The End Of A Training Cycle Anger

My group is getting ready to head to their first championship meet of the Long Course season, the Central Region Championships scheduled for June 10-13 and right now we are in the final stages of high volume aerobic training. To say that tempers are running a little higher now then usual is to make an understatement.

I love this time of year. I remember hating this time while I was swimming but I find myself loving this time as a coach. It is easy for me to see how much better the swimmers have gotten through the year and as soon as next week starts and the group starts to come down in meters and focusses on the application of more anaerobic speed -- a thing of pure beauty.

Right now the swimmers can not feel how much better they have gotten... they just know they are sore and practices are really hard. However, I am fortunate because this group I have is truly a hard working group that have posted 141 personal best over three meets this long course season, which has been quite nice given that we have swam through all three meets with high volume training.

At the winter Central Regions my group posted three finalists and zero provincial qualifiers.

This time around at the summer version of the Central Region Championships we're looking to significantly increase the number of finalists and certainly add more (or some) provincial qualifiers.

It's a fun time of year.