I had some one ask me these and wanted to share my response when asked about my philosophies and strategies as well as quanitifying improvement
Mission Statement: To combine scientific research, education and practical applications of sports medicine and exercise science to enhance performance, personal fitness, health and increase the overall quality of life to individuals.
I think, it’s more about making life better in your sport and in your daily activities of life, short term and more important long term.
My coaching philosophy is really: It’s not about being fast, it’s about getting faster. It’s about taking a whole/or holistic view of my athletes and understanding their lifestyles, how they train, what their goals are and where they want to go. Even when I have two athletes doing the same races their programs nor their ATPs are the same. For me it’s about understanding the book of (ex)physiology and more importantly being able to apply it to actual people because everybody adjusts to a training stimulus differently, some people recover quickly and others take days. Some people over train and some people under train and I work with both. I don’t think it’s important for you as an athlete to understand the science behind something, I think, it’s a lot of mumbo jumbo when some one throws out all the lingo and science because it’s more about how it’s going to work for you; to know in layman’s terms how a workout is going to help you. I look short term, but looking long term is more important. In coaching, for me, it’s rarely about the here and now as it more about how you’re going to perform at your first race and your last race of the season and the obstacles you’re going to have to overcome to most closely achieve your goals.
I started training for Leadville 2 years before I actually signed up. And I already know I’m going to do it again in 2012. As well, as my ‘A’ race in 2011. Not everybody looks that far into the future, but all my training right now is going to improving my descending so I can take an hour off my time at Leadville. Short term, Western Cup Xterra,Championship, Maui, and descending faster.
It’s about taking someone’s weaknesses and strengthening them, while keeping their strengths strong.
My strategy is to progress in small steps, and avoid overtraining and injury.
As for success and measuring it. That’s more difficult for me to pinpoint.
I think, it’s about getting faster. With power meters there’s a little bit less guess work involved, but still they can become uncalibrated, conditions can be different, etc. You’ve seen the differences just between machines, they can be way different. Me personally, I take my success as how an athlete performs, if they are getting faster. If they are still enjoying their racing and training, and if they have the desire to bite off more next season. Trying different things, challenging themselves with different events. If someone is enjoying their training and their racing, that is most important to me. It’s important to keep the fire alive inside. More than anything. For you I’ve been watching the gap close with you and your competition. It’s getting closer and closer and I secretly want you to win. I guess, it’s no secret now. :o) In race results when I have easy access to them, direct links are provided me I spend a lot of time cross comparing results, looking at past results, and extrapolating time differences based on current conditions. Did you know I did that? I generally, especially on long events, look up who’s registered in people’s classes and extrapolate times based on that too. I look at topos and do specific training based on what there will be in someone’s big ‘A’ race.
I would like to say it’s cut and dry and you go out and do your 3 mile TT and if you’re faster then, you’re faster over all, I think, it’s much more than that. I actually feel improvement should be intrinsic and my athletes should be confident with their results based on how they’ve trained, how dedicated they were to the program and how much time we’ve been together. I really enjoyed the results from your TT’s when you had no rest, I think, you raced the weekend before and you stayed the same. To me, that’s a major improvement. Although you really didn’t like your results at the time.
The longer I work with someone, the better relationship I establish, the more I understand their physiology and the faster they get.