What have we learned?
Since Sunday I've been looking back over my notes from the season, filling in some blank spots and compiling thoughts on the year and the training plans. Now that the rush of the season is over and the excitement of regionals has passed I can look back with a somewhat less tainted perspective and go at this thing objectively. After looking at the results of various races and training the overall conclusion I've reached is:
We could have - not should have but could have - done better.
Why is that?
I've been looking at my daily practice notes and the one thing that immediately jumps out at me time and again is that in the fall and the winter I felt as though we were not pushing our hardest. I had some individuals who pushed themselves but overall I'd say we were working at about 60% our capacity. I can recall vividly some of our fall practices where we showcased our true potential but more often than not when I re-read my thoughts or feelings for a practice, they revolve around how little we are doing vs. how much we are capable of doing.
This trend carries into winter where my end of practice thoughts change from a lack of push on the water to wasted minutes of land workouts where athletes were standing around talking rather than finishing weight sets or where erg splits and rates showed guys doing the bare minimum.
This lack of effort till the spring season is my fault. It's my fault for not being able to reach the athletes this year till the spring. It's my fault for not being able to convey the importance of practice and for not providing an environment conducive to training. I need to sit down and figure out how to better reach these sort of athletes in the future so that we don't have a repeat of this season where we accomplish a lot but still at the end of the day, leave a lot on the table.
We could have - not should have but could have - done better.
Why is that?
I've been looking at my daily practice notes and the one thing that immediately jumps out at me time and again is that in the fall and the winter I felt as though we were not pushing our hardest. I had some individuals who pushed themselves but overall I'd say we were working at about 60% our capacity. I can recall vividly some of our fall practices where we showcased our true potential but more often than not when I re-read my thoughts or feelings for a practice, they revolve around how little we are doing vs. how much we are capable of doing.
This trend carries into winter where my end of practice thoughts change from a lack of push on the water to wasted minutes of land workouts where athletes were standing around talking rather than finishing weight sets or where erg splits and rates showed guys doing the bare minimum.
This lack of effort till the spring season is my fault. It's my fault for not being able to reach the athletes this year till the spring. It's my fault for not being able to convey the importance of practice and for not providing an environment conducive to training. I need to sit down and figure out how to better reach these sort of athletes in the future so that we don't have a repeat of this season where we accomplish a lot but still at the end of the day, leave a lot on the table.
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