Somebody was smiling down on us this weekend, with great weather, which was a bonus given that we are already into the month of October. There were many old faces, but also some new ones including two serious characters, who kept the sessions very light. I can remember Alan and Gerry from my season in 2004 – there were always some comments both pre and post race & this weekend was no different. The arrival of the infamous Kilkenny woman on Sunday added to the proceedings! That’s what sport is about.

 

 

Saturday's Run (L-R): Don, Amanda, Philip, Robert, Gerry, Alan, Teresa and Celine

 

 

 

The girls in Vicarstown (l-r): Celine, Teresa & Amanda 

 

In terms of intensity and volume the weekend was perfect given the time of the year, with the focal point being swim technical work, while we also did two easy spins and one adventurous run into Emo Park, including the stream jump – one poor lad fell flat on his ass! Most importantly everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerry and Amanda run past Emo Court Lake 

 

During the weekend the South African question was asked and of course the South African training holiday! There’s already interest, which was a surprise! The training holiday is something that I want to be perfect, so I don’t want to commit to anything until I spend time in Stellenbosch looking at all the various aspects that need to be right. I am confident I may be able to pull one holiday off before next April. My goal with the holiday is once again to keep numbers small and work on quality over quantity. I have really enjoyed the training weekends and a big part of that is because they have been small and very personal. I want to maintain that important quality. 

 

As I said before I will be spending time at home too, so the training weekends won’t disapear completely and I am also toying with the idea of offering swim only camps, which would take place on a Sunday morning. I am not sure yet if I will be home for Christmas, but if I do get home, I would like to do one to two swim only camps.

 

The spring cleaning has started. I am slowly but surely going through all my stuff, trying to decide what goes to the bin, what goes to South Africa and what goes to storage! It’s a headache for sure, but shouldn’t last too long. The plan is still to leave on October 21st. 

 

I would like to thank all of the individuals and clubs, who supported both the training weekends and various coaching programs since last December. It's something that I personally have really enjoyed and it's been a great way for me to meet so many sound people. Thank you.

 

 

Bobby 

Thanks for all the excellent coaching over the weekend.   I really enjoyed it.   Your approach was attentive and focused and you've great experience to share in addition to your technical knowledge.   The group of 10 works well in that it enables each person to get individualized coaching while benefiting from the group training sessions and enabling each person to gain from the experience of others at the camp.   

When you are settled in SA, let me know about your training camp plans there. 

Thanks again 

Philip

 

Bobby,

 

Just wanted to touch base to say thanks a million for a great weekend. I found it to be hugely beneficial in every aspect of triathlon training. As a relative beginner to Triathlons it has served as a huge benefit to receive the technical training at this stage, I found the swimming coaching particularly good. The base training programs in off peak season, the two week hard/one week easy training schedules in peak season, the swimming drills, the core exercises, etc etc were all brilliant. The weekend sessions are also a great idea because not only do you get the personal coaching from your good self, but you get to meet other athletes of different abilities expressing their issues and providing tips to help in both training and competing. When you spend all the time working in business like I do, getting away for an informative weekend like this is a great tonic, great company, great information, great training. Thank you sincerely from a very satisfied customer and thanks also to all the other athletes for a memorable weekend.   

 

Best regards

 

Don