Coaching Update:Battling

Gidday everyone

Hope you are all staying fit and for those heading into events in the next few weeks time to cut back the volume and sharpen up.

I have been battling a cold the last week. I know I have done my last long ride leading into the Festival of Cycling today and will just do short speed sessions from now till the big day. Racing round the AMP showgrounds, track on Sunday and some hill sprints next week. I will hit into the big event at around 87-88kg which is not bad seeing I haven't trained much with the cold.

Learning more about my Cycling NZ role as a National Junior Selector. It will be my mission to pass on information on riders who are in contention for Cycling NZ Development Squads to the NZ Development Squad Coaches. The Development Squads (U17 and U19) are the feeder squads into the High Performance Programme that is focused on Junior Worlds, Youth Olympics, World Cups, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympic Games. Very exciting to be involved in the process.

I will starting to develop some tutorial sessions for riders. There will be some basic information and then some homework to complete. There will be three main areas that I will focus on...

-Using TrainingPeaks software to monitor training with a Power Meter
-Sprinting Tactics and Preparation (have already done a few of these)
-Goal setting (I want to see better goal set for 2000!!!)

And as always. Feedback. The rider I receive the most feedback from and demands the most commitment to her success is the rider who won FOUR UCI WORLD TITLES this year!

Part of my commitment is to make times to speak with everyone I coach at least once a month. Even in the US! I have signed up for free National calling and very cheap Overseas calls. Also available by email, mobile phone, Facebook, Bebo, and Skype.

Hamish