IM Ballarat 70.3 Race Report - A Game Of Inches Jessica Mitchell made her Professional Debut on the weekend at IM Ballarat 70.3. Like this whole season, this race was always being built as a learning race from many angles. We have been building the training based around the run and with an overview of the season, this block of races (Ballarat and West Sydney) is being used to bring some speed work into her training. The biggest learning curve was about the difference between age group and professional racing. Although she had been experiencing this through training, it is once again different come race day. People had been critical of the volume she had been doing in training but what they lacked was the knowledge on how that was being done and the consistency that Jess was doing this in training. Everyone wants to be a coach or offer advice about how to do it better until it gets tough or the real coaching happens away from the actual training field. This sport is an individual sport though and the training has to be that way too within a group dynamic. At this level, no internet program or age group 10hr week will cut it. That is why we have a small group of people in our squad and everyone buys into what we do 100% based on their individual needs and goals. So why A Game Of Inches..... The video linked to this will tell you why.Anyone who truly knows me, knows I live on Numbers dont lie!!. I very much believe you train like you want to race. For any junior through to experienced athlete reading this, it is so important not to forget the skills of triathlon that so often can be forgotten. To Jesss credit she has only been in the sport 12 - 18months under an internet based coaching program so has not had the benefit of years of training and racing but skills like transition speed that should be ingrained as a junior, can come back to bite you!! For a pro it could cost them dollars or a world title, for an age grouper, it could cost them a Kona spot or simply a good race. As her coach that error lies squarely with me. I preached about transition speed in training and practicing it but now I will demand it. I never look at anything negatively and I have received many messages of congratulations on her performance from the weekend and Jess does deserve every one of them. Her true professional competitors will look at the numbers knowing she ran a 1:24 1/2 off the bike on debut on a tough day to record the fastest female run of the day. They will also know she missed the podium by a mere 17 seconds in her first race and had she had a normal transition instead of 2mins slower then everyone else then she would have been 2nd (based on the raw numbers) in the race on debut. I am sure though that they can all find faults in their own races though. In some ways such a simple part of the race can be comical cos it is something that can be fixed. What they may not know is that she negative split the run! 43:27/41:29. As a competitor IMO there is nothing more scarier knowing that someone that can negative split a run like that coming off the bike either getting off the bike with you or just behind you. The weaker minded athlete will begin to race to the other persons race not their own. Some of our other squad members have learnt that this week on the bike in the energy lab and how variability can use up so much more fuel. Some stand out positives.... She ran liked we train. Negative split any SOS sessions for all disciplines. We are preparing for our season goal and not every race we go to. As mentioned we are using these races as part of training. The swim was a great swim for her in very cold and tough conditions with the wind working against them for most of it. Lastly she handled herself so well. When she finished the race I didnt have to leave the tough love until the mid week evaluation. She had evaluated her performance already and wanted to get back to work straight away and work even harder. That is a person you want to coach... no short cuts just hard work!! For a pro debut I am very happy with her performance. So many learning positives came out of the race and we know that eliminating the inches will see even better performances in the future. We will experience more highs and lows but she is only going to get better!! Great start to the next phase of your life Jess. https://youtube/watch?v=9ku3E7NPRuE
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 23:42:37 +0000
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