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Good morning…. good morning! Welcome to Recovery Week! If you have been diligently following the program, you will be looking forward to the sleep ins and active recovery sessions. And if you haven’t….well, all we can say is, don’t try and make up for it this week. Prep yourself to be back on the wagon ready to go again. Something we can all aim to complete this week is our next round of test sets (FTP Tuesday night and Run TT Thursday night). We know these provide us with valuable data to see how you are tracking. But they also provide us with little goals to build up and look forward to, and also help maintain momentum. We urge every athlete to complete these sets this week and add it to your bucket. It will help you and your coach in prepping your path forward.
To help with building momentum and supporting athletes with motivation, we’re adding some recovery sessions to the online timetable this week. Join us at the following times to work on your flexibility, stretching and/or rolling. It’s always more fun when it includes banter with others!
- Monday night @ 7:00pm – following dryland swimming. Use the same link.
- Wednesday night @ 7:30pm – after the FTP and in preparation for your run TT (Wednesday night link HERE)
- Friday night @ 5:30pm – wine (not whine) and stretch to end the working week. (Friday night link HERE)
It’s fairly evident that we will remain under current restrictions for a little while yet. And whilst we don’t want to sound like a broken record, there are some key points we want to hone in on: - Stay consistent – remember how hard it was when you first started? It’s much easier to keep the ball rolling than it is to let it stop and try and pick it back up again. We are learning to navigate our way through these lockdowns, which in reality will come and go, and you have to decide how you want to handle them. The coaches see you working really hard when we are face-to-face, watching the progress you make and can’t help but get a little disappointed when that just stops. Why take one step forward to then move two steps backwards. Consistency is key.
- Get outside – not only for your body but also for your mind. We had beautiful weather over the weekend, and we hope many of you embraced it. Don’t underestimate the power of Vitamin D, fresh air and space.
- Control the controllable – we know you’ve heard it, but it’s time to listen. You are still in control of how much effort you put in, of how much time you devote to recovery, how many sessions you complete, how much you listen to your body. Get the idea. You can still choose all of those things, so this is a reminder to stay focused on what you can control and not get hung up on those that you can’t.
- Ask questions – now is a really good time to be tapping into a coach, having a consult, going through your scenario, asking questions and seeking answers. They are all here to listen and support you. It’s been great to see all the athletes coming forward and scheduling in online consults. It’s put their minds at ease, it helps the coach understand your story better and it helps path the way forward…as a team.
- Work on your weaknesses – what better time than now. Simply, there is not a better time to be devoting towards strength, rehab, flexibility, technique…all those things that can go by the wayside when life gets busy and work/race pressures get the better of you.
- Keep the bigger picture in mind – we know a lot of you have races pencilled in the calendar. Don’t lose sight of these dates and the journey to them. Dropping the ball for a week or two is lost opportunity. Not only that, but you also then need to scramble to ‘catch’ back up, which we all know is a recipe for disaster. And we’re not just talking about Long Course here. Short Course racing will be just around the corner, and that base, that race prep and fitness won’t come from nowhere. You don’t always get what you wish for, you get what you work for!
- Unplug – we get it! Seriously, we do. Many of you are spending most of your days in and out of Zoom/Teams/Skype meetings and when it comes to training, you just can’t stomach the thought of logging on to yet another meeting! For some, the thought of a quiet, uninterrupted, technology-free run or ride is like heaven and just what you need. Well, if that is you….then do it! All power to you. Great strength can be found from having some time to yourself and time to think about whatever the heck you want to (including nothing) whilst you train. For those of you working closely with our coaches, know that you can always drop them a quick note to let them know how it went and reflect on how you felt. Accountability and support in just the right dose.
As always, we will be in contact as soon as anything changes, but we thought we’d get on the front foot this week and help you plan ahead. Especially to get recovery week right. Please get in contact with us if you need anything and we look forward to seeing many of you at a session this week. |
