The Truth: End Of Season Reports Part 5
October 5th, 2009 by Gavin
“ A win in the Rock duathlon and a second in Valentia (eventhough I was freezing my nuts off and couldnt get my shoes on in T2) wass probably the best start I could have asked for . . .
TriAthy came next where everybody wanted to put their mark down for the season. Everybody was there and with top pro’s from around the world, finishing 7th overall made my day a good one
TriAthlone again was a very enjoyable race,the whole atmosphere was great and finishing 4th was ok, finishing top 3 would have been better !
Kilkee was probably the hardest race mentally and physically.. were some things worked and some things didn’t. With my handelbars breaking at the start of the bike a hard day was on the cards…
Lough Neagh went well, with Dublin to finish off the season. Dublin was one of the best organized and enjoyable races I did for the year. Top marks to the organizers… with a sprint finish to the end it made for alot of fun.
Overall the season went great finishing in the top 3 in the national series was a great achievement ”
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Bjorn followed a different programme to the rest of the guys – he had a little more time to train, swam with a squad and did not live close enough to meet up with the rest of the Pack on a regular basis.
His runs were longer in duration and he probably completed a few more sessions in total each week. During the race season he worked on his running cadence and rhythm to great effect.
In 2008 an injury meant that he did not race the National Series and so one of my priorities was to get him to complete a season and to get to the races in the best shape he had ever been in - and from that point of view we had success. I felt it important to get a whole season under his belt so that he had a base of uninterrupted training and racing from which to progress further.
Swimming with a swim squad is great if you can do it – getting to swim with some faster swimmers should bring you along. However from my point of view a swimming clubs training load sometimes conflicts triathlon training – in most swim club sessions there is intensity and . . . . well . . .. the swimmers haven’t biked or ran that day ! So the sessions are specific to their needs and not the triathletes. With Bjorn it was sometimes difficult to assess the training load in the pool so that I could adpat the training accordingly. For example if we are trying to enhance recovery or even high end aerobic fitness I think a sprint session or high intensity session in the pool totally disrupts the process – therefore having control over the entire programme is better for the coach.
Bjorns bike training too was different to the other guys in that his harder sessions in the summer were done Hans Solo on the TT bike whilst I was able to get the other guys sometimes riding in a local bike race – always training on the bike alone takes a lot of discipline and motivation, something which Bjorn was able to do. However I did like the others guys joining in with the Cyclists occasionally – there is a different kind of pain involved there and as a triathlete you can learn a lot from cycling with a group.
2 Responses to “The Truth: End Of Season Reports Part 5”
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October 12th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Hey Gavin, Great to read all these reports of the guys you coach. On average, how many hours a week do you have them train?
October 13th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
3 swims, 3 bikes, 3runs . . . on average . . . maybe 10-15hrs