One Small Step

Tomorrow coaching starts for 2018, beginning with a morning down at Claremont Pool helping out with at the Swim Smooth Red Mist session.

The session tomorrow is always a bit of a tough one. Even though the Red Mist session isn't usually the first swim of the year, there is something special about the first Wednesday swim of the year. The first Red Mist session can be a bit of a rude shock after a week break from squad swimming and perhaps a few days of overindulgence in food and drink. Even if the body is willing and capable, often the mind has a few questions. I suspect the session tomorrow will be no different.

The session tomorrow is a fairly classic example of a Red Mist set, a good mixture of distances and intensities with some proper long efforts thrown in for good measure. Without being over dramatic it will definitely be testing for everyone.

While it will be a bit of a shock to the system, this challenge is of course exactly why people come to the Red Mist session. The makeup of the squad is a bit different at this time of year, with more long distance swimmers and less triathletes, but they are all there for one thing, a challenging long distance swim session.

Even for the triathletes, it is never a bad idea to get back into the habit of training. For many triathletes in the squad this week will be the first week of earnest training following on from Ironman WA. Given that it is important that they get back into the routine of consistent training. For many of the triathletes the next race is Busselton Half Ironman, and it is tempting to be complacent because the race is 4 months away. However, as  I have discussed before, real improvement in sport comes from diligent and consistent practice. The race isn't for a long while, however, the work done now won't be race preparation, rather the work done now will set the foundation on which the race preparation can be built in a couple of months time.

For those looking to push the boundaries and drive improvement in 2018, this period is where the real work needs to happen. It doesn't have to be spectacular, or earth shattering, it just needs to be. That is really all there is to it. Just do the work, day in, day out, no excuses, no short cuts, just getting on with it. That work has to start sometime and for a bunch of Perth triathletes, sometime is tomorrow. It may not be pretty, but it will be an important first step.

It may only be one step, but anyone who takes that step will be miles ahead of those that don't.