We flew into Denver on Thursday afternoon and drove to Colorado Springs. I lived in Boulder for 8 years and spent plenty of time driving between there and the Springs. It felt very familiar and I was looking forward to being back there.
Classes started on Friday and it was non-stop lectures. I would say I had average expectations for the weekend. Wow....was I blown away....the lectures were top notch and the presenters were very high level - Olympic coaches, elite athlete coaches, PhDs. Great stuff.
Here is a list of presenters and what was covered:
Periodization and Planning - Justin Trolle, USAT Athlete Development manager - this was a full morning of learning how to put together a training plan....in detail.
Nutrition and Strength Training for triathletes - Bob Seebohar - USAT Elite Coach - a full afternoon of information on nutrition and strength training - much of this information was cutting edge, challenging many long held beliefs. We are putting into practice what we learned here and I will be blogging about that in a future blog.
How to recognize and Avoid overtraining/Exercise Physiology - Krista Austin - one of the coaches of the 2009 New York City Marathon.
Swimming skills and economy training - Kim Matz, USA Swimming National Team coach. What I don't know about swimming is a lot.
Cycling Skills - Abby Rudy - what I don't know about cycling is a lot.
Running Skills and Economy Training - Bobby McGee, Expert and elite coach. I learned more about running in this 90 minute seminar than in my entire life of running.
Sports Psychology/Mental Skills - Bobby McGee - Last year, I started doing some of the stuff discussed in this seminar and had great success. It was a good reminder to continue.
Also covered were Triathlon Specific Training and Ethics/Risk Management.
My mind is so overloaded right now. I am working to focus on just a few things to start with and then move my focus to a few more things. It was a lot to take in. One of the things discussed was that triathlon is its own sport - it is not just swimming, biking, running....it is a sport that requires all those things. This is a really important point when thinking about training and performance.
I could list a thousand interesting things learned during the weekend, but I won't!! I am starting to put some of these things into practice and will keep you posted on the results.
Our intent is to coach other athletes. We have two triathlons that we are organizing and promoting this summer and we are going to include training programs. Our other intent is to improve our own training, especially with Ironman coming up in August.
We have a test to take and it is a doozie!! Once that is done, we will be certified coaches....woohooo....
We had a great time during the whole weekend. We got in a few runs. I am just getting over a sinus infection and back injury due to a sneeze! Running at altitude at 5 am either made me better or worse - we'll have to wait a few days to see which!
We capped the weekend off with a quick visit to see my family. Here we are with our three Richards nephews.
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