so I can hardly put myself in the shoes on the people portrayed by the movie. However, I have been offshore enough, most recently to a drill rig almost a twin of the Deepwater Horizon, to know that the movie has a distinct ring of truth to it. There were a couple of liberties taken in the movie, but there was less Hollywood to it than most people might think. Most of the people portrayed in the movie you would probably meet on a rig. The way the movie made the rig look and the events that happened on it were disturbingly realistic. Even the 'evil' company men from BP were good examples of what poor leadership can look like. All up the movie was quite uncanny and more than a little disturbing if I am honest. Sobering is the word my wife just used, which seems quite appropriate.

I don't go offshore enough to become used to the risk of it. Actually I wonder if you ever do, I will have to ask some mates of mine (Dave?). Given what I do for a living, which is try and make sure events like Deepwater Horizon don't occur, and my lack of familiarity, when I am offshore I am occasionally struck by the thoughts of what could occur. It is hard to ignore. They aren't the most comfortable thoughts when you are in the middle of the ocean, a long way from assistance. I have to say the movie hasn't really helped that feeling.

Still, a good bit of viewing and hopefully a bit educational. I have read the various investigations etc that were done into this particular incident and I still learnt some things from this movie. Whether the movie is entirely accurate or not, it is still a very informative of what an event like this would look like.

Sorry for just writing an entire blog not about triathlon, but the movie was quite fresh in my mind and it felt like a good thing to write. It is my blog and I will go on a tangent if I want too.

I will speak a little about triathlon though, just to make sure that I do. A nice bit of training/coaching today. As has been the case for the last few weeks I was down the pool helping my mate out with some swimming today. As I have said previously, the premise of our training has been sprint training, but after chatting to him last week (and watching him over the past few week) I realised that what he probably need more of is middle distance work. I am going to try and keep some sprint work in the sessions since he is after those top end speed improvements, but I think he probably needs to do more work over 200 to 400m. Those distances that are still quick, but really start to pinch. I think working over those distances will still help the top end speed, but will help him sustain it after the first 100m.

That is what we did this morning, with a particularly nasty set of 200s. I am not sure he was thanking me this morning, but hopefully he will in the long run.

No coaching tomorrow. I think I might go for a paddle instead.