Coaching Central

Coaching central today, a fair bit to get through, but we got there in the end.

On today's agenda there was a call to a couple of my athletes up in Singapore, writing 5 programs for athletes and also touching base with an athlete who did their first Olympic Distance triathlon today. Sounds busy just writing it, and it kind of was.

All up I was satisfied with how the day unfolded though. One thing I really don't like when I am coaching is being rushed. I like feeling like I can give every athlete the time that they deserve and if I am in a rush I don't feel I can do that. My big worry today was that I was going to run out of time to do the programs justice, but in the end they came together pretty easily and so I got them finished with plenty of time left for a bit of relaxing around the house. Very satisfying.

All the other elements of my coaching day went okay too. The call to my Singapore athletes was good, those guys are great value and it is always a pleasure talking to them. They have just come back from a mid season break and they are about to embark on the long journey to their first Ironman. Pretty exciting stuff. They are eager but also a little cautious, which is exactly what a first time Ironman athlete should be. They will be fine once they get going though.

The last part of my coaching day was a pretty brief part, but also quite an important one. That was debriefing an athlete after their first Olympic Distance triathlon. The race went okay for them, but they ran into some nutritional issues, particularly on the run. Basically the gels they were using didn't agree with them. Whilst that is frustrating in respect to the event, it is also exactly the sort of thing we like to see with this kind of race. For this athlete this race was really just a dress rehearsal for Busso in May and these kinds of issues are exactly the sort of thing we want to have sorted well before then. We don't want to be racing at Busso and finding out that the chosen nutrition doesn't work. Having these things go wrong in these smaller races is exactly why we do the events in the first place. In a twisted kind of way I consider discovering these issues in these preparation races as a kind of success. Now that we know this issue exists we can prepare in training and hopefully by the time the next races comes it will be all good. If not, then we still have 4 months of experimenting to go before race day in May. Any opportunity to learn is a good one.

And that was pretty much my day. There was a bit of time for some exercise and also some cuddles with the family and that was about it. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. Time for bed before getting up to do it all over again tomorrow.