Tomorrow is the big day for the athletes. At the Team Captain meeting last week, the race director stated that unless something strange happened with the weather, the swim should be without wetsuits. But as all things go, we find ourselves with two cold, rainy days leading into tomorrow’s race. It is not a big deal in my mind in that the weather is forecast to be nice tomorrow, it’s just that the water will have cooled with the changing weather and the athletes will begin their day in rubber. For us, there are no worries. All of our athletes brought wetsuits in case we did end up racing in them. There are a few countries like Belgium that are scrambling to find a wetsuit for their third best guy behind Vanhoenacker and Van Lierde (no relation to Luc, although Luc Van Lierde is his coach). I think the Germans are going to hook him with a suit, so he should be good. The Belgian coach and I raced against each other in 2006 and got along great, so to be honest, if I had my rubber here with me, I would loan it to them in a second. Friendship in sport is the CISM motto and if the coaches can’t live it…
I am happy with the draw we got for both the male and female races. The draw is done by computer at the coaches meeting and we drew the furthermost position to the left for the male, which puts us #26 out of 26 teams for the start. The start is a parabola so there is no definitive advantage to any team, other than preference based on ones teams’ strengths. For our females we are third from the left in very similar position to the males. I was excited with this draw as a few of our women are more specialized in biking and running and I was concerned about them getting swallowed up and choked off in the center, were they to have gotten that seed in the drawing.
I genuinely like our chances in this race. Our athletes, unlike a good number of other competitors are all pure “soldiers”, as I heard a euro coach describing his athletes. I was running with the German coach the other evening. We have been saying hello to the other on Alii Drive in Kona for years without formally meeting one another or knowing that we were each involved in military sports as well. He described some of his athletes as “athletes” and the others as “soldiers”. An example on roughly how the conversation went- “We don’t have our athletes here for this race so close to the next WCS (World Cup Series) race, we only brought soldiers”. See, in most competing countries within CISM, conscription, or what the United States calls the Draft, is still in place. This means that every single male has to enter into mandatory service. In many of these countries, that service can be done as an athlete. Along with this, many military men are elites on their own, just as are the members of our team. So when we talk about our team in the same terms as Michael, the German coach, all of our racers are soldiers. With that being said, our soldiers are used to racing on the weekends and then training along with working normal jobs through the week. This means they are always carrying a steady level of fatigue in their bodies. The real advantage of us conducting our 4 day training camp in Annapolis and then having this long period of time here in Rio, is the team was allowed to lay down a pretty solid of work during the first part of this trip and then pull back a little bit and just rest. I am convinced that the team in general will have a breakthrough day tomorrow because of this. Stress then rest equals fast times on Copacabana baby!
I think the cooler times are going to bring some pretty fast times. I am excited to see our top men and women rage, and I am anxious to see the team members that I consider as developing have huge breakthroughs that take them to a new level, which bodes great things for the next few years of Armed Forces and CISM.
It is amazing how attached I get to these kids (and Weasel). I pay very close attention to precisely what each one does in their training each day and can see progress happening on a daily basis. I have run this team very differently than the way other Team Captains are running theirs. Some are very structured in the teams daily activities and run a very tight ship. For those teams and those programs, I think that is spot on. For us, I think allowing the athletes to construct their own training days is to their advantage. I try to always be close by if there are any questions, or someone needs an inspiring swim workout because they are bored with what their personal coach has them scheduled for them that day. For the most part, I think in our team, just being there and being available is the best for the athlete. Having said that, I have become hugely invested in each of these athletes races, and I am secretly very nervous for them. I’m not that fussed about overall placings and team placings. Those things take care of themselves. I am nervous because I want them to all walk away with having the race of their lives, and most importantly, an experience they will remember forever.
This will be a very special race on a very special venue. How many times do you get to race at your limit on the streets of the Copacabana shepherded by a colossal statue of Christ the Redeemer looking down upon ya? It is lining up to be an epic day. That much is for sure. I doubt I will have a voice tomorrow night. I plan at screaming at volume 11 for my team with all I have the entire race.
Thanks for reading,
Jonser
No comments:
Post a Comment