Thanks Kev and VT  

Once again Olympic week (OW) was a tremendous success. As a coach the week ticks off any number of the physical (planning, equipment, sleep, training), tactical (pacing, who to swim, ride and run with, timing of session), technical (having to swim, ride and run in all conditions over a variety of terrains using different formats) and psychological (having to front up every day, regardless of what the day throws up or how you are feeling) aspects of the sport that I always write about. However, the one area a coach might only give lip service to, as most just love to chase the numbers, is the real strength of OW- and that is the social side.

Recently I had a chat with an athlete who typically trains on their own for every session. My challenge was to convince them to get out and train in a group environment not because of any physical gains they might achieve but rather because of the social advantages.

• You can learn by watching, talking with and training with others. How they cope, how they execute a skill or pace themselves. In OW there is plenty of time to talk and learn before, during and after every day.
• Mentally you don’t have to invest as much emotional energy as others will be there to pull you along. Sometimes you will need to spend some energy to lift someone else up, while other times someone will do the same for you. But regardless the total energy required is less than what is required when training on your own.
• You get a session that better replicates race conditions where you swim, ride and run with others around. It’s hard to practice drafting when all you do is swim on your own!
• And with the big dog James Hammond back in town for a few weeks you realise how much harder you can go when you have someone to chase.

The social aspect of your training portfolio also means having a supportive team around you-

• Family, it is vital that you have them on side. When the going gets tough you don’t want your training to be impacting family happiness. Ideally you want training to add to your life, not take.
• Friends, the more people you have around you to keep you grounded and in the real world the better. Triathlon may seem super important, but sometimes our friends can keep us in the real world.
• Teammates, help us in any number of ways.
• Health professionals (masseuse, physio, doctor…), we live on the edge, so it is important that you have a good team of health professionals around you.

So, if you are an athlete who tend to lone wolf their training maybe give some thought to the social aspect of training and if there are ways you can use it to grow your triathlon experience. While we haven’t done a census for a while, we usually have half the club (120-140 people) training in one of more club sessions per week. Most sessions have a good cross section of abilities so there is almost always someone to train with and the coaches are very good at setting up the sessions to accommodate all abilities.

For me OW is also the one week a year that I don’t have to take any club sessions. While I am lucky to have a job that I enjoy and one that fulfills my core values of helping others to grow and achieve their goals, I do get a little worn out coaching Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights plus Saturday and Sunday mornings with the lakers, as well as running sessions for my own athletes so a big thanks to Kev and VT for all of their efforts. I am sure this goes the same for the other Laker coaches and ride leaders who have enjoyed a little break from things over the Xmas period.