My coaching year in review

What a coaching year!

Looking back on the 2022 season, I am delighted with how things went. When you start out the year, you never know how many athletes you will have, how they will perform and what challenges will be thrown into the mix. We all remember the effects of Covid and the global race cancellations, and the long covid effect that stopped athletes in their tracks for months. Thankfully, after everything opened up again in early 2022, it remained so of the rest of the year. And what a year it turned out to be. Successes on so many levels, but the determination of my athletes to fight back and prove to themselves that their efforts over the previous 2 years had not been in vain. Here is a summary of what happened.

• Two athletes qualified for the IRONMAN World Championships and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships respectively.
• I began working a couple of days a week as the Performance Nutritionist for the Watersley Ladies R&D U23 & U19 road cyciing teams, who are competing at the UCI elite level in Europe. The teams are located on the site of the old Watersley monastery just outside Sittard (NLD) which is also home to a large number of elite athletes who both train and live on site. This opportunity allowed me to greatly enlarge my network in the field of elite sport, coaching and performance nutrition.
• My own Primal Endurance Coaching team also grew with athletes competing for the first time while the veterans continued to improve on their performances.
• In addition to the wonderful age-group athletes I coach, things further improved with the signing of former pro-athlete and double world champion Melinda Cockshutt last August. Just last month (Jan ’23) she one two Australian National road race titles as well as two third place finishes from four events. We worked hard to get her bike fit and it paid off. With a stellar career resume, it has been a great opportunity to work with, and learn from one of the best in the world. In addition to the wonderful charity and volunteer work she now does, supporting athletes with disabilities to achieve there sporting dreams, Melinda can boast the following accolades:
  -> 4*Kona World Championship finisher
  -> 2012 ITU🥇 World Champion Olympic distance in Auckland (35-39)
  -> 2012 ITU 🥇World Champion Aquathlon in Auckland (35-39)
  ->🥇 IM Australia 2006 (30-34)
  ->🥇IM Cairns 2015 (40-44)
  ->🥇IM 70.3 Sunshine Coast 2015 (40-44)
  ->🥈IM Western Australia 2013 (35-39) 
  -> her Fastest IM Swim (3.8 km) = 53 min.
  Mel lives and trains in Australia but we have managed to do this remotely over the past months and things are going great. We have an exciting journey ahead of us as Mel will compete in the invite only 2024 Australian Ultraman. This is a 3 day event: Day 1: 10 km swim + 144 km bike, Day 2: 276 km bike, Day 3: Double marathon (84.4 km) with a 12h time limit.

Back on the ground, I continue to build my team and my network. I will also continue as the Watersley R&D performance nutritionist for another year as well as swim coach to the youth swimmers of the local swim team. A number of these were recently rewarded for their efforts after qualifying and making the podium at the provincial championships. It makes me so happy to see the hard efforts of determined young athletes pay off.

If you are interested in personal face-2-face, hybrid or online coaching, with personalised tailor made plans specific to your event, or you want nutritional advice and support, drop me a message and we can have a chat. #coaching #opportunity #nutritionist