Coaching

I know I've said this before, but I plan to get this blog rolling again. I want to start by sharing the fact that I'll be looking to pick things up a bit more on the running and triathlon coaching side of things. I have downscaled my operation the last couple of years as my career in education has changed now that I'm an athletic director. I finally feel as though that is dialed in and I can devote a little more time to coaching again. In order to make some room for this, I have decided to stop coaching basketball and track at the high school level...at least for the time being. Not that I didn't enjoy doing that, but I really enjoy working with individuals who have goals of improving their running and/or at triathlon. I think this type of coaching is a lot of fun and it's where my passion is.

That being said, I have decided to make the coaching that I do very affordable. I am blown away by how much people charge as running and triathlon coaches.  I want to help as many people as I can so please contact me if interested and I'll share the new prices for coaching. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how affordable it can be. I have space for a couple more people for 2015. Email me at dave@jrmtraining.com if interested about how I might be able to help you.

From a personal training perspective, things are off to a good start. Originally, I planned on holding off until January to begin my 2015 training, but my body and mind were ready as December rolled around so I've been hitting it for 4 weeks now. Nothing crazy of course, but there is some focus and I'm getting in some work. Some examples of sessions have been a 7 mile run at steady state, followed by 20 minutes worth of hill work. Another session on the bike is 30 minutes at half ironman pace broken up by different positions (upright or in aero position) and cadences. All of my trainer sessions progress through a good warm up that includes drills and efforts that prep me for the main set of the day. No swimming for me until March. I did this last year and swam as good or better than I have. I'm at the point where my swimming is never holding me back in a race. At the age group level even at world championships my swim puts me where I need to be. It's the bike/run combination that I still need to keep chipping away at. I'm not saying swimming isn't important. It's just where I'm at in the sport. If I swim consistently for 6-7 months out of the year I'm good to go. I'd have to swim a ton more and that's just not going to happen with no groups around to swim with nor do I have the time. Guys continue to win high level age group races with swim times basically identical to mine. I think I have a plan laid out to to get my bike and run in order for a very solid race as Ironman Muskoka the end of August. I'll hit some local races along the way, but this season is really about one race and qualifying for Kona.

I plan to write at least once a week about a topic related to running or triathlon. Today, I'm going to talk about what some call reverse periodization. I just call it normal training as this is the way I've always trained and the way I've coached the dozens of athletes I've coached along the way. This term comes up every year around winter and I always find it interesting that people use the word reverse. Some believe and it's an older school way of doing things that the optimal way to success in endurance sports is to log a ton of slow miles before doing anything fast. This can work for some, but only if you're really able to log a bunch of miles and as age groupers with jobs and families that just isn't possible. Even with that, there are more and more people realizing the importance of keeping some faster work in the mix throughout the entire season. Periodization really boils down to doing general type training first and then getting more and more specific the closer you get to your key events. This is the case for all sports/aspects of fitness. You must go from general to specific. It's my argument for how crazy weight lifting goes for football in 90% of high schools. Kids lift all summer and then barely at all during their seasons. Go figure you start the season better than you finish it. This is something Boyne City had figured out before I got there and I've just kept it rolling and hopefully enhanced it a bit. The athletes train all aspects of their fitness year round. I think the results are speaking for themselves. A high level of conditioning can trump many situations in athletics.

Back to triathlon and running...think about it, why in the world would you log all kinds of miles over the winter (especially if you live in a cold environment) if your endurance event isn't until late summer of fall? First off, good luck with keeping the motivation high. Second, distance running and triathlon are endurance events and therefore you should be doing longer sessions the closer and closer you get to race day so your body gets used to what type of effort it needs to put forth on race day. You'll still mix in some intensity, but the majority of what you're doing is at race pace or slightly above that last 4-8 weeks. This of course varies greatly depending on the certain distance you are primarily prepping for, but the concept still remains the same.

So what does that mean you should be doing right now? I just call it raising the ceiling. Get your 1 hour best possible power/pace/effort as high as you possibly can. Then, once you get outside (hopefully sooner than last spring!) you chase those numbers all season and extend out your sessions. You still need to log some time over the winter. A couple of hours a week won't cut it. I truly believe gains can be made over the winter on an hour a day if you do the right stuff. You'll need to log more time come spring and summer, but you'd be surprised how little my athletes train this time of year and still improve because they do the right things. It has to be every single week though and there is very little screwing around.

Easier said then done, but I've seen it work for many. It still boils down to flat out hard work consistently done over time. I've had some success in triathlon, and people who are new to the sport ask how I got to be at a decent level. I think they are taken back when I tell them I've been at it for 9 years with many of those years at 10-15+ hours a week of training. And that's what is setting those above me apart...they have a lifestyle that allows them to put in 20+ hour weeks for years on end. I did it for a few years when I had no kids and we lived in Virginia. Let me tell you it works! Anyone can do it if you're willing to put in the time. The problem is that most people who try to do that get burned out of the sport. I have many friends who did that too and no longer race.

Hopefully I gave you something to think about as you plan your 2015.

My girls will probably wake up soon from their naps so I better go. Thanks for reading.