From time to time they remind the listeners that the advice (most of it) applies to pros and to the tip of the age group field. That’s fair.
Overall I shrugged my head less as I listened on to the episode, but I also remember the episodes with actual age group advice, so my general impression is based on a combination of this off-season series and the earlier podcasts.
Fair I don’t listen to many podcasts from them anymore,so I can only base it on that specific pod, which I thought was good.
Kajet!! Love that you’re listening and thinking where you agree and disagree. All good athletes and coaches when they listen to pods about training have those same “nah this is garbage” or “I couldn’t agree more” thoughts go through their head. I’m always doing the same thing when I listen to the pods I do. The racing one is an interesting example though as it’s only for pro’s. I don’t coach any age groupers but I 100% would not do the same thing for age groupers if I did coach them. The difference is with pro’s they need to get the first part of their seasons organised. It’s not actually for motivation or inspiration as much as it’s about the purpose of their jobs. For example, how many top pro’s get to Jan/Feb and don’t have almost their entire season planned? I’d say unless they’re injured it would be close to 100% of top level pro’s have their whole race season planned. And if they don’t, they definitely have their first race or two + their 1-2 key races decided. I’ve never worked with a pro who starts the year and isn’t on me about “can I do this race?” or “should I do x, y and z races or what about this or that race?” It’s also not about staying motivated through the winter because 50% of the athletes I coach are actually in summer over January. And I’ve never once had to try to keep the pro’s I coach from America/Europe motivated through winter off seasons. If anything you have to hold them back because they’re so driven to improve so they can race better than they did the year before.
Also keep in mind that for the pro’s their race entries are free. They can sign up for 5-6 races and then decide as they go and that’s what the majority of pro’s do. So there’s really no downside of picking races at the start of the year and booking them in.
The main reason I like to lock down 2 in the first quarter is most of the big races are later in the year. For example the key race for 2 of my athletes this year is Kona in October and then another 2 are targeting 70.3 worlds at around the same time. And 9-10 months is too long to focus on one race for a pro, they need targets along the way. And usually they probably need 5-6 of them. So locking races in at the start of the year means that all the motivation and discipline they have (all of their own accord) can simply be directed towards those races. So they have a nice 8-12 week block of pre season training and then can hit a race block rather than get bogged down training 25-30 hours a week, largely solo, for too long a period of time where they get burnt out and don’t use their fitness for anything.
Obviously with Age Groupers it’s different because they have work, families, financial stress, university, etc etc and so if I were to coach them I suspect I’d never really force racing upon them. I’d be more in the boat of waiting for them to tell me “I really want to go do this race” and I’d be like great, lock it in, let’s train for that. But I daresay I’d be more the kind of coach who just focuses on getting them as fit as I could, taking into account all their life commitments and if they can race say 2-3 times a year (particularly in a sport as demanding and expensive as long distance triathlon) that would be a pretty good year! And then they could probably fit in other little local triathlons that are shorter, fun runs, park runs, etc. etc. throughout the year as more last minute kind of races.
Some waffling there, but sometimes the nuance can get lost when we do a little 5-10 minute segment and you only expand 20% on a subject so it leaves a lot up to interpretation when you’re listening so hopefully that clears up that one very specific point you made.
Class Jack:pinched_fingers:
If you don’t even know her surname, you probably have a different motive to hate on keen-bean-Kelly than protecting Taylor. Wonder who those “other more reputable” podcasters might be to you. Husbands and paid agents maybe?
Hmm replied to the reply. Meant for Jeff. Sorry fast wheel.
@JackKelly-TTH Thanks for putting the Road to Oceanside on the main channel. Really enjoy Ari, Justin, and Jackson as a group!