As the winter months draw closer, training can become harder with the motivation for cold, wet and dark runs and cycles proving a stumbling block.
Blair Cartmell, Head Coach at the South West Regional Academy, is passionate about spreading the word on what coaches can do to keep things fun and engaging for young triathletes.
Cartmell has been involved in triathlon since university and has been coaching for several years. He said: “A lot of kids will have structure whether they’re at their home swim clubs or run clubs and I think that’s important.
“A lot of kids that age will have cross country running races in the winter, which is a good focus. The key, especially during winter is getting that balance.
“Cyclo-cross racing is getting much bigger, so there can be a lot to choose from, so it’s getting that balance of not racing too much, but also winter training is a good chance to get a good block of training.”
Aside from balance, Cartmell believes that when training in the winter, the key is simple: keep it fun.
He added: “Keep it fun in the winter. I’ve always been an advocate of doing some mountain biking. Get off road, it’s good for bike handling skills but it’s also good to get away from just looking at the clock, looking at the watch and paces.
“Just challenge yourself and do little adventures, whether that’s just a fun mountain bike ride with mates or a point-to-point route that you have to plan to use different roads.”
Cartmell leads the regional academy for the South West Region and is a key component in the development of English national academy athletes across southern England.
With his experience, he believes that to keep up motivation, the key is company.
“With motivation, having clubs and people to train with is really important, being on your own is hard.” Cartmell said.
“A lot of youngsters will have groups to train with, not everyone, but it’s looking at that aspect, but also getting athletes to explore their home environments, broaden the horizons and really, really explore your home environment because I guarantee that people probably don’t do it as much as they could do.
“I think running wise, if you’ve got hills around you, just get up and run in hills - it’s a different way to build your engine and it’s generally quite fun. It’s different, it’s not just running on a flat bit of tarmac, on easier longer runs that’s what I would recommend and do it with mates, do it with people you get on with, it makes it a lot easier to get sessions ticked off.”
With coaching, Cartmell gives the same advice as to the young athletes themselves.
He concluded: “I think just keep it fun and engaging as much as you can, obviously have an element of coaching who’s in front of you - it doesn’t always have to be about performance.
“But create different challenges, keep them thinking. I think that myself, especially right now, how do you keep things challenging and motivating?
“I do think if you can organise a fun camp for two, three or four days, just something different that gets them out of their home environment and creates something to look forward to.”
