What a fantastic morning, Saturday Aug 8 for the GGG's who stayed for the swim/tri coach's chat.
Gaven is an experienced swim coach with over 30 years coaching top athletes, recreational athletes and kids. Personally he has competed in many tri's and swimming competitions. Gaven is a personal friend of Brad and Jo's so thank you to Jo for organising the morning and to Brad for cooking the bbq breakfast!
From a coach's perspective I found the morning a great experience by listening, observing and learning how Gaven expertly explained, spoke, demonstrate and communicated with the group.
From the group's perspective, I'm sure the girls felt there were so many tips learnt - many were simple basic concepts but these points were either new to us as novice tri athletes or reinforced by putting into words, things we knew or understood from experience.
Gaven took the group through basic swim technique, explaining the mechanics of how your body should move over the water, how to relax, how to kick, how to breathe, how to approach swimming in a tri whether in a pool or open water. Gaven reassured the girls that flippers were not cheating rather an excellent training tool as they allow you to train longer and faster.
He spoke about the bike leg and how important it is to maintain reps,how to manage your gears, how to plan transition, how often to train and when to combine your disciplines in training. He excited the girls with his comment that going for long rides, in his experience helps drop body weight.
Gaven explained that he believed speedwork ultimately brings about improvement and his basic message was - if you want to swim - you have to swim - just get yourself out the door and go, even if you begin with only two laps, you have started. Just like when we all began our running, with small gradual increases - all the triathlon disciplines are the same. Begin at the beginning, concentrate on technique and practice, practice, practice.
GGG's thank Gaven for his generosity, giving his time and sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience.
A few GGG's are aiming to participate in the Pinkie's Triathlon's in Sept at the Sunshine Coast and/or in October at the Gold Coast. It's a 300m swim, 10k bike ride and 3k run - a bit of fun for the novice triathlete! These events raise money for Breast cancer.
