Tri Alliance Team Meeting #1

Last night was the first Tri Alliance Team Meeting for the 2013-2014 season. We had about a dozen newbies joined the squad since the last team meeting at the beginning of this year which was great to see.

Ollie (Head Coach, Director) introduced the evening and spoke about things related to athlete benefits (such as discounts with our partners), our athlete IDs and the phase we are currently in which is technique. We will be moving into strength and volume next before speed work prior to the racing season.

Coach Greg then broke up the evening by doing mini-interviews of the different types of triathletes we have in the squad from the new newbies, first season, long course, short course, first time Ironman through to apprentice Coach Dan.

We then went into the specific Swim, Bike and Run parts where some of the coaches who head up those programs came up and spoke about athlete expectations during those sessions and what we don't want to see. We want athletes to Train to Race and not to Racing to Train...we are also encouraging athletes to train within themselves - don't try to keep up with the front pack if it is not your within athletic capabilities. I have written a small article on this and just waiting on the coaches' tweaking before it gets published.

Sarah emailed me early on the day to ask me if I could take the Beginners group when we break to talk specifics and I agreed. This meant that I was not able to join in with my Intermediate Long Course group but I will talk with Ollie about it sometime in the next few weeks.

Some of the things we presented within the groups were:

• What are your goals? Have you set them? - So I spoke to the group about setting some attainable goals and it doesn't have to be triathlon specific - it could range from completing the Active Feet/Gatorade Series, 5km or 10km runs through to learning how to use all the gears of the bike by the end of Sept... If they are aiming for something like a half marathon or a marathon - do you have a running background? Can they achieve this without injuries and speak to the coaches if they want some guidance.
• Training Periodisation - the different phases of the training calendar - technique, strength, volume, speed, race. The distances we will be covering and at what intensity.
• Training to Race and not Racing to Train - (as above) - stay focused on your own goals and don't get caught up with others.
• Training Camps - for beginners, the Lorne Camp is perfect and I think from memory, half the group will be joining us. September pre-season camp is also another one which will benefit beginners.
• Focus Races - Set A, B and C races so that you can prioritise your goals and ensure that you don't compromise your goals. Quality over quantity.
• Coaching Services - we then introduced the services which Tri Alliance provides from Coaches Consults - to help you with goals and overcoming weaknesses through to RETUL and how important it is for injury prevention.

I then mentioned that if anyone has any questions and they are too scared to ask, either shoot me an email, talk to me on the side and if I can't answer them, I will refer to the correct resources. Even though it wasn't on the running sheet, I spoke about nutrition and what we expect athletes to carry on the bike - my rule is N+1 or sometimes N+2, N being the number of hours you anticipate to be out on the road. It is always better to be over prepared than under.

I gained something (skills and knowledge) from last night in conducting a group session as a coach for the first time and I hope that the athletes gained something from me too.