Busselton Ironman 2019

It occurs to me that I have really written about how Busso went for my athletes. Given the race was nearly three weeks ago, I thought I should probably get on to that.

In a nutshell, my athletes ranged from happyish to very happy, which as a coach is all you are really going for.

For the athletes who were just happyish, most of the issues were time related, basically hoping that they would go faster. When it comes to discussions about time, there is conversation to be had about whether athletes are adequately prepared. It is a difficult conversation to have with athletes, but sometimes they simply aren't as fit as they could be, or have been. When that happens there can be an unrealistic expectation of performance, which can be difficult to temper as a coach.

While a lack of fitness and form can be a contributing factor to a disappointing performance, I don't think it was the case for my athletes this time around, I think they were sufficiently prepared to achieve their goals. Similarly the races went mostly to plan in terms of nutrition, hydration etc. Rather I think the disappointing times were probably more due to environmental factors. Race day was pretty warm, which can certainly be a factor, particularly on the run. There was a bit of wind, which can be a factor on the bike. And the December Busso course is simply tougher than people give it credit for (I think the bike is a little slower than the May version), which means people sometimes expect to go quicker than is realistic. Given these factors I think these athletes did pretty well, whether they realise it or not. That isn't to say these athletes were disappointed with their days, they were generally happy, but just not quite as happy as they could have been.

Oh course not all the athletes were just happyish, some of them were actually happy. The athletes that came out of the day with big smiles didn't necessarily have amazing days, but their performances were more in line with their expectations, which helps a lot. One athlete in particular was happy which was Dan, who completed his first full Ironman. He was pretty stoked with that, and I have to say I was too.

As a coach I go into a race with one simple goal, get everyone to the finish line in a manner that they are satisfied with. Their goals might be a PB, or a podium or just reaching the finish line. My job is to try and help them reach that goal. We didn't achieve 100% goal attainment at Busso for all my athletes, which is a little disappointing. However, I had a 100% completion rate for the day and generally the athletes were happy with how the day went. I am going to call that a success.