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When it came to training, Autumn was called ‘pre-season’ as it represented the end of the summer competitions and heralded in the new season.
I would spend a lot more time in the gym and focus on getting strong and lean. Gym circuits, spinning, rock climbing, weights and even the odd beach session ensured variety and solid cross training base for the season ahead.
Beyond the exercise, I loved pre-season as it was the perfect time for my support team and I to reflect on the previous season and look forward to the next. We would talk about what went well, what didn’t and what we could improve for this coming season. From this conversation we would start to put in place a training plan. Having a flexible plan with measurable goals throughout the year kept me motivated and helped me know whether I was on track or not for my main goal which tended to be the World Championship, Commonwealth or Olympic Games.
So, here we have it, my top tips to a motivating season plan:
1 – What is my win and what does it take to achieve it?
I would start by having a conversation with my team and considering what it would take to ensure that when I was standing on the start line, totally confident in my performance, for the big race season.
Early on in my career, I realised that I couldn’t control the outcome of the race as I had no idea how fast the other girls would be, but I knew that I could control the type, frequency and effort level of my preparation. So my win would be based on what was within my control, ie a time, not a placing.
We would call this the win. Having a realistic goal here is key, the goal has to be tangible with a date and time that you would like to achieve.
I would then think about the new skills or tactics I needed to overcome any situation during my race, giving me so much confidence that I’d be ready to race and motivated to train!
Ask yourself :
What do I want to achieve?
When will it be?
What is the measure?
What skills will I need to achieve it?
2 – Why do I care?
My purpose was to be the most well rounded Open water swimmer and inspire as many people as possible to take up open water swimming along the way. That’s why I cared so much about swimming and this kept me motivated all season especially for those early 5 am starts. It gave the hardship and struggle a reason and a purpose way beyond just doing laps of the pool or beating the other girls in my race.
My purpose sustained me over the long term and made me feel proud and motivated.
Ask yourself :
Why do you care about achieving your win for the coming season.
3 – Review & Renew
Now that you know why your doing it and you have your win, the next step is to have a look back at the previous season. I would call this the review & renew. Time to review the previous seasons work and renew anything for your coming season.
Ask yourself :
What went well?
What could you have done better?
Was there anything that got in my way?
Was I missing anything?
4 – Time to plan
Once you have the answers to these questions you can start to put your plan in place. You might find that you really need some expert advice, this might be expert training advice or technique sessions from an expert to ensure that your stroke is helping you and not hindering you. This is the perfect time of the training season to make those changes. You can get a huge amount of confidence knowing that everything you are going to do is contributing to your win.
5 – Get to it!
The final piece of this puzzle is establishing a routine to stick to. Ask yourself realistically how many times a week can you train? Ensuring that you have considered work, family and life into that equation.
Once you have a set number of days, which can change from month to month, you can start to piece your Autumn training plan together.
Now you have all the right questions, the answers and have set on a mission to make this the best year ever, you will encounter challenges. Do not be afraid to cycle back through these questions and answers throughout the year. In fact we would constantly revisit 1-5 on a weekly basis, ensuring we know what we were aiming for, we knew why we were doing it, reviewing and renewing our season, planning and getting to it!
I would love to hear what your win is for next season – tweet me @keriannepayne with the hashtag #mywin2018.
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