TRIATHLON
The key focus of the final morning’s run session was speed and agility. I watched several coaches battle to motivate tired athletes to run hard with varying levels of success. One of the coaches, Grant Landers from WA conducted his groups warm up as a “treasure hunt” around the AIS grounds. Their run session featured maze racing, mini transition where athletes started bare foot, had to race to points around grid searching for their shoes, jumping over coaches who lay in their way and so on. The end result was a session that bore no resemblance to a tri training session but resulted in a group of athletes having fun and completing a great speed and agility session, with a heap of skills thrown in.
training fun but if you want some inspiration, have a look at the Sheldon College Facebook page www.facebook.com/ sheldontriathlonclub/ Chris Lang is a serious tri coach with a performance focus but he makes sure the junior and senior athletes in his program enjoy what they do.
These are just a few examples of many things I’ve seen that make me think of the importance of fun, but as a general observation I’d say that too many coaches and athletes forget about happiness and focus solely on performance.
• Drive somewhere different to start your ride or run
What we often forget is that the weight of scientific and anecdotal evidence highlights the strong correlation between happiness and peak performance. Many coaches do a great job of making
SOME SIMPLE IDEAS TO INCREASE THE FUN
It’s really important to remember that not all your sessions need to be targeted and focussed. Making some sessions fun or having a fun element in every session won’t have a negative impact on fitness but it will help keep your mind focussed and keep you loving the sport of tri long term. Have fun, cheers Keiran.
• Multiple relays in your swim sessions • Take out the lane ropes and swim 3 or more to a lane. • Make one ride a week off road • Trail run
• Fartlek runs where one person sets the pace per effort • Ocean swims • Fancy dress rides / runs / swims • Work on new skills – such as riding rollers • Do some adventure racing / off road racing • If you only race long – target a few club races or short events and race with a smile
Keiran, National Talent Coach. Keiran Barry has a degree in Exercise Science. He has coached triathlon since 1995 and worked with hundreds of age groupers over this time. He has coached elite athletes to world cup wins. Keiran was a coach at the 2000 Olympics and 2002 Commonwealth Games.
The Aussie Ocean Swim returns for the second year as part of The Australian Surf Life Saving Championships (The Aussies). This is a unique opportunity for non-members of Surf Life Saving to be part of this iconic festival. Entry is $40 and open to all ocean swimmers 16+.
Register today at sls.com.au/aussieoceanswim
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