Random topics

Going to be a bit of a rambling post tonight. A stream of consciousness if you like. No apologies, it is my blog and I will write it how I want too, so here we go.

I am currently looking out my window and it would appear that the autumn that we haven't been having is about to hit, potentially with a bit of a vengeance. The forecast is for wild and woolly weather this afternoon and tomorrow morning, and so far it looks like that forecast may well come true. This weather could make the track session I am about to coach and the swim session that I am coaching in the morning rather interesting. Hopefully people turn up. I am pretty sure they will for the pool, I mean what does rain mean, you are going to get more wet? The track session this afternoon will be a bit more questionable though, there might be a few interesting excuses floating around. I guess we will see just how keen people are. Still undecided if my run will take place on the treadmill or outside, but I suspect I will try my luck with running outside. A bit of water never hurt anyone right?

Speaking of coaching, I had one of those perennial frustrating coach experiences today, an athlete really questioning the program. I am hardly a tyrannical sort of coach, I am happy to discuss the plan and take suggestions etc on board. I actively encourage suggestions if the changes are going to make training easier to fit in etc. However, when people come and question the entire philosophy behind a program it bugs me a little bit. I get I am pretty new to this and so may not have total authority, but give me some benefit of the doubt. At the very least respect that fact that you pay me to coach you and also respect the results that have come so far this season. With just over two weeks left to race day, now is perhaps not the time to be questioning the approach. The questions came from a guy who is naturally pretty questioning and so I know he doesn't mean anything by it, but it is a bit annoying having to explain yourself when you don't necessarily feel you should have to. Annoying, but deep breaths and moving on.

Last random topic for the day.

I had a good old fashion athlete induced attack of the guilts this morning. I got up to do some training today and instead decided to sleep in. I had good reasons for jumping back in bed (other than the fact that it is warm and contains my wife), but that didn't seem to placate the little guilt trigger in my brain. Even though I knew that being in bed was the best thing I still couldn't shake that feeling that I really should have gone out training. It still bugs me that I feel these little attacks of the guilts when I dare not exercise, but I suspect I will never be able to get away from it. Such is the psychology of an athlete I guess, perhaps you never grow out of it, the nagging doubt that you should be doing more, or perhaps it is just me. Anyway annoying.

My reason for not training this morning is that I am doing a paddle race this weekend and so am doing a bit of a taper this week. Paddle races are not Ironman and so I haven't bothered putting together a structured taper, but I want to do as well as I can in this race so it means giving taper at least some thought. However, my taper has definitely been a bit ad-hoc and random (like this post) and so I am sort of making it up as I go along. I am not feeling as rested as I would like for a Thursday which is why I decided to stay in bed. I think the extra rest will do the trick taper wise, and so I am happy with the decision, but still feel bad about it. For me I think the guilt comes from the fact that it was a last minute decision, if I had planned it out I suspect I would be feeling fine. I guess it just goes to show the value of having a proper plan. I will learn one of these days. Possibly.

And with that I will draw this random collection of thoughts to a close.

Time to go running in the rain.