What do you get when you combine focus, great work ethic, determination and an unwavering trust in your coach?
Well on this particular occasion Peak XV Triathlete Tori Peters got the rewards of a 24 minute improvement and a 6th place age group finish (just missing out on a podium place). Even more impressive when considering the extreme conditions of her chosen race 70.3 Campeche in Mexico.
Racing in March is never an easy undertaking as it means that much of the core training is either completed indoors or outside in the miserable weather. However this didn’t deter Tori from completing virtually all of her training even if it meant training well after midnight. You can read Tori’s great race day report here
As is often the case there were times when illness, work commitments and life in general got in the way of our best-laid plans and it is during these times that the relationship between coach and athlete become critical in progressing through. It’s relatively easy to coach athletes when everything is going well however it become more challenging when schedules are interrupted, injury occur, it snows, kids get sick etc. As a coach I spend a fair amount of time talking to athletes to reduce their anxiety often asking them to be patient, see the bigger picture and to place their trust in my judgment.
This judgement is based on nearly 30 years experience both as an athlete and coach where pretty much everything that can go wrong has done. This experience of having raced in every condition imaginable, from the ice cold waters of the lake district to the blistering heat of Australia, from the howling winds of Lanzarote to the soaring waves of Alcatraz becomes invaluable when offering support, advice and reassurance to athletes.
In Tori’s case having personally raced may times in hot and humid climates we were able to work out a strategy to deal with these conditions including clothing choices, race day fuelling, equipment choice and how bad it feels to walk out of an airport and think to your self how on earth can I race in these conditions. Thankfully Tori was able to not only listen and trust but also clever enough to implement our strategy on race day.
Of course there is no such thing as a perfect race and we will be sitting down to look at what lessons were learned, analyse the race data and discuss what we need to do to ensure that the next step is one onto the podium!
If you would like to have a chat about how we can work with you to achieve your goals contact me at garriep@gmail.com
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