Coaching Christmas

Lots of people got lots of gifts yesterday. I got a coffee mug. But not just any mug, a Good Wolf mug.

This pleased me greatly. It’s the simple things in life that make me happy.

Then, I received the gift of beginning work with a new Good Wolf athlete. it’s a gift because I understand the responsibility involved with helping someone improve while reaching their goals.

In some ways, this gift if like receiving a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. The gift comes in the form of seeing the athlete’s Training Peaks account, which serves as a forensics kit for what’s really transpired in their training and racing over an extended period of time.

Few things make me happier than combing through the data and trying to understand what worked and what didn’t for that athlete.

It’s fun to look at the charts to see how someone’s season ebbed and flowed from the perspectives of fitness building, recovery, racing and sustaining that fitness level. Then, I love diving into specific races to see what transpired, along with what kinds of workouts that athlete was doing going into the race. You can also tell a lot about how the athlete recovers following the race. If it takes extra recovery time, for example, it’s a bit clearer how taxing that race effort may have been. When the opposite happens, it’s clearer that effort is sustainable, and the aerobic engine is stronger.

I feel like I’m a part detective, part data analyst. Fascinating stuff.

Some people want to subscribe to Disney Plus for the holidays.

This is my holiday jam.