IN THE BOOKS

November has come and gone, and I never did catch up on those updates I had planned. Suffice to say that triathletes have made their mark at OFSAA Cross Country, OTFA Cross Country, National Cross Country Championships, and many swim meets - congrats to everyone.

Yesterday we hosted our third Training Day of the year. We had a good group of 28 athletes, and in addition to the swim, bike and run workouts, I was able to spend some time with the parents and talk about youth development. I plan to offer another parent seminar on the same topic at the Jan 4th Training Day for those who couldn't make it yesterday. Thanks to coaches Alan Fairweather, Lynda Magor, Lorri Zagar, Dan McKerrall, and Mike Coughlin (who volunteered his time). Jesse Wetzl gets the athlete award for longest distance traveled (Sault St. Marie - talk about dedication), and Mike Coughlin gets the coach travel award (Sudbury). As I wrote in an earlier post, I'd love to see coaches developing more clubs and training days in more communities in Ontario so that athletes have training opportunities closer to home. We're always thrilled to welcome athletes from far and wide at our training days, but ultimately, I'd like to see them getting support closer to home. To that end, if any coach out there wants to come and observe a training day (or 2 or 3) to pick up some ideas and start a program in their neck of the woods, simply e-mail me and come for a visit. There are also other clubs offering training days, and they are more than happy to have visiting coaches check out their program.

A big thank-you also to coaches Chris VanBeurden, Danielle Dickson and Lorri Zagar for taking care of the coaching duties at the Nov 2nd Training Day. I was away in Calgary for TriCan meetings with our national Development and High Performance coaches, followed by the Sport Leadership conference. We have a good group of coaches across the country, and things look good for future development.

Some quick pics from the Training Day yesterday:

....and the exciting finish to the Junior Men's National Cross Country Championships, held at the UofG on Saturday (below). Check out Flotrack for coverage of all of the races, and Guelph Running for all results.

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....a nice reminder to run right to the line in workouts and races.