Day behind blogger

I should of posted this yesterday when it was fresher in my mind but here goes. I know how a day later the memories can get a little skewed but I will try my best. I was scheduled for three different practices to coach yesterday and one got cancelled last minute, so it was only two. I myself did not practice, just coached. First up was to the pool for a one on one which turned out to by two members! So all good, they swam in the same lane and I could watch them both. One member is a junior aged male and basically starting from scratch in the pool. Good thing is his age where if I keep working with him beyond this year he can make huge improvements in his swimming. He already has improved in the run placing 2nd in his age group last Sunday for a half marathon! And I know he has been working hard on the bike on Wednesday night and his other practices. Going to be interesting to see how good he can get this summer and beyond.
The other member that came out for swimming has pretty good form and more or less asked for me to crank it up! I love that. You want me to help you become faster, faster you shall train. Simple. But she is ready to start doing this and gets it, ya know? When I explain things to her she instantly understands. So now she knows she needs to swim her 50's at a certain pace, her 100's at a certain pace, etc. Not just jump in the water and swim whatever now, because her swim fitness is dictating that we ramp it up. Now, Im not going to go too crazy on her, yet. But we will push the envelop a little more each time and see how she responds. I think she will respond nicely.
Then it was quickly to the gas station and home to grab some food then to the run practice! And it was kind of chilly with a cold north wind blowing in. Nice to see more members coming out to run. As I can not run right now I am getting some help from another athlete who is looking to help out more and more with coaching. I think I caught her off guard last night by asking what workout we were going to do...lol. But I came prepared for them. Wanted to first keep them moving as much as possible and not cool down. Today I have come up with some really cool ideas for this run practice for the near future, oh yaaaa!
So tonight is our Koalas bike practice and email sent out to advise everyone coming to dress warm. Gloves, bike pants, layers and bike jacket, booties if you have them, to stay warm. I plan to shorten the time of the practice by about 15mins, then I called for a social afterwards. Cool practice indeed.
Cheers!
Swim fast, bike hard and run like the wind!!

This past weekend and the week ahead.

This past weekend saw the KW Fighting Koalas at the pool on Saturday. The turn out was excellent and everyone was working hard to improve. Our newest members came out for their first Koalas swim session and did a great job of learning the drills and listening to their coach, that's me, on how to improve in the water. The first drill that they did was kicking on their side for 10 kicks and then switch sides for another 10 kicks. I did not think it would be that hard for them but a lot did struggle with it, especially head placement and breathing into the water. But the more we worked on it the better they got with it, which will translate into better swimming for them. One of my members had a huge improvement from one week to this this week. Last week on his stroke he was pulling way across his centre line to his opposite hip! I pointed it out to him, he worked on it this past week, and this week what a huge improvement! Nice smooth strokes and pulling to his proper hip/thigh area, very nice! For a coach it is great to see these improvements in my athletes from week to week.
I missed out on some training myself on Sunday due to lack of sleep. I did not sleep very well at all and was very fatigued the rest of the day. Add in some errands that needed to be done and no way could I get any type of workout in. But today I am off to the pool shortly and then get out for a bike ride. The rest of the week looks like it is shaping up to be a good week of training and Koalas practices. Looking forward to a solid week for the KW Fighting Koalas!

Practice day and Koalas are growing again!

So today I went to the Rec centre pool for a 11am, 45min swim with a Koala followed by an hour bike ride. The swim we just did a longer type of swim for the 45mins only stopping a few times. Can't say that I enjoyed the swim due to the pool being very cloudy and it seemed to slightly burn my face, like I've been out in the hot sun all day, blah.
Then for the bike we headed towards Bamberg but not quite going all the way into Bamberg. Mostly going over gear selection and how to climb hills properly but mostly just to get out for the member to get a bit longer ride in with me leading the way to keep her motivated!
Then off for a badly needed massage. Oh the pain in my shoulders and neck, ouch! The muscles felt like boulders and took a lot of work for then to release. I also have a little tightness inside my left thigh that was very sensitive to the work but did release nicely. Now after my supper I will be icing it down. My masseuse gave me a couple of stretches for my inner thigh that I will have to do alot, then ice it down. Oh, I also have an appointment set up for next Thursday with the sports doctor to finally look at the MRI done on my right knee. Slow going but we are progressing. Lets hope its not too badly damaged and I will be able to start running this summer!!
Now, after all this the KW Fighting Koalas has grown again!! Another person has joined the club today and is very excited, as am I! So much fun coaching everyone and seeing them progress and get better and fitter and working towards the upcoming races this summer :)
Ok time to eat, I am starving. (then ice the leg).

Koalas bike practice

Wednesday night is Koalas bike practice night, 6:30 starting at Rim Park. I was there a little before 6:30 and no one was there. I was starting to think no one was going to show up then within 1 minute four people showed up! Well actually five but he did not join us on his mountain bike and went on his own. I did find out afterwards one other member showed up and then left on his own thinking we were already gone out!
Tonight's workout was harder than I thought it was going to be. Two laps of one legged drills, two laps of super spins, three laps of dropping down one gear each lap but keeping the same cadence from the starting gear to ending gear. You have to start easier because it gets harder and on the backstretch of the loop was a wicked wind. We then did two hill repeats, first one at 85% and second one full out! We did it grand prix style, sending off the weakest to strongest! Yep, that was hard! But I am really enjoying the Wednesday session, lots of fun and good company. It is fun to dish out the punishment but I did really feel it tonight on the last hill but after that I was good. Just wait til I start getting them doing hard intervals! I don't know if they realize that yet....hehehehe :)

2 a days

Two a day workouts are hard. They are also paying off. First was the noon swim. I have been having a hard time relaxing lately but I forced myself to relax today in the pool. But it wasn't until late in the session on 2x200m when I did finally relax and get my times back down to where I know I can swim. When I do this it feels so close to a major breakthrough of time dropping but I would have to swim everyday for that to happen.
Then it was off for a bike ride shortly after the swim. At first my legs were kind of screaming at me and my mind was trying to tell me sitting on the couch would be way better. But I pushed through knowing at some point it would get better, and it did. I ended up having a decent ride, fastest this year so far. I have managed to get almost 500kms of outdoor riding so far this spring and I don't even think I got out last year til this time. 17 degrees with a small west wind made for a nice riding day. Got home and did some nice stretching, trying to loosen up my legs. I think I need to book a massage for next week as my legs tend to get very thick and if I'm not careful I get cramps. Not good.
Then tonight's run practice at 6:30pm and only one member came out. Glad she did but where are the rest of the members? Something I will have to look into and see why they are not coming out to this session. Up tomorrow is the 6:30 bike practice which has been well attended! Nice weather this week so no excuses!!

Saturday WLU pool session.

Today we were back to WLU pool for our Saturday swim session which yours truly coached! Good turnout for my small but constantly growing club! The workout was 4x50m warm up, 4x25m catch up with kick board - one arm, 4x25m catch up with kick board - both arms, 4x25m swim, 4x25m board between legs, 4x25m as 25m breathe every 3 strokes, 25m 5 strokes, 25m 7 strokes, 25m 9 strokes, 100 pull, 25m/50m/75m/100m/75m/50m/25m, 8x25m 1/2 length fast 1/2 easy, 200 easy cool down. Good workout for the swimmers and for me to watch them and do some corrections and make suggestions for them. One thing I keep talking to them about is being efficient whether in the water, on the bike or running. When we get tired a lot of time our form is the first thing to suffer and we work that much harder. I said to one swimmer today that I could tell her arms were getting tired and she agreed. I then suggested she keep her elbows high and not let them drop and keep her form because no matter what, we are going to get tired! No sense making it worse having to fight bad form which could lead to an injury.
I had one new person come out that was interested in joining the club and after the swim we sat down to talk and go over everything and he is signing up! The KW Fighting Koalas has grown again!!
Cheers:)

Weather is getting nice again!

Weather is getting nice again so you know what that means? No not yard work, biking!! Yesterday I did a 50km ride around noon time. Tricky little south-east wind but not too bad. Coming back from Wellesley was a little slower but I think the wind shifted a bit before I made it home. Good ride. Tried to pick up the pace a little bit earlier in ride and I noticed my heart rate was mostly in the upper level of my aerobic threshold. I think I was a little tired still from a late Monday night.
Then it was the Koalas bike practise at 6:30pm. Beautiful night for more biking although it was a tad smelly! A farmer decided it was a good day to spread some manure onto his fields and it was terrible bad...phew. The practise went very well. We did one-legged drills, some super spins, sub-max tempo laps and finally three hill repeats. For the hill repeats the two ladies were talking a wee bit of smack to each other for the title Queen of the Hill! All in fun but maybe in a couple of weeks I will get them to race up the hill?
Afterwards, three of us went for a little after practise refreshment to wash down all the road riding. Nice way to end the day!