Coach's Corner

Back in the hedonistic days of the early 90’s (or, as hedonistic as a trainee accountant can be!), I worked in the City for a firm called Neville Russell (now defunct).

Every lunchtime we would be taken by our Manager to a bar across the road called The Sir Paul Pindar in the newly built Broadgate Centre. We would spend at least 2 hours there and stagger out to sleep at our desks in the afternoon. I don’t know how we got away with it, but we did, and times were good.

Working in the City was an experience which I am glad I had but, eventually, I grew up and, more to the point, I was unable to keep up the pace. I passed my exams and decided to get a proper job and earn some money – actually, my proper job was to become a freelance tax consultant; a ‘job’ which I still do to this day.

Nowadays, I join up most Fridays with a few friends for early beers at the pub across the road from where I live – The Swan. No more evident is my current inability to keep up the pace than during my last couple of outings there. The first was on 1 February, following my month off the juice, and then again the Friday before last. On each occasion, I literally crawled home (just as well it is only 50 yards away) – a highly hazardous occupation given that it involves crossing a fairly busy road.

My drinking partners are also keen triathletes. Well when I say ‘keen’ I mean one is very keen, another is keen’ish and another used to be keen and is now trying to get back into it. They are Jev, Alex and Simon respectively. Then there’s a smattering of others who join in occasionally. No matter how committed they are, it’s always nice to train with them because we are all of different standards and can learn from each other.

In fact, it’s always nice to train with other people, no matter who they are. Which is why this week I booked myself onto a warm weather training camp in Italy in May – the Steve Trew training camp, to be precise.

Steve is a British coach with a great pedigree, having coached Olympic and Commonwealth teams. He is also first choice when it comes to TV commentators. I saw Steve at the TCR show a few weeks ago, and he came across as a really good coach and, just as importantly, a really nice guy. Then I came across an article on tri247 where Steve said that there were a few places left on his training camp in May. So, I had a look on my calendar and it so happens that the training camp is perfectly timed – a week after Grendon and a week before Milton Keynes – and £550.00 later and I’m in. I should be up to full speed (such that I won’t be left behind on the hills in Italy!) and it will give me a great week of fine-tuning ahead of MK.

This week I have trained almost entirely on a solitary basis. Pounding the streets of Edlesborough and surrounding villages at 6am, or midnight (yep, I’m still doing the midnight runs), or, as I did one evening this week, a short nighttime spin in complete darkness on my spin bike in the garage – with only the thumping of the 180bpm tunes on the ipod to keep me company. But, wowee, how refreshing it was. Pitch black, eyes wide closed, and off I went. Heart-out-of-the-chest stuff. Those sessions are precisely why I did the gym up in the garage. Enjoyed every single moment.

I wasn’t a complete Billy this week, though. I did do a thoroughly enjoyable MTB ride at Brickhill Woods (aka Apsley Woods, aka Woburn Trails) with Alex on Friday. Haven’t been out on the MTB for a while, and how I have missed it. We had a two lap race around the perimeter. Again, heart-out-the-chest stuff. I won (sorry Alex).

Here’s what else I did…..

Monday – rest
Tuesday – run - easy, to include 4000m at 4 min/km pace, 50 press-ups and 35 sit-ups
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 45 minutes at 2.0 gradient, run - hill repeats - hopping
Thursday – run - 800 metre intervals, 50 press-ups and 36 sit-ups
Friday - bike - mountain bike ride with Alex at Brickhill Woods
Saturday – run - easy, to include 4000m at 4 min/km pace, 50 press-ups and 37 sit-ups
Sunday - bike - spin in the garage

The coming week is the end of a four-week training block and is, thus, an easy week. Having said that, my running is coming on very well and so I am going to test out the Mike Trees’ (another top coach) sub-40 minute 10K plan which I have been following by running 5K at speed to see if I can beat my current PB.

Continuing this week's theme, this week’s *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Coach Mark Kleanthous’s website. Coincidentally, Mark is a coach about whom Steve Trew wrote on a tri247 article some while ago. Big congratulations to Mark whose website came third in 220's recent awards. Take a look for yourself and tell me you're not impressed.

Finally, a big fat pat on the back for my daughter Emily who was chosen to represent her music school on piano at this weekend's Milton Keynes Music Festival. The standard of musicians on show was outstanding and I was so, so proud to see her up there playing with them, on the Grand Piano, taking it all in her stride. Obviously nervous, Emily played her heart out and enjoyed every moment. I am so looking forward to seeing her at the Albert Hall in years to come!!! Well done, Em. x

Cheers.

Colin