The Block

No, not the one with lots of houses getting built in a short period of time.

This block is a periodisation one and it’s always one of our best of the year. We have a race or two behind us with all the learnings from that and we have two solid months of post-Christmas training in the tank.

For those still putting in the hard yards doing Short Course qualifiers, keep pushing, keep learning, keep enjoying the process. Start practicing the little things like pacing and transition skills. The little things are the big things in this world. Even though we are still in qualifying mode we are also prepping for the hoped for outcome of a great performance in October.

For those with Long Course in their targets, be it Ironman or 70.3, now is the time. Day after day just train consistently but within your means. If you are too fatigued for a build session then fall back to T2 and build endurance as a foundation. Remember that long course is just as much about not slowing down as it is about going fast.

Training Sessions This Week :

Monday - Swim - 6pm - Sutherland Leisure Centre

Tuesday - Trails Run - 6pm Loftus Oval

Wednesday - Swim - 6pm - Sutherland Leisure Centre

Thursday - Track - 6pm - Barden Ridge

Data Innovation Update :

Just thought I would update you on how we are going with things in data.

Full data set :

The recent push into testing has been fantastic. We now have a full set of data that gives me a view of all your thresholds. CSS for swim, FTP for bike and Threshold Pace for run. (I’m going to start calling that TP). Some have been intuitively (but informed) added by my me but I am safe in saying that 95% is as tested.

Coach Reports :

Crumpy and I have worked hard on coaches reports. This allows me to make solid “next step” decisions when it comes to training prescription post-race. This is a developing space but last week when i did a lot of race reports I could easily pull up data that helped me assess race performance vs training.

Race Reports :

I trialled producing very data led Race Performance Profiles last week. On top of that I added a 3 minute objective video that hopefully helped the athlete understand how we can relate to our testing numbers. What we have learned so far is that is it’s vitally important to not only train smart to develop our thresholds, but to work on being able to race to a higher level of those numbers.

The aim :

Overall, the aim is to understand the race as a whole and be less swayed by the emotions of a run pace than by the actual data that comes out. Then we take that to the next race prep, adjust training as necessary and then apply it with an informed plan.

Next up :

Develop the way the coaches interact with the athletes and keep them up to date on current benchmarks whilst also informing them of how we should think about tweaking training.