Next week we will have the 4th Annual Cort the Sport Stockholders Meeting, also known as "my yearly lunch with Coach Jim." It's a post-season meeting (not on bikes or in the pool but in actual chairs like a real meeting) to reflect, assess, and plan.
I spent some time this week organizing my ideas and thoughts into a document. Every year the format changes some, but the main topics I included this time are:
- What went well in 2013
- What was not so good in 2013
- What I want to improve for 2014 (training/performance related)
- Goals for 2014 (race related)
- Out Season Training ideas (broken down by swim, bike, run, gym)
- 2014 Race Season schedule
- Misc thoughts
- Equipment changes
- How can I be a more coachable athlete?
I type out my thoughts and share the document with Coach Jim a few days in advance. (It's coming soon, Coach, I'm still tweaking it!) I also look at my notes from the prior year to see if I met my goals or made the desired changes. Then he makes his own notes and supplements them with charts and graphs that make sense of my ideas.
Whether or not you have a coach, this is a good post-season exercise to do -- with a friend or even just for yourself.
We leave the meeting with our expectations and ideas in alignment and it saves a lot of time and guesswork through the year.
Related to this post - Training Peaks had a good article today, despite its unfortunate preposition-ending awkward title:
How Long Do You Need a Coach For (ugh)!I would attest to the value of a long-term "relationship" with the right coach!!
And now we return to our regularly scheduled rest and recovery!
