Shane's (gsmacleod) Coaching Mentor Group - Open

NAME: ratherbeswimming / Elaine

STORY: I'm an engineer, and Army National Guard Officer, and a triathlete. I've been tri-ing for quite a few years and coaching for two. I've got a strong background in swimming (age 5 through college and then masters...) and I've been running a little longer than I've been cycling. I'm USAT and USAC certified.

FAMILY STATUS: single, living with the best dog ever.

CURRENT TRAINING: I'm Olympic focused. I'm chasing a dream of being able to try out for the Army tri team. This involves cranking out a 2:35 qualifying time! That time may get my foot in the door, but might not get me on the team.

THIS YEAR'S RACES: Duathlon Nationals, Xterra trail runs, Ragnars... spent most of 2013 in Army training!

2014 RACES:  My first shot at sub-2:35 is SuperSeal in San Diego on March 16th. Rest of the season is TBD - I've got a spreadsheet of races to choose from!

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: I'm excited about coaching - I've got some interesting stuff coming up (speed workouts with 8-13 year old football players!) in addition to developing myself as a triathlon coach. I'm also currently being coached - which has been a huge insight into how I coach. I've still got a LOT to learn, and lots to share as well. 

Shane, as I mentioned in my PM to you a while back, I'm extremely interested in this group.  I guess I was waiting for it to go "live" before I posted.  I'll write up a bio very soon.

Wow, I was thinking there would be a lot more replies to this mentor group.  Over the years it seems like I've seen tons of posts like "I just completed my USAT Level 1 course, so now I'm a coach".  I think we all know there are several active coaches on BT so hopefully we can get a critical mass going.

Hi ShaneBenJimLaneyDay!

Been meaning to post since this first appeared in the Staging Area ... ironically, too busy coaching right now (and workin' two other occupations and making sure my mother's taken care of) to get to everything I need and want to do.

Also, my coaching bio is somewhat different than my plain old sports bio, so I'll put that up soon ... I need to gather that info anyway, since I should put together a coaching resume.

Shane--for always fighting the good fight (without fighting), for everything that you do and everyone you help--thanks aren't enough but hopefully we can at least encourage you.

I've got an interesting coaching challenge coming up:

2x/week for 2 months, I'll be leading workouts for 8-13 year old football players to build their speed. I'm a little terrified, but mostly excited! Oddly enough, the Crossfit Kids website has been an excellent resource for strength and power.

NAME: thor67/Thor

STORY: Been involved in team sports all my life. Lost a 100lbs and did a triathlon. Loved it and continued on with it. I coach hockey and lacrosse. Last year I was hit with an injury that caused my to miss the whole year. I decided to take my coach in training certificate(Alberta) and officials course to fill the time. I also started a local triathlon club last year. 

FAMILY STATUS: Married, 2 kids, my son 11, and daughter 6.  My wife started triathlons last year as well as my daughter doing her first. My son has done them the past couple of years.

CURRENT TRAINING: Strictly Oly/sprints for me. No time for anything else.

2014 RACES:  TBD

WHAT WILL MAKE ME A GOOD MENTEE: I am passionate about the sports I coach. I enjoy helping those with the will and desire to succeed at their chose sport. 

Good stuff. If there were anything to double-post, this would be it That was also a great review article--thanks for posting.

Just a note on the small bolded bit ... actually, the higher level and training load an athlete is at, the more and faster fitness is lost; it's lost on a curve, and the higher up on it you are, the further you're going to fall (the curves are also slightly different for S, B, and R). The flip side of that is that it's also regained faster, though. Pro triathletes are pretty varied in their "off" seasons, but very few do very little SBR for as long as 2 months. There might be a lot more unstructured "training," there might be moderate volume at quite low intensity and more fun stuff like mountain biking or hiking. Conversely, some drastically reduce volume but somewhat to considerably increase intensity.

Geez. I haven't even posted a bio yet, much less contributed anything positive to the discussion ... guilty ...

The way periodization makes sense to me is to think of it simply as "structure."

There are many components regarding structure, and the more advanced or complex the athlete's goals or focuses are (both for a given "season" as well as long-term), the more of those need to be taken into account, and the more that structure needs to be personalized. Triathlon is particularly fun because of the three distinct sports involved which, optimally, are trained somewhat differently!

To me, the (realistically defined) goals are what drive the structure, or periodization, of training and which factors need to get taken into account for the individual athlete.

It might be fun to list components/factors/considerations ... timewise, the article mentioned cycles (which range from "workout"--and I'd argue even sets within a workout--all the way to multi-year). So each of those may need to be taken into consideration when planning training. (Otherwise, my brain's too fried to list--will come back to this).

What it seems like we're focusing most on here, though, is mesocycles of (as stated) 2-4 weeks. These can be (in triathlon) sport-driven, or metabolic-adaptations driven, or ______ (fill in the blank, this is a discussion ).

One last thing (for now) regarding periodization is that pretty much unless someone is a brand new triathlete, in which really any training in the three sports (and possibly anything else, honestly) that doesn't result in injury is going to produce positive adaptations that will just get them over the finish line--beyond that, IMO, it's important to view periodization and training structure planning as a progression towards the athlete's goals. In other words, it's not just doing a bunch of what may be very good single swim or bike workouts/rides over and over, but that they're actually building on prior ones toward what the athlete wants. (Running's a bit different in that you really can just run a safely-increasing bunch without much variation for several years and see outstanding improvement with just that ... in fact, I kind of recommend it. But let's say an athlete is a couple 2-3 years along, at least ... )

It's surprising to me how many pointy-end age groupers, want-to-be-pointy-end, and even pros train that way, though ... even with increasing load of one sense or another (increasing volume, intensity, or both), there's a lack of focused progression.

However, if you look at the MOST successful AGers and pros, that is definitely not the case.

More on "base" and "off season" later. Again, good stuff, Ben.

Finally--I'd really like it if we could throw in examples and case studies where relevant--either our own training, people we're coaching, people whose training/coaching we're very familiar with, or whatever.

Thanks, all!

If you're looking at periods of increased training in one sport vs the others, reduction done wisely doesn't mean you're reducing or losing or regressing at all--what you're doing is maintaining certain areas (in this case, actual sports) while focusing on gaining in others. (Wise reduction/maintenance can actually be very good for "consolidating" gains in one area ... this is one of the ideas behind taper).

It takes surprisingly little to MAINTAIN fitness in a sport that you've built up well.

Lots of great literature out there on this ...  I found this one re. running well-informed and accessible (and has citations):

http://www.roy-stevenson.com/retraining.html