….well neither was triathlon excellence! Believing in the longer term plan – by Tony Clarke, TTT coach

Have you heard that cliché? Well we can really relate to that in what we are trying to achieve with our athletes at TTT and in fact a few of us use it with our ever-eager triathletes on a regular basis. The training that we programme is about quality, which means building solid and lasting foundations on top of which we layer those final finishing touches. We see all too often in a magazine the magical ‘12 week plan to a PB’. The years have taught us that 12 weeks just won’t cut it when preparing for long distance races or indeed any race where you want to deliver a top end performance….. 12 weeks to a sub 3hr marathon will mean shin splints in 3 weeks for many!

Our whole philosophy is about long term investment. If we are even semi serious we need to somehow in the crazy fast pace of the modern world, create a lifestyle which includes consistent patterns and something that is achievable around families, demanding occupations and far reaching social activities. In addition to that we simply can’t totally shut down our training in Autumn and expect ground breaking performance next spring. When people come to us and we talk about their goals we sometimes have to be frank and say that we need to work this continuous cycle for two to three years or more. It’s not about structure all of the time, far from it but applying consistency week in and week out without going flat and becoming disillusioned with our fantastic sport. So we don’t switch off but we balance things with sharp and specific sessions and aim for little bite sized goals along the way, which we then mould to the demands of what we are doing next summer. As a coaching team it’s frustrating when we see long gaps in consistent exercise and then people trying to achieve greatness after literally starting from scratch. We are not talking about hours and hours, we are not talking about going longer even or going super hard but we are talking about a long term consistency, it is critical to back off and enjoy other aspects of our lives and look after those around us who have supported us and shared our pain as we approach our key events.

Short plans over reaching and injuries.

For most “normal” athletes it’s an absolute minimum two to three year continuous cycle to look at personal lifetime best performances. Ok, sure, there is the odd person that can deliver on very little but they are few and far between, and science suggests that those people have huge genetic capability anyway.

At TTT we often see that many who are far less athletically talented are delivering on race day well beyond those who are far more genetically gifted. Why? Because they do the quality work and are consistent plus then have the maturity to deliver exactly what they have rehearsed and nothing more on race day. They know when to hold off and when to push having faith in themselves and those supporting them. It’s great to see our guys getting to Kona or World Championships particularly when if we are honest they have often beaten “superior” athletes. They have done this by executing what they have trained to do. Even on lower hours but with real specifics. We need to focus on the areas that will make us better not always what we are good at or what our favourite discipline is.

We see outstanding single sport athletes BUT we are triathletes and this is triathlon. It’s not three sports it’s one. It’s great to be a great 10k runner or 400m swimmer but this is triathlon. We want to get from a to b as fast as we can expending every ounce of our energy in the most efficient way that delivers the fastest performance. This is a continuous cycle and those looking to achieve need to invest in themselves for the longer term with perhaps a little less overall volume but with more overall frequency over a 12 month period.

We have many on the team who have reached their goals by demonstrating incredible maturity both in training and on race day. They have had faith and simply focussed on the performance that both the coach and athlete believe they can deliver rather than losing energy worrying about what others are doing. Believing constantly, if I do what I trained to do and no more then it does not matter what anyone else is doing. There is nothing more humbling for us when we see someone who could easily have taken a different a lifestyle path tell us that it’s their proudest moment as hard working mums as dads being able to set the example and nurture their children into a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

So don’t rush to finish the whole colosseum in September, carry on to just put a couple of solid blocks in place as often as you can.

Stay safe out there and be proud of what you are achieving!

Coach tc 😉