Oh the life of a full-time triathlon coach. It's never dull, that's for sure.
This morning I was up at 6:30 to drive to Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie for the Playtri open water swim clinic. I had three pre-inflated swim buoys, cinder blocks, and plenty of rope in my trunk (I had loaded the kayak, paddles, and life vest into the red work truck yesterday for Coach David to drive down this morning). I got to Lynn Creek Park on the lake at about 7:30 and with David and Mike's help, got the kayak, buoys, and other open water supplies to the shore while the athletes were arriving. Mike volunteered to be our kayaker for the morning, so we loaded him up with a buoy to go set, and made sure the others were ready on the shore.
I walked over to the athletes and chatted for a minute - then looked back to the water, and saw that Mike was in much the same place in the water as he had been previously. Now, if you're not a north Texan or if you just didn't leave your house this morning, you might not know that it was viciously windy in the AM today, and that breeze was kicking up some pretty decent swells on the lake. So Mike was paddling head on into the waves, and not getting very far. I look away for a moment, then look back, and the kayak is upside down and Mike is standing in the water. It was just as well, though - he re-grouped, re-loaded the buoy, re-loaded himself, and started out again. Next thing I know, he's in the water again. Now Mike is a strong guy, so if he's having trouble, you know that is some rough water. But after a few more dunks, Mike got the buoys set and I went to go over the beginner swim clinic plan with Coach Jeanne. I had submitted the plan a few days before, and I was planning for us to do it together - but Jeanne had other plans, and I ended up leading the clinic myself (with help from her when needed, of course). I was pretty nerve-wracked at first (it was my first time to lead an open water clinic), but it ended up being a great experience.
At 9:00, I had to speed out of there - no rest for the weary tri coach! - and head up to Sherman, TX, about 70 miles away. I had an appointment with a brother and sister who wanted to start doing triathlons. After a good 20 miles of scenic roads and wildflowers (I love driving in the country) I make it to the home of my newest athletes. It is a sprawling (there's no better adjective for it) stucco ranch house complete with tennis court and two pools, and the requisite cattle guards and gravel drives. The land is absolutely beautiful. We head straight back for the pool, and the kids' first lesson in the breast stroke. I like to start younger kids who have no previous knowledge of freestyle swimming with the breast stroke. It builds their muscles and confidence in the water, and makes for an easier transition to freestyle (in my opinion). We broke up swim practice with an underwater headstand contest, cannonball contest, and water slide time (naturally). Have I mentioned that I love my job? And I get paid for this! By the end of our 45 minutes in the pool, both kids pretty much had the knack of the stroke - all they need now is more practice. Then we headed to transition practice. The kids weren't huge fans - they wanted to get to the biking, darn it! - but they were good sports and humored crazy Coach Morgan as she made them put on their biking gear over and over again, until she finally let them bike for real. That's when the younger sister announced that she couldn't ride her bike over the cattleguards. Um... cattleguards? I brought my TT bike, but that suddenly didn't sound like the best idea. Fortunately, spare bikes were not in short supply at this wonderful home, and I was on a GT hybrid bike before you could say "gravel road," and it was a good thing because we hit at least four cattleguards during the ride that followed. The kids did a great job, and they kept it up all the way through our second hour of practice, which included an awesome game of Simon Says. Again - I love my job. As I was heading out, there was a flurry of fort-building happening inside, and I was hoping I would get to come back again.
On the way back to Dallas, I quickly realized that my indiscriminate bathing suit wear during the 2 hour outdoor practice had led to a pretty thorough upper body sunburn. Sigh. But no time to worry about that. I got into town, hit up Target for a new card table, paper, pens, and aloe vera gel, and it was off to the Richardson Bike Mart on Garland (right by my apartment, thank goodness) for the Playtri Festival Kids Race Ready Program introductory meeting. I set up my table and information in a corner in the back so parents could stop by if they still needed to register - it was short and sweet, we only had one new registrant, and the others already paid online, so I was out of there and on my way home by 3:15 (once I figured out how to re-fold my new folding table).
As soon as I got home I passed out on the couch until about 6:30. After a bacon sandwich and some leftover birthday cake. Hey, I'm a tri coach, I'm not perfect - don't judge.
I woke up groggy and not a little disoriented, but I knew I needed to run, so I threw on my Adidas' and a long-sleeved tech shirt (thank you suburn) and hit the trail to the lake. I realized about one minute in, as I was fantasizing about ice cold watermelon, that I was wildy dehydrated. My hour run quickly turned into 30 minutes, and a grueling 30 minutes to boot. Talk about heat acclimation. I got home and immediately took a cold bath accompanied by a glass of iced Gatorade and some cold V8 (lots of salt and carbs, perfect recovery drink). After about 15 minutes in the tub, I started to feel human again. Chuck just looked at me like I was crazy, but then that's just what cats do.
And now, it's time for more aloe vera.
Happy training everybody
No comments:
Post a Comment