Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #42: Gill1918 presents Clayton O'Callaghan "Limiting Factors of Training"

Transcript

#42: Gill1918 presents Clayton O'Callaghan "Limiting Factors of Training" · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches, for coaches powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of this as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. We'll bring in the once a year
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  track clinic straight to your ears daily.
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  Interested in creating your own episode?
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  Everyone's welcome to participate.
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  Check out the show notes below For more information.
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  Now let's get into today's topic.
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  Hello everyone, My name is Clayton O'Callaghan.
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  I'm the associate head coach at the University of New Orleans
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  for cross country and track and field primarily work with our
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  middle distance, distance and cross country athletes here at
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  Uno. This is rounding out year 8 for
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  me. In my coaching career, majority
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  of those have been spent at the college level, but have also
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  spent one year at the high school level as well.
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  For those that don't know much about Uno, we're small mid
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  major. That's part of the Southland
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  conference. Before I get started today,
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  wanted to take time to thank Mike, of course for for reaching
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  out and giving me the opportunity to speak today.
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  As someone that's listen to him on the Gil Connections podcast
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  for a very long time and been able to take a lot of notes and
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  Nuggets along the way that have really helped me throughout my
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  coaching career. Whenever he reached out asking
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  if I would be interested in doing a podcast episode for him,
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  it was a very quick yes for me. So I appreciate him for having
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  me here on Gil 1918. And with that, I hope you guys
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  are able to take something of value from today.
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  And if not, then I guess we can blame Mike for that.
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  But the topic I kind of want to talk about today, I wanted to
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  pick a topic that's, I guess relatable for for everyone and
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  not just, you know, one event specific type of deal.
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  And that's just kind of identifying the limiting factors
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  that have an effect on on your training program.
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  One of my favorite phrases from listening to Mike over the years
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  is, you know, if you aren't in the huddle, you don't know the
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  play. And I think especially like
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  being a young coach, it's very easy to to look at, you know,
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  watch a workout video or maybe get a a copy of a training plan
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  from someone and to say, like, oh, this, why are they doing
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  this? Like they could easily change
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  this around and, and it would make it so much better.
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  I think as I've gotten older, you know, I no longer just look
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  at specifically what it, what workouts they're doing, but more
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  trying to figure out like what are the themes that certain
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  coaches and, and programs that have had sustained level of
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  success, You know, like what, what are the themes of sessions
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  that they're trying to get accomplished at, at certain
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  points of the year? And once you kind of find those
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  themes, then kind of go into, OK, well, how can I implement
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  that into my training program and, and, and go from there.
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  And, and I think that once you have that a good understanding
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  of those themes and then you're able to identify the limiting
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  factors that your program has to deal with, you know, that's
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  where I think you'll see performance really take a bump.
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  So today I'll go into some of the limiting factors that I'm
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  always accounting for that kind of play a big role for us here
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  at Uno and our training environment.
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  So I, I tried to break the limiting factors down into two
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  categories, an exterior category and an interior category.
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  So for the exterior category, there's kind of I guess 3 big
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  topics that that I'm looking for.
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  First and foremost is going to be the health of of the athlete
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  or, or athletes in in our group. You know, are we coming back
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  from an injury? Are they a high volume person or
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  a low volume person? Do we have to cross train quite
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  a bit from them? You know, are they in year 1 of,
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  of college or, or in our program or are they an upperclassmen
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  with multiple years, you know, kind of have been through a
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  season, know what to expect things like that.
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  Are they someone that we need to keep on soft surfaces a lot
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  more? And then this one, especially
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  while they may be at home over summer or, or winter break, is
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  what types of facilities and resources that they will have
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  access to what while they're at home?
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  We have a couple athletes that live in very rural areas of, of
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  their countries. So for them to get to a track or
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  to a gym, it may be an hour or more drive for them.
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  So if that's the case, you know, what are some things that we're
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  able to do for them, you know, to, to kind of make up for that
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  in their training if that's not really a feasible option.
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  Another super important factor is, is weather, especially I,
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  I've lived in South Louisiana my entire life.
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  If you know anything about South Louisiana, it is very hot and,
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  and very humid. And that is absolutely a, a huge
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  factor that we have to take into account whenever we're writing
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  training. We often refer to the humidity
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  here as the poor man's altitude, especially throughout the summer
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  months, August, September, and even as we get into May, you
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  know, that stuff really starts playing a factor.
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  So these are some of the things that that we have to do in order
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  to kind of make up for that or get the still get the most out
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  of our training. We have to break up our, our
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  reps probably a lot more than than people.
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  I, I would love to be able to give my, my men cross country
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  athletes, you know, a 10 mile tempo run.
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  That's just really not feasible for them to do that effort
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  continuous in South Louisiana, especially in the summer.
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  You know, we're going to get to a point where we're going to
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  have far more negative effects than anything positive that we
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  would have gotten out of that session.
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  So that's something that we have to adjust to.
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  We have to practice extremely early in the morning, especially
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  in those early months of the school year because we're trying
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  to not be in the heat and humidity for for as long as
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  possible. You know, we want to avoid that
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  as much as possible. If we have athletes coming in
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  that are not from South Louisiana, we typically start
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  them on the treadmills for their workout days whenever they first
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  get here, just because we want to slowly introduce them to that
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  environment. And there's it takes a little
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  bit of time to get used to. I don't know if you ever really
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  get fully used to the heat and humidity here, but you know,
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  we'll, we'll put them on the treadmills for those first
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  couple weeks, let them get adjusted to that.
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  We'll still do our easy runs outside so they're getting
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  exposed to the humidity and how how their body responds to it.
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  But we don't want to overcook them and work out early in the
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  season by being outside and exposed to all the elements.
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  We'd rather bring them along slowly but surely and help them
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  build some confidence going into that.
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  But you know, there's other factors that affect different
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  areas. You know, some places it's super
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  cold. You know, some places it rains a
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  lot, obviously you have places that are at altitude.
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  So these are all factors that you know, you want to take into
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  consideration because they'll, they will affect, you know,
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  your, your training session on the day.
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  So kind of keeping those things in mind as you're, as you're
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  writing training. The last one on the exterior
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  factors that I have is performances.
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  We are a small roster program, so our athletes probably race a
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  lot more than some other programs.
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  So, you know, with competitions and stuff also come travel,
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  which you know, can definitely take a lot out of athletes,
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  especially as we're getting close in in the spring to finals
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  week and you know, you've been going since indoor season, it's
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  very long. So you may need to and take that
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  into account whenever you're writing training.
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  You may need to add in some more recovery days then then you
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  might think, just because you know, you don't think that
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  travel takes a lot out of them. But I promise you, you know, as
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  the season goes on it it definitely begins to wear on
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  them and and starts affecting things.
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  So, so keeping an eye on that as you go forward on the interior
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  factors. The big 1 is, you know the
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  academic load that that your athletes are are carrying.
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  We have quite a few athletes that are in pre Med programs or
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  engineering. So some very tough strenuous
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  class loads. So understanding like they may
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  be under a lot of stress, you know, throughout the semester
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  with different exams. Wednesdays for us is usually a
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  very heavy lab day for majority of our athletes.
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  So try to keep Wednesday very, very easy for them throughout
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  the semester. Even have added in a couple
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  using that as our off day or, or allowing the athletes to go run
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  on their own at a time that fits a little bit more into their
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  schedule. So that way they they have
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  enough time to study and and be prepared and, and working on
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  that. And then also the other factors
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  as in, you know, just general life stress that's going on.
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  If you have an athlete that you know, is a family is not
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  anywhere close and, and really able to, to get to them to see
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  them throughout the time, you know, that's probably going to
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  have an effect on them. You know, making sure that you
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  allow or have those check insurance with those athletes
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  just to make sure that they're doing good, especially, you
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  know, if it's their first time really being away from home and
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  kind of just, you know, letting them know that, Hey, it's OK,
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  you're going to have some of those days and that's fine.
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  Don't freak out about that. And, and we can adjust training
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  as as we need. So with some of these factors,
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  it, it's very easy to track, right, Like whether you always
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  can look and see how how weather is going performance.
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  Obviously you're looking at the results to go and, and making
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  the adjustments as you need to go.
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  But some of these factors, you know, it really takes being able
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  to communicate with your athletes and, and them providing
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  feedback for you that that's very valuable to do that.
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  And, and a few ways that I've noticed that it that help is
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  either through a training log where you know, they'll log what
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  they did for the workout, what they ate, things like that.
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  Just notes about their day and, and giving them that space to
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  kind of feel like they can actually speak.
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  And if there's something that's bothering them that maybe
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  they're a little worried or don't want to necessarily talk
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  about in front of everyone, they can go from there.
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  This year I started, I created a questionnaire that is sent to
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  our athletes, ask them to fill it out at least once a day, but
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  twice a day is more preferred, one in the morning and 1:00 at
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  night. And just kind of asking them,
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  you know, how are they feeling? Are they feeling stressed right
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  now? Or how do they, are they feeling
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  any pain from injuries and things like that?
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  You know, what are, what are they eating?
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  What are they drinking throughout the day?
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  Little things like that. The only person that sees their
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  responses is me, you know. So again, like that's a place
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  where I find that today's athletes, they feel comfortable
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  that they can open up and, and talk to you about, you know,
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  things that may be bothering them.
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  And that's a good way to to start making those adjustments
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  with some of those factors that that are going to play in
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  throughout the year just as the semester goes and and things go
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  from there. So that's definitely a resource
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  that that I like to utilize with, with my group.
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  You know, other people may do something a little bit
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  different, but you know, kind of finding what, what works best
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  for you, where you feel confident that OK, I'm giving
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  the athletes a chance to come in and talk and, and give them to,
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  to open up and, and let me know what's going on.
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  So that way I can make the adjustments that's going to be
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  best for them. So just summarize, I guess
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  everything. There's always going to be
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  limiting factors regardless of of where you are and in your
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  training environment, so you shouldn't shy away from them,
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  acknowledge them and embrace. Embrace the challenge, figure
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  out, you know, what's the best way to work through it and go
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  from there. Identify, you know, the themes
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  that you're looking to get accomplished throughout the
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  throughout the weeks and and years and stuff.
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  And then, you know, create the best plan with your factors.
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  Thank you for taking a couple minutes to listen.
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  If you have any questions or or comments, please feel free to
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  reach out to me on social media. I'm on Twitter, threads,
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  Instagram at under score coach, under score OCI recently started
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  kind of a little mini series that I titled thoughts from a
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  track coach. And there I just go over give a
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  couple bullet points on some certain topics of things that,
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  you know, I think we encounter on the regular basis as track
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  coaches. So if you'd like some more
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  information on those or, or maybe hear some more or
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  different topics like please leave.
• 15:45
  Let me know what you would like to hear and, and happy to talk
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  with you more or create a video about it or or another podcast,
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  whatever works best. Thank you as always to Mike for
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  for one putting this together for, for all of us as coaches to
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  be able to use this resource and have access to such a a wealth
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  of knowledge is incredible. And we we definitely would not
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  be where we are as coaches without people like Mike kind of
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  leading the way for us. Best of luck to you throughout
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  the rest of your seasons. And, as always, go privateers.
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  Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here. Hey, I hope you enjoyed this
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  episode of the Guild 1918 Project series.
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  It's really my mission, my passion to bring you massive
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  amounts of value and I hope this one hit the mark.
• 16:39
  The Gilt 1918 Project is really dependent on you if for you to
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  build your own episode, to hear your voice, to have your voice
• 16:47
  heard you have something to say and teach other coaches out
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  there. So please get a hold of me,
• 16:52
  e-mail, text message, Twitter, smoke signals, get a hold of me
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  and let's help create your episode of the Guild 1918
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  Project. Hope you enjoy today, they will
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  see you tomorrow.