Coach Carter

After much umming and erring, here I am about to begin my first foray into the world of blogging. Don't get me wrong, I read a lot of blogs (some might say I waste too much time reading other peoples musings) but never before have I sat down and decided to empty my heart and soul to the world. Anyway, here I am and it only seems fair to begin with the obligatory (cliched) spiel on why I am writing the blog and what I hope to achieve.

First up, after working with PBscience for around 2 years in some form or another, it's perhaps taken this long to realise that I may actually have something to share that may be interesting and Lord knows may even be useful to someone other than myself. Much of my work has been 'behind the scenes' - helping with building the website, and (slowly) building up the library of resources. In addition to the material that ends up on the site, I've accumulated heaps of stuff that doesn't quite fit the mould for a fact sheet, wouldn't go down very well as a video but is perhaps a little OTT for a forum post. This blog will serve as a medium to share some of this information that doesn't quite belong elsewhere. Additionally as my own coaching work progresses further, I hope to document the changes in my understanding and philosophy and share some of the ups and downs along the way.

Secondly, I've become one of the many followers of Helen's blog and look forward to her regular updates on Wednesday. Even to the point where I get frustrated when it doesn't get posted on a Wednesday and I ruin my working day by checking back every hour to see if it's up yet. In all seriousness, seeing how Helen's blog has grown into a valuable resource in it's own right is all the motivation I need to write my own (For example see the post on turbo training tips - invaluable for many given the weather we're having* and one I refer to frequently with my own athletes and indeed for my own training). *I wrote this several weeks ago but decided to delay posting so not to appear to jump on the new year's resolution bandwagon. I do NOT set new year's resolutions, I set SMART goals of course...

Third on the list is an outlet for my own PhD work. In October I enrolled at the University of Brighton to begin my own research, hopefully to end with the award of my doctorate. I have already received a tremendous amount of advice and opinions as I begin this long and winding road, much of it along the lines of "Gaining a PhD is not about how much you know, it's more about how much crap you can put up with." and my personal favourite, "No one will care what you're doing, even your supervisors probably aren't that interested, so get used to being lonely and miserable." Filled with joy at these inspiring words I see that I'm going to need somewhere to share my work... or just rant... even if no one reads it.

Finally (well there is more but this is the last I'm going to bore you with) contrary to what Nathan may think, I do still consider myself a competitive cyclist. There may come a time in the future, maybe not this season (maybe not this decade, I hear Nathan cry) where I put in a performance I can be proud of. I reserve the right to use this blog to sing from the rooftops and boast that I'm the new Eddy Merckx when this day finally comes.

That's it for now. I'm off snowboarding on Sunday so expect an update when I get back.