Jammed Pack

Another busy day of coaching today, the last one for the week.

Coaching today was a multi-pronged affair.

The first part of my coaching day was a chilly trip down to Fremantle Pool (air temperature of 5 degrees) for a bit of an easy swim and coaching with a mate. Given my restrictions with exercise at the moment, I don't really swim, but rather do some kick with fins on. I find that I can kick along with fins quite happily with a low heart rate while my mate swims. It is a nice way to spend some time in the water, plus it is a great way to keep an eye on what my mate is doing, taking splits, having a look underwater and just generally coaching along.

The second part of my day was an hour or so spent doing a bit of 1-2-1 cycle coaching. I am hardly a cycling expert, but I have done enough to be dangerous.

The session was actually heaps of fun. The person I was coaching is quite new to cycling and so really just needs to build some confidence, the basics of what they are doing is fine. The session covered a bit of general information about gear use, brake use, pedaling technique and just cycling in general. We did a bit of work on the Kickr before heading out for a ride around Wembley talking about how to ride safely on the road. The last bit of the session was spent doing some skills work in a car park, cornering, emergency stops, low speed riding in circles, one handed riding, that sort of thing. I think it went pretty well and I hope the person doing the session felt so too. I got the impression they learnt a bit, which is exactly the point of the session. If nothing else it was fun to do something a little new.

The last part of my coaching day was a catch up with one of my new athletes. This was a great chance to talk through how their first two weeks of training have been going, what has worked, what hasn't etc. Mainly though it was a great chance to sit down and chat for an hour. So far the training seems to be going quite well, so the chat was mainly social. However, in case the training isn't going well these regular catch ups are a way to make sure any issues can be headed off before they escalate to an injury and also to ensure the training is optimized. The catch ups are one of my favourite bits of coaching at the moment.

Other than the coaching the rest of the day was spent hanging out with family and friends and just generally relaxing.

Busy day for sure, but a very satisfying one, filled with new and interesting experiences. Looking forward to a slightly more relaxing day tomorrow.