Busy Bee

Busy busy day today. But the good sort of busy.

Today has been a coaching kind of busy. The morning started off with a session down the pool helping out my mate Sean. Usually I would swim with Sean for these session, but given the news from Dr Stobie yesterday I felt it was probably a good thing to stay dry. Still, it was quite nice to spend the session outside of the pool having a good look at what Sean was doing.

The session was a good one, or at least it seemed it from the poolside. I have noticed over the past few months that Sean seems to fade a bit over middle distance. He is deadly over 50m or 100m, but he tends to fade after about 200m. With that in mind I thought it would be good to spend some time doing some 400s, which is just what we did today.

Sean does the Wednesday morning Red Mist sessions with Paul at Swim Smooth and so I didn't want to push Sean to do another heavy Red Mist type session today. So instead today's session was a mixture of technique broken up with 400s done on descending times. I find that 400s are a great distance for people who are wanting to improve their swimming for Ironman and Half Ironman events. The distance is long enough that it pushes fitness, but it also a great distance for improving mental strength. 400s hurt if you do them hard and so when you do them you are always going to have a moment of mental doubt, that point when you aren't sure if you can pull it off. To do a 400 well you have to pace it properly and you have to push yourself. They are also a great distance for discovering just what you can do. Which is what Sean found out today.

When we started the 400s today Sean was struggling. The first one was behind the pace he was hoping for. However, as the session progressed and we kept working the 400s improved, each one quicker than the one before. That is the beauty of the distance, they hurt, but they can also help you realise just how strong you are, help you find that you can actually push on when you think you have hit your limit. There is a certain amount of self belief that comes from that.

The other coaching activities of the day included a long chat with another mate of mine Dave. Dave has been doing triathlon for a few years, but has come to Front Runner looking for some help in preparing for some races next year. I think we will be able to help Dave find some consistency in his training but I also think we will be able to help him find some improvements in all his legs, in particular his run. Really looking forward to seeing what we can do there.

The last bit of coach related chat was a really good catch up with Swim Smooth maestro Paul Newsome. The chat was really just that, catching up with a mate, but still it was a great chance to hear about some of the exciting things that are going on in the world of Swim Smooth. All I can say is watch this space, I have always been impressed by Swim Smooth and I am not expecting that to stop any time soon.

And with all that I was done for the day. Probably a good thing that I wasn't able to do any exercise today, I am not sure where I would have fitted it in.

Here's to a quiet day tomorrow.