Quality Feedback

In coaching, feedback is a highly sought after commodity.  Coaches ask their athletes for feedback on how training sessions went for them.  Athletes ask for feedback in return from their coaches on how they are doing.

What gets lost however is a clear understanding of what quality feedback really is.  As an example, I often ask my clients to tell me how specific sessions or a week of training went for them in hopes they provide me some insight that will allow me to make adjustments to their training based upon the feedback provided.  In 6 out of 10 instances I get back "fine", "good" or "okay".  It is tough to determine much from that response.

In 3 out of 10 instances, I get a highly detailed report which often necessitates pouring a cup of coffee.  Truly enjoyable reads and lots of insight provided from which I can offer back feedback, praise, solutions to problems arising or address something the athlete may not have known was an issue.  Reading a historical perspective of a week's training logged with detail allows me to see patterns of positiveness as well as negativeness.  Perfect starting points for meaningful discussions and addressing potentially season ending issues.

What does the final person report with?  Nada.  Silence.  These are the difficult athletes to work with as we know very little of what is happening in their training and life.  Silence is a killer.

Starting in the fall of 2012, we will be utilizing Training Peaks software as a means to communicate with all our Customized Clients.  In the trial period thus far, I have found it a highly valuable tool to prescribe training programs, receive power meter or GPS files and receive and provide comments.  I have been using it myself and I find the accountability in logging my files and comments to be highly motivating.

The Endurance Coaching Team is expecting each of our athletes to diligently record, upload and post their data and comments in a regular manner so as to allow their coaches the ability to modify and adjust training programs in a more timely manner.

Uploading power or GPS files allows the coach to see what you actually did or did not do.  If a higher average or peak power value is recorded, we can inform the client of it and perhaps modify their training zones.  The same for running in which the software can calculate the impact of running on an uphill gradient had on your session.  The athlete may have thought they "sucked" that day but in fact when variables were factored into the equation, we can report back that no you did not "suck" today and were right where you needed to be.

Needless to say we are excited to offer this service starting this fall which will increase the communication between our coaches and athletes!

Calgary 70.3 Recap

Two weeks ago I had the privilege to present to a room of 20 triathletes on the topic of "Establishing Your Training Plan For A Great Calgary 70.3 Experience". There were some great questions from the audience which showed they were engaged in my talk!

The following are some highlights of my presentation for those who have requested a summary;

GENERAL GUIDELINE: target an 8-12 week block of training comprised of approximately 10-12 hours/week of consistent training spread out across the week versus doing 70% or more on weekends.

Don't over think the Periodization plan with complicated bi-weekly totals but rather strive to perform training daily.

Identify opportunities to train that are not influenced too often by “life” to ensure a consistent weekly pattern and schedule these as your training days.

If there are specific days that you struggle to get in any training simply schedule them as rest days.

Training Periods

March 5th – May 27th: Consistent 10-12hours (+/- 2hours) per week primarily aerobic training.

May 28th – June 3rd: Planned recovery week.

June 4th – July 16th: Progressively bigger volume weeks 14-17hours (+/-2hours) per week with
more specific training at race pace/intensities.

July 17th – 28th: Taper period. Maintain the frequency and intensity of training sessions
but reduce the per session duration by 30-50%. Highly variable and
dependent upon the overall amount of training you have done.

Training Considerations

Identify the discipline you struggle with the most and address it early on in your training versus closer to the event.

Many people focus too much training time on the swim and neglect the bike and run more so.

Considering the swim takes roughly 11.6% of the overall race duration, the bike ~51% and the run ~36% (based on an average age grouper’s finish time), one can see that more time can be made up on the bike and run. Now if you don’t know how to swim then spending more time on it early season is a definite priority.

The bulk of one’s training should be comprised of aerobic training. It is highly valuable to get a fitness test done in order to help establish what your actual aerobic training zones are and ensure you are not working too hard all the time with either heart rate or power output and running paces. Knowing your numbers will enhance the use of the many training devices athletes possess.

Training too hard or too much which leads to excessive fatigue and therefore time off hinders the process. A balanced approach allows for this consistency and helps offset large pits of fatigue. This isn’t to suggest you avoid higher intensity training as it has a place in your program but shouldn’t be the mainstay of your training for long periods of time and must be utilized carefully.

Body Maintenance

Recovery is an important component of training and doesn’t always mean a day off. Active recovery sessions, massage, stretching, yoga, core and general strength training all help keep your body in tip top shape. Strength training should not however detract from your training but rather supplement it.

Listen to our body and understand the varying levels of fatigue caused by the training you do. Detect patterns or trends and know that life stress has a dramatic impact on your recovery and influences your performance.

Sleep is vital as it is the true time in which we regenerate our body. Make sure you get enough and don’t get in a pattern of sleeping less just to achieve weekly training targets.

Many people are under recovered versus over trained. Life stress can contribute to this in a dramatic way.