Tri Coach training Day 2 and 3

Well day 2 and 3 went fairly well, lots of good information. the presenters during this session were not as exciting in their approach but the info was great. My attitude could also have something to do with the fact that I was out drinking with a group of the other students the night before, so the morning was a struggle to stay focused. So it didn't help to have a monotone talker. But after some coffee I was good to go!

Here are some Highlights:

Saturday, March 28

Communication, Ethics and Risk Management ( ie Dont get sued!!)
Yep Pretty much how not to get sued and how to protect yourself if you do get sued. IE health forms, training logs etc record what you said

Sports Psychology & Mental Skills

Real interesting. Made a statement that 90% of athletes do better in practice than they do in the actual race or event. This is due purely to how the race stress affects their performance. Made mention that its good to play music when running but not always. there is a mental battle played out on a competitive race that an athlete needs to know how to win. If they are always distracted or need music to motivate themselves then they have not fully been traininging for the race. Not against using music at all but said there should be certain workouts that as a coach we make sure the athlete is not using it Like during race simulators.


Periodization and Planning-Practical Application

Repeat of the prior days work only we got together to build a training plan for a sample athlete. This was good except They used an Elite Athlete for teh example, which doesnt make sense sinse Level 1 coaching does not involve Elite athletes. They gave us a weekly hour range up to 25-30 hours to work with. NO Age group athlete has that kind of time. But anyhow the emphasis was make sure to combine hard workouts followed by a Recovery type workout. Example morning HARD run, should then be followed by a Swim that afternoon since swimming is less harsh on the body. We went over several different means to do a plan, But the key is Recovery needs to be built into all schedules. Improvement comes from Adaptation, adaptaion comes after stressing the muscles and then letting it rebuild and recover. If you never rest, then your body cannot fully recover. This eventually leads to OVER-TRAINING.

Other things leading to Overtraining: Too many races, too many HARD workouts, Monotonous overly repetitive training over extended periods, Stress at home and work are major contributors also.

What to do if over-trained? First get a medical checkup to rule out any medical condition, second Rest! If your race is close as in a few weeks away, then adopt a maintenance schedule to try and maintain your fitness. But you have to work in some rest. Maybe this means an extended taper. If over-trained an athlete will not Improve further but CAN lose fitness. Rest is what is needed. I specifically asked Bobby Mcgee after his session to discuss this because I have an Athlete that I just started to coach who is dealing with this. Who is Bobby McGee? He is the USA Olympic Triathlon teams Running coach and Sports Psychologist as well as a Level III tri coach. Since this athlete is training for Marathon I figured who better to ask than an Olympic Running coach :)

Running Skills and Economy Training
Went over the general skills and assessment of athletes at Running. gave great pointers on drills and such like teh Kenyan Running drills. Other things like fall forward when running, high cadence is important the stride length is what changes when going slow or fast.

4:15-5:30pm Triathlon Specific Training and Key Workouts

Make sure to work in Tri Specific stuff, Like transitions, not just the Bike to run that everyone thinks of but also the swim to Bike, which is generally the longest transition for folks. Also bring up things like have athletes practice putting their goggles on in the middle of the swim. This may be needed if your goggles are kicked out of place. deal with teh stress in training NOT in the race.

Sunday, March 29

8:00-9:30am Cycling Skills

Good stuff and pointers. Criticality of a Bike fit. Make certain to write down the measurements when done. You never know when you will need to readjust the bike seat because it slid down or if you travel and you have to rebuild the bike.

Make sure to do rides in a variety of terrain. to get experience but find the terrain that is closest to what the race will be ( ex hilly or flat).
pedal stroke, work to get power throughout the pedal cycle not just pushing down. do single leg pedal drills. Make sure to focus on the non-dominant leg because we all have tendencies to use one leg more than the other. If you want to see some fast improvement in power, work on the non dominant leg.

Swimming Skills and Economy Training

Again make sure to throw in workouts to simulate Tri conditions. Such as Start with Fast and hard drills, then go to the longer sets. This simulates the swim start which is usually fast and gets everyones HR up. Do NOT send a newbie to a MAsters swim course unless there is some focus for beginners.

A beginners focus should be on Form and technique, and should not be stressed about finishing laps like all others on the Masters team.

Overall I really enjoyed the course. There was such great instructors that were truly leaders in the field. In fact most if not all are current Olympic team coaches Such as Bob Seebohar, John Crawley Bobby McGee ( former Olympian and the teams current running coach), Susan Williams 2004 Olymoic Bronze medalist and the first American to medal in Triathlon. Just good stuff all in all.