Coach Carter

I remember being at a seminar presentation of Dan Millman, and the quote “Life is a school, and each day delivers a lesson”. From that perspective, life is a challenge – and I think the athlete knows that as much as any population group. Dare I say it, pressure and stress can be more for this group – for the amateur athlete, trying to squeeze preparation and training around a full time job is tough. Indeed, its like having two jobs.

In the past week, there have been numerous occasions where I have felt great empathy for the athletes I coach. In the main, it has been hearing accounts of how hard it has been getting back to work post the Christmas and New Year and getting accustomed to fitting in the training again. Quite a shock going from a 20h training week facilitated by the festive break, and then reducing those training hours back to the norm BUT with usual levels of work stress re-introduced. The second big aspect has been helping people through the early stages of recovery from ice related crashes - 4 of my athletes fell off their bikes this weekend, thankfully nothing more than brusied hips, bottoms and pride. Coupled with Mark and Chris still recovering from their respective ski and bike crashes pre-Christmas, I'm lucky to have ANYONE training right now!

It would be unfair to suggest that the challenge to the amateur is harder than what the pros have to encounter – it is just a different kind of stress. Before taking my two year cycling ‘sabbatical’ in 2005, a conversation with top time triallist Michael Hutchinson warned me of the trap of just ‘exchanging stress’ rather than removing it by working less. Indeed, it took the first year of the 2 years getting used to the balance of part time work with full time training! So, its been a valuable experience working with Nic Baldo – a full time pro in France. In our Skype chat this week, I again gained an insight in to the challenges of being an athlete. Nic is about to travel to Mallorca for his annual 2 week stint there with team mates. This time last year, he came back from the trip needing reassurance – the training methods he was undergoing with me were SO far removed from that traditionally used in the pro peloton.  It was a stressful time for him: 2 weeks of being a ‘lone wolf’, sticking to our scientifically driven plan rather than going out on 7 h rides at ridiculously low intensities. On the eve of his trip this year, we talked how far he has come – and how the results of the 2010 season enable him to go out there in the same company but with evidence that quality not quanity is the way forward. I have even tasked him with a recruitment drive of more pro athletes to the PBscience fold based on his success!!

I had a couple of 1-2-1 meetings on Friday that really hit home how tough a journey it can be sometimes. First up for a coach-athlete meeting was Juliette. She has recently been diagnosed with Lymphoedema - a condition where the lymphatic system is impaired, leading to quite severe swelling. The lymphatic system is very important: taking tissue fluid, bacteria, proteins and waste products away from the tissues around skin, fat, muscle and bone. To the athlete, this is a clear disadvantage, as the rate at which you can dispose of metabolic waste is often a rate limiting step for performance. You can read more about Juliette's challenge ahead and how we are managing this on her new blog. Needless to say, this is an interesting yet challenging project for us - for me, I am learning a lot about this bodily system and how it responds in exercise. For Juliette, she has the emotional / mental demands of competing at a disadvantage against others (and previous performances). So far we have made some good initial steps, and some useful contacts - like Zoot (who make compression gear) and also NormaTec. The latter make some rather wonderful space age looking pneumatic boots used by pro teams such as Garmin for recovery.

I then went on to meet Craig, my 2010 Leadville finisher, who has taken on a new career challenge. His new position now entails long commute days to and from London – not exceptional on that front BUT, throw in a regular ‘commute’ to Abu Dhabi and Paris, and you can begin to see that holding down a structured plan is immensely challenging for him. Even his Christmas 'break' was a mad airport / driving across Europe dash: Prague - London - abu dhabi - London - Prague - London. As an aside, its always an interesting observation that those athletes with the least training time are those preparing for the longest events! Craig has given me an allowance of 3 x 30 min turbo sessions in the week and two rides at the weekend to get him ready for 24h mountain biking this year (come back Leadville, all is forgiven!). Part of the problem here for Craig is that, like with most people, goal posts move: once you complete something, you want that added extra next time around...hence the goal event now being twice as long as Leadville!

I came away from these two meetings on Friday evening with a mix of emotions – a kind of ‘despair’ out of empathy for them both. “How can I help them when so up against it?”. But, I also had a deep motivation to play my part, and also felt invigorated by the face to face exchanges, the deep connection you form with people when working on a shared project. In many ways I needed this end to the week – like my athletes, I found it quite tough coming back to work on January 4^th. I had really needed the break over Christmas and New Year: probably the first time in years that I had stripped back to zero and truly rested. But, that made it tough to get back up to speed again! In addition, working alone can be terribly challenging sometimes – I got in to coaching in order to work with people. The irony is that as a cycling coach, most of my work is sat behind a computer: writing plans, reading research, analysing training files. Using Skype to connect with people has definitely helped me (and the athletes) deepen the bond and in generating a ‘getting my hands dirty’ feeling. But, you can’t beat face to face work – so Friday’s time with Craig and Juliette was a welcome end to my first week back. I really hope 2011 continues with more athlete time.

Another development which is helping me in my work is forming a team around me at PBscience. I have commented before how having Dan as my assistant has added to my coaching experience in the past year – one aspect I miss from my University work days is having colleagues around me. At least with Dan and I meeting a couple of times a week, we have that contact. We are looking at how we can spend more time in the same work environment: currently, our office is Costa coffee in Eastbourne! Yesterday, we branched out: Starbucks in East Croydon! The reason for our re-location to the ‘big smoke’ was twofold – firstly, a morning meeting with Hannah Reynolds at IPC: publishers of Cycling Weekly and the Health and Fitness magazines (some exciting developments with PBscience becoming regular contributors to both magazines in 2011, watch this space!); secondly, we spent the afternoon working with Oli. I have been coaching Oli for over a year now. A coach himself (and regular contributor to both the IPC publications I mention above), Dan and I have been speaking with Oli about how to bring him into the team. Oli’s first remit is to update our website. With an expansion in to provision of ‘fixed length’ plans market alongside the 1-2-1 coaching we do, and a growing importance in internet presence in modern commerce, having someone with Oli’s experience is greatly appreciated (his day job). We spent an afternoon chewing over marketing possibilities, new packages, how to adapt the website – really exciting talk (if not a little overwhelming, with the ‘to do’ list that was generated!). I have loved building the existing website – but wanting to focus more of my time on coaching work means we have needed this specific help to spread the load. More updates at a later date on what the new website will bring.