Coach Recap: Art and Science of Triathlon Coaches Conference

John Magee and I spent the last 4 days at the Art and Science of Triathlon Coaches Conference in Colorado Springs. I wanted to give you all a brief recap of the conference and of a few of the Keynote Speeches we heard. In a word, the conference was GREAT!

USA Triathlon put on the Art and Science Conference in Colorado Springs and I must say they did a fabulous job. The conference was held at the Broadmoor Hotel, which happens to be the biggest 5 star hotel in the country! We were lucky enough to stay there as well, as they gave the USAT Coaches a great rate! The conference started on Friday with some great lectures, but highlighted by the Keynote of the day, put on by Johan Bruyneel, Director Sportif of all of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France victories. He was a very good speaker and gave a great presentation. He was funny and inspiring and also gave his thoughts on this years Tour showdown between Lance and Contador. Johan's talk was the highlight of Friday.

On Saturday we had another full day of lectures, but the Keynote speaker was the highlight of the day. We heard Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind man to climb to the top of Mt.Everest, as well as all of the Seven Summits! He gave the most inspirational talk I have ever heard --a blind man climbing mountains, paragliding, then using his fame to help others achieve impossible goals! He was funny, inspirational and down to earth. He gave everyone at the conference a signed copy of his book, which I am looking forward to reading.

We heard some great speakers on Saturday after the keynote as well. I went to Mark Allen's talk on the Essentials of a Great Ironman TrainingProgram, while John went to Vern Gambetta's talk on Core Training for the Triathlete. Both were great talks.

I spoke with Mark quite a bit over the weekend and we will be lining him up as a guest speaker at a KP Meeting in the next couple of months. Later that day I went to a lecture by Joe Friel, author of The Triathletes Training Bible, as well as some other books. Joe gave a talk on Stress Based Periodization.

On Saturday night we went to the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. USAT honored Paula Newby Fraser, Barb Lindquist, Valerie Silk, Carl Thomas and Jim Curl. We were guests at the Southwest Region table and had a great evening.

On Sunday we started the day with renowned running coach, Bobby Magee, spending about a 1/2 hour watching me run on a treadmill and giving me some valuable information about how my gait has changed a bit since my foot injury and how to correct it. I got to know Bobby a few years ago and I give him credit for teaching me the essentials of how to run, as well as how to teach others how to run. John videoed the whole session, so we have some great footage from one of the best in the business.

We finished the weekend with a few more lectures, one on a few "Cycling Myths", another on training for Power in the Swim and finishing with a talk on Youth Triathlon Programs.

The weekend was very informative and I look forward to sharing some good stories and information with all of you. We are already making plans for next year, as it was well worth the trip.

Hope to see many of you at the "Brick" workout on Tuesday night!!

Coach Kain

For more information about training with Kain Performance, visit our website at www.kainperformance.com or call Pete 408-781-0517.