Training Log Archive: iansmith

Rest day. My resting heart rate has been very high, so I'm hoping a good night's sleep will cure those ills.

A question comes to mind from something Peter Gagarin recently said to me: how can the senior team - given its current personnel - get better? (How do you get to Carnegie Hall?) While obviously it would help if everyone quits their jobs, becomes independently wealthy, and can sustainably train 600 hours/year, I'm looking for sustainable programs we - as the senior team, ESC, and supporters - can organize collectively to help the team get faster.

A few ideas:

1. Organized team training camps. I find there are few more efficient opportunities to improve than training camps. We've gotten good at somewhat impromptu training camps (for instance, I've spent the past six Thanksgivings at Harriman), but they can be better organized and planned in advance so more people can attend. We could also put together a systematic calendar. Ideally team members wouldn't organize all the camps, but even that could work. The geography is always going to be challenging, but a few regional training camps are not impractical. The same organization could also host JNT and JDT trainings and foster camaraderie between the juniors and seniors.
   
2. Coaching - requires money or substantial enthusiasm. For someone like me, more training might be a reasonable prerequisite (a paltry 250 hours in 2016), but I think getting organized, cogent training for the entire team is a reasonable goal. Preferably from one person.
   
3. Periodic (e.g. monthly) challenges or group training targets. The idea here is to motivate and organize everyone to train. For example, a good group target for January could be 20 hours of running and 10 hours of orienteering. Group targets motivate progress and establish accountability and camaraderie.
   

Ideas?

C • Ideas 37