The Truth: End of Season Reports Part 3 – The Giz

This was my 1st time being coached for triathlon and the main aim for me and the group was to improve and try to be more competitive in the national series. I had meet Gavin in Spain April 2008 as I was sent over by Triathlon Ireland to treat him (ed – physcially and metally!)

We began training in late October . . . 3 early morning swims a week at 6am were hard work but still enjoyable especially with the group

Gavins message was “bang for buck sessions, its not about being pretty its about being fit, no messing”

We carried these early morning swims out all the way through the season. If one of us was a bit tired or not swimming great everyone would try pick them up and get them going again  - you always knew you weren’t the only one getting up to train at that stupid hour of the morning which really helped.

Personally I improved in the pool a little but some of the sessions we did improved my open water results even more. I’m not 100% sure why but ill take it !
 
The bike was great with 2 turbo’s during the week and a long bike Saturday with the lads. I actually really enjoyed the turbo sessions and coupled with the Saturday long spins I had a great balance and consistancy through the week.

On a Saturday morining you had to be on top game or else you’d just get dropped left right and centre by the two noddy’s and old man McGrath  ! My bike handling skills also became so much better thanks to Bray Wheelers midweek races.
 
Run was a bit of an up and down tale during the winter months but once Janurary kicked in I started to get going. Again training with the lads helped, there was a few memorable slagging matches and I found I was always pushed.

For me the year was all about the group or as Gav called it ‘the pack’, being consistant and overall enjoying what I was doing. 

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It is difficult to add to that. I felt the Giz had a really great season and out of everyone probably improved the most.

 He was the only one to understand how the National Series rankings worked (!) and although I planned the training, he planned the attack ! I think he is a perfect example of how its those who really enjoy what they are doing who end the season most satisfied with their efforts.

Turbo sessions during the winter months if properly designed can be interesting and enjoyable. With real world responsibilites one cannot come home from work at 6pm and head out in the dark for a couple of hours   . ..  so once again we worked with an emphasis on ‘bang for buck’ sessions. Personally I think they worked well however they have also given me some personal experience with what worked and what maybe didn’t – sometimes I played around with threshold, strength, sweet spot, vo2 max etc to see what the responces were – some people enjoyed certain sessions more than others .  . and in a lot of cases if I learnt that they didnt enjoy a certain session – this was the one that got repeated !!!!!

 

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