Planning the Program

Week three

Unfortunately I was away for this week’s tute, which meant I had to miss out on more fun basketball activities.  However I was on a 3 day surfing/bonding trip with my netball squad.  We went down to Broulee and had surfing lessons and personal training each day with a trainer friend of mine.  All our food was cooked for us (healthy AND delicious) and there were shenanigans all round ! 

The topic this week was planning programs.  This is a bit of contradictory concept for me, being the disorganised person that I am, I usually struggle to not only make plans but follow through with them except, interestingly enough, when it comes to coaching or teaching.  I used to coach girls basketball and I currently teach swimming lessons and I have always taken the time to plan for those sessions.

I think I do this so meticulously because I have had coaches in the past who have just turned up to training and said ‘oh just shoot around for a bit’ or ‘who wants to play games?’.  Being the ferocious competitor that I am (and always have been, sometimes to my own detriment) I do not like to lose, and have always taken training seriously, firmly believing that the harder you train the more competitive you can become.  This meant that having coaches not be prepared to train was a point of much frustration and I promised that I would never do that to a squad.  I think that if they can take the time to show up ready to work hard each week then I should be able to take the time to prepare a session for them.

Once I began my degree at uni I realised just how in depth planning can really go.  I never went into all the detail of the macro and micro cycles when I was coaching but I certainly do wish that I knew then what I know now.  As they say, hindsight vision is often 20/20.  I can see now just how much careful planning must go into the training schedules of even moderate athletes to ensure time for adaptation and recovery.

I was catting to a friend of mine who is training for a marathon.  I asked if I could borrow her macro cycle for it to have a look at how much hard work goes into the prep for a marathon.

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Rest	5km	CT	5km	Rest	6.5km	5km (EZ)
2	Rest	5km	CT	5km	CT or Rest	8.1km	5km(EZ)
3	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	10km	5km(EZ)
4	Rest	6.5km	Rest	6.5km	CT or Rest	6.5km	5km(EZ)
5	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	10km	5km(EZ)
6	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	12.9km	5km(EZ)
7	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	16km	5km(EZ)
8	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	12.9km	5km(EZ)
9	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	19.3km	Rest
10	6.5km (EZ)	6.5km	Rest	6.5km	CT or Rest	16.1km	5km(EZ)
11	Rest	6.5km	CT	8.1km	CT or Rest	22.5km	5km(EZ)
12	Rest	8.1km	CT	8.1km	CT or Rest	16.1km	5km(EZ)
13	Rest	6.5km	CT	8.1km	CT or Rest	25.8km	5km(EZ)
14	Rest	6.5km	CT	8.1km	CT or Rest	19.3km	5km(EZ)
15	Rest	6.5km	CT	8.1km	CT or Rest	29km	Rest
16	5km (EZ)	8.1km	Rest	10km	CT or Rest	19.3km	5km(EZ)
17	Rest	6.5km	CT	10km	CT or Rest	32.1km	5km(EZ)
18	Rest	6.5km	CT	6.5km	CT or Rest	19.3km	5km(EZ)
19	Rest	5km	20mins	5km	CT or Rest	12.9km	5km(EZ)
20	Rest	3.2km	20mins	Rest	20mins	Carb Load	Race Day

I found this fascinating because the marathon is actually 42km.  So when training for it you never actually run the distance of the race. I looked into this and it seems to be because it takes so long to recover from running a marathon (some runners show the same level of distress in their bodies after a marathon tht heart attack patients do) that running the full distance before race day would actually end up being detrimental to the cause.  This is definitely a good example of why knowing what you’re doing is important !

Over and Out !

Bacon and Eggs with a side of Hashtags

Week two’s tutorial was a very new experience for me.  We ventured (albeit tentatively) into the world of blogging. I had no idea just how under informed I was about the online world until today.  Keith I tip my hat to you, keeping up with all those websites and things, its crazy!

My only experience with blogging and the like so far is the incredibly annoying ‘hash tags’ from instagram that continue to pollute my Facebook page and seem to serve no other purpose than to annoy and distract :P.  Seeing a photo of a girl that has the hash tags #girl #female #cutie #blueeye s#smile #sillypics is just plain infuriating! 

However as I looked at some of the blog websites available I realized that perhaps they’re not all hipsters attention seekers…..maybe there’s more to it than that :o

After a large amount of time was spent laughing at all the fail videos on instragram…..which I felt was a great use of my time…. I finally decided that blogger was the one for me.

Today’s lecture was just as entertaining as the last.  Keith began with an excellent personal development analogy using the premise of a bacon and egg breakfast to comment on an individual’s effort and commitment to a cause.

 

The chicken has obviously put in a decent amount of effort to give the eggs (as I’m sure all women who have given birth could vouch for) however it has not given itself fully to the cause like the pig.  This is a really interesting point as far as sport goes.  Especially, I think when it comes to younger athletes.  When you are young it is not uncommon to be good at a particular sport, nor is it uncommon to have your hand a few different pots.  When I was younger I was involved in gymnastics, athletics, tennis, swimming, basketball, just to mention a few.  So, like the chicken I was happy to put a bit of effort in to further these causes.  But I never fully committed to one particular sport.   However, I watched my brother train 12 times a week for his swimming career. He frequently turned down social events, yummy foods and the things that his friends were doing to commit to his cause.  This eventually paid off for him when he made the Olympic trials.  The pinnacle point of his career.  So as it turns out, I was the chicken and my older brother brought home the bacon!

Keith I especially enjoyed the analogies involving your granddaughter and her Billy kart racing.  I feel like making the trip out to Braidwood to see them all take off down the hill!

Today Keith showed us a few videos to describe who he felt he was.  Forgive the direct plagiarism Keith but I thought I might give the same thing a try!

The first is a fluke basketball shot.  I’ve never done anything as cool as this of course but I have often stumbled accidentally into some of the best things in my life.  Having accidentally awesome things happen is, I feel, a most exhilarating experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BckBq1rMEOg

The second video is a kinetic typography video of the amazing inspirational speech by Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa.  These are wise words to live by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0N-c8MIFvaI
The third video is a speech from my favourite movie Remember the Titans.  This is an incredibly powerful movie and a very movie speech.  One of the best coaching examples I have ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_HFCYz4x6o

The final video is a montage of the Harry Potter movies set to a particularly powerful 30 Seconds to Mars song.  This is because not only did I grow up reading and thoroughly loving these books, I challenge anybody, adult teen or child not to identify with at least one of themes or characters in this amazing series.  I know I certainly do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xb97v9t9hg

Over and out!

NB: The videos portrayed in this blog belong to the authors.  I have no claim over them.