New Goal / Tri Coach

April 2, 2013
New Goal - Outdoor Sprint Triathlon / Tri Coach

Now that I know I know I can survive the distance of a sprint triathlon, my next goal is to do an outdoor triathlon with a lake swim.  I have my eye on a couple of events in August so I have about three months to get ready.

Tri Coach!

I found a triathlon coach in my area through Triathlon USA.  I was pretty nervous about asking a "real" coach to work with an overweight, 60-year-old woman.  But, I told myself not to be controlled by my feelings of embarrassment and contacted him by email.  I gave him plenty of "outs" but he said that he was "born to coach" and that while most of his clients were people working on the Ironman, he also worked with young kids, old people, overweight people, all types.  Bingo!  Perfect match.

Our first meeting was a "sit down."  I talked about my journey and told him about my goal to do an outdoor triathlon.  He was a good listener and didn't laugh!  Actually, he was quite encouraging.  There was no contract to sign and I only had to commit to a month.  That was good for me, but I also got the impression that arrangement was good for him too.  I think he wanted a way to exit the relationship if a client started to not be serious about training (wasting his time).  So, I sent him a check and now I have a coach!

Our next meeting was at the local YMCA.  My coach had me do a warm up that left me sweating!  One thing he had me do was walk while raising my leg to the side like a dog peeing.  I felt so silly but I had promised myself and my coach that I would be coachable.  A little kid looked at me in puzzlement and then laughed.  So it goes.

Coach said my run was ok.  He wants me to focus on my cadence (90 rotations per minute), keep my elbows back and look up.  Great goals.  Then we got in the pool.  This meant that someone who knew me by name was going to see me in a bathing suit.  Again, I focused on not letting my embarrassment control me.  Coach asked me to swim a length and when I did, I saw him pop off his chair to follow me down the pool.  When I got back, he seemed genuinely excited.  For most triathletes, swimming is their worst event and I think he expected this overweight, sixty-year-old woman to splash her way down the pool.  He said that my technique was excellent and that he thought I could do the swim part of a triathlon right now, and that I was a much better swimmer than many of his other triathletes.  Wow!  That really built my confidence!

So, Coach sends me a workout every Sunday by email and I send him feedback at the end of the week.  My first week of training was:

Monday:  Swim - intervals (100 meters, 15 sec rest) with different focuses
Tuesday:  Run - intervals (5 min jog / 1 min rest)
Wednesday:  SPIN (my request)
Thursday:  Swim - more intervals
Friday:  Run - intervals (3 min medium / 1 min rest)
Saturday:  Bike (one hour)

So far, so good.