Galway Tri Club Coached Training Weekend

I’d met Marc and Joanna of The Endurance Coach before and was impressed by them but I had a few good inklings prior to the training weekend that it was going to be good. One was spotting Marc being name checked for running advice in UK Runner’s World magazine in January. Another was meeting him arriving in Galway in full Team GB regalia, having left the world track cycling championships early (as a nutrition advisor for the UK) team to spend the weekend coaching the (frankly less honed) Galway triathletes.

Sure enough, it was a great weekend. Marc and Jo were informative and entertaining. They scrutinised swim strokes on video, analysed time trials for swim, bike and run to set heart rate zones for training for the season, as well as holding technique discussions on swimming, cycling and running.

We had a good Q&A ‘myth busting’ session, dispelling some myths such as that winter track is always a bad idea, and that high cadence is better than low in a triathlon.

The Endurance Coach’s website is a great resource as Marc has a sports science background and has translated a selection of scientific articles related to triathlon into layman’s terms.

Check out http://www.theendurancecoach.com/page.php/infoArticles/23f16b4733915c823114579f1e879334

At the enjoyable (if nutritionally unsound) meal at Mustard on Saturday night we even managed to convince Marc and Jo to come over to Galway for Triathlon Chonamara this July which will be a great boost for the club.

Many thanks to Mark O’Duffy who put a lot of effort into planning and organising the weekend.

See a brief report below from Kieran Whyte, new to the club, who took part in the training weekend:

Report on Triathlon Training Weekend 28/29th March 2009 (Kieran Whyte)

First and foremost a big thank you to the organisers of what was a great weekend. Being a triathlon novice, (from a running background), it was great to meet with other club members of different abilities and backgrounds. I found Marc and Jo, the speakers/ coaches enthusiastic and informative, they presented their points concisely and practically. I found the swim section the most helpful, seeing your technique above and below water was fantastic, I will forever remember Jo’s feedback comment on my stroke, “ I’ve never seen anything like this before” - it’s true- I swim like a frog!!

The cycle test, was approximately a 12km (6km out and back) on the Moycullen road. Beforehand we had been advised re. technique and riding position for minimal wind resistance. Having just got a HR monitor, it was an ideal time to try it out, unfortunately I had it started it while we were assembling in Dangan, so my average HR was a mere 120bpm - relaxed or what? On advice, I repeated it Monday, with a real reading of 15. These were fed into a flow chart to give you your training zones, all very new to me but great to have something to get the most out of your training.

Running in Dangan, involved running with no runners! This was to show how you would naturally run if you had no running shoes, with your forefoot striking the ground rather than your heel. A shorter stride and correct posture were pointed out to improve your efficiency, on that point, it and economy were the main buzz words recommended to improve your performance. A great weekend overall and a nice informal carb loading dinner on Saturday night .