Season Planning 2023

Most of you know how to plan for a company, your family, a party or even for a race. But to plan a season appropriate for your life and the other demands you have competing with each other can be daunting and have unforeseen implications for optimal performance.

Below are a few key considerations regarding a season plan that incorporates training and racing into your life:

• Review your entire year’s calendar. Do your year offer blocks of uninterrupted time that might support deeper training or racing? If so, commit to races or training camps in those key blocks.

• Consider when and how you can incorporate one week or multiple mini long weekends of dedicated training away from life responsibility. With the removal of life stresses, the impact can be exponentially positive.

• Consider the impact of travel logistics on performance when racing abroad. Travel, time changes, food, accommodations and gear logistics have a huge impact on our ability to race well. More often than not, most of us are racing for ourselves (vs for a country or the Olympics) so if you have local events that are worth considering, do those. Reducing logistics and stress on your support network will pay itself forward in a performance expression that is far more rewarding than racing in a foreign location. 

• Establish two pillar events in the year ahead. One feeds the other and the other is a big deal. Our minds are complex when it comes to desire, willingness to train and working towards something meaningful. Having pegs in the sand is not only an important part of your endurance journey, it is frankly, critical. Once you have established your two pillars for the year, we can plant your smaller stakes (easy drop-in events that are fun, easy to access and a helpful training stimulus) as stepping stones to the pillars.  

• BONUS: Review with your coach. Perspective goes a long way. Good luck in the year ahead!

Karen Thibodeau - Brite Coach Profile

Karen joined Brite Coaching a year ago although we wished it was much early. Her value to Brite is unprecedented in that she brings not only a wealth of knowledge as an ex-professional triathlete and elite level swimmer and runner, she also brings an expertise as a nurse in the mental health, addictions and obesity space. Karen has a unique ability to relate to athletes at any level and offer grace and patience or tough love and pushing boundaries when required. 

More pivotal than her athletic prowess and coaching acumen is Karen’s new role a mom of baby boy, Felix, and navigating her changed world and athletic self while caring for a little one and the demands of sleep disruptions, freedom of time, responsibility and relationship negotiations.

Women's sport in general is a hot topic these days and much of the conversation surrounds equality in representation and compensation. It also surrounds the impact that child-bearing has on a women's career in sport or any profession and how our society recognizes, honours and holds space for women. Many of our top women athletes (Chelsea Sodaro, Sarah True, Miranda Carfrae to name a few) are new mothers showcasing world class performances with careful attention to their needs after giving birth. This is an important time for women in sport and we are honoured to have Karen on our team as top shelf coach and mother to share in the experience with many of our athletes also wearing a parental athletic hat.  To connect with Karen for coaching or for sharing parenting experiences, please contact karen at karenthibodeau@hotmail.com

Looking Back...Looking Forward

What Is Success?

2022, you have been a year. You have been a year to reflect upon, cherish and, like every year, move forward from with its gifts and adventures. It's always a fulfilling time of year for me as a Coach - having lengthy and creative conversations with athletes around their race plans, goals, and ambitions while also taking stock of how this past year has grown us as a team and what we will do with those new learnings. This process is important, and shouldn’t be rushed, but also comes with a large amount of education for many athletes. The natural tendency for most athletes is try to always level up with faster times, a qualification, or raising bars. These measurable goals are useful, but I never see them as the defining measure of development and success. The journey of an endurance athlete seeking performance goes well beyond being faster, stronger and results. A broad perspective is always required to appropriately reflect on improvements and a measuring of success. Not every athlete realizes linear gains, in fact most don't. More importantly, context matters and influences content 100% of the time.

So I ask you, as we wrap this year and ramp to a new year, What Is Success? How do you nurture yourself across the board to ensure your performance goals are held in perspective with the greater context of life? How do you manage goal setting that satisfies where you are at in your athletic, personal and maybe corporate career without becoming overly obsessed? I invite you to begin answering these questions over the next few weeks.

Also, remind yourself that exercise is random. Training has purpose and intention. Even training sessions that are soulful and free flowing have purpose. But random bicep curls and half-ass intervals are random and lead to apathy and intermittent behaviour.

Be the version of yourself you most enjoy. Optimize the days you can train while also ensuring you have the space to celebrate and freshen up for the New Year.

Principles of Performance

When I first started to engage in endurance sports, I started as a runner. I didn't know what I didn't know. I just ran and ran a lot. Marathons, Ultras, 10kms and everything in between was my summer focus. In winters I would nordic ski, entering the longest distance of a loppet I could find. There were no intervals, recovery blocks, nutritional considerations, or a plan to develop

specific fitness towards an event or season. When I moved away from the frigid winters of Quebec to British Columbia, a friend suggested I might want to take up cycling. So I did. Then I discovered indoor wind trainers and Troy Jacobson Spinervals. When I was 23, my grandmother gifted me Joe Friel’s “Triathlon Bible” training guide for Christmas. I read it cover to cover.

Joe, I would consider, is the godfather of endurance sport. He is has immeasurably influenced the endurance industry and shared knowledge and wisdom with hundreds of thousands of athletes. While some of the Joe’s performance principles may have evolved thanks to research, technology and improved monitoring systems, what worked in the late 90’s, continues to apply today. With his book, more education, excellent coaching & mentors, self experiments, and more losses than wins, my athletic journey flourished into a 20-year triathlon and cycling career at the elite level that also blossomed into a full-time focus on coaching endurance athletes on a global level. I have Joe to thank for shedding light and educating us on simple principles that live on today and that I spend my days passing on to as many athletes that come into my circle.

When I begin working with an athlete or even 10 years into an existing relationship, I always like to understand their life stresses combined with the space they have to add a training load to an already abundant life. No surprise, Joe really emphasized this in his mantra to athletes. At the time I didnt understand it the way I do at a very intimate and experienced level now. Since I am in deep conversation with many Brite Athletes about their “next” (aka: goals or season plans) as well as onboarding many new athletes to Brite, it felt timely to share principles that never cease to change.

Here we go...

TRAINING:

Try not to load too many breakthrough workouts into the week
Hit the key sessions fresh
Use big gear work to build strength
Economy ("speed skill") year round (aka: there is ALWAYS something to work on) Lower cadence work = Strength. Higher cadence work = Speed

Use the smallest dose of the most specific training to get the desired adaptation. In other words:

Do enough to get an adaptation Absorb
Repeat

Thisisn’ta“small”loadingstrategy,atall.It’sJoe’sviewonan optimalloadingstrategy. An approach designed to get the greatest long-term adaptation.

THE POWER OF BELIEF:

Belief is incredibly powerful.
It’s a key part of:
The coach-athlete relationship
The athlete’s relationship with their plan The athlete’s relationship with themselves

AN ENDURANCE DIET:

80% of energy from meat/fish, veggies and fruit Try to restrict starchy carbs to recovery food Snack with fruits rather than bagels
Watch the fructose

That’s it.

Eat. Real. Food.

Coach of the Year - Gina Grain

Huge shout out to Coach Gina Grain for joining the Any Question team of experts. Any Question is a massive resource of the WORLD'S leading experts in a wide variety of topics in a Q&A format.

Many of you know Gina as a Strength & Conditioning Coach specializing in the endurance athlete development. I refer 100% of Brite Athletes to Gina for all mobility, rehabilitation and strength. Her services are delivered in person in Vancouver, BC or globally via Zoom.

In the coming months, Gina will open her schedule up to coach athletes comprehensively for both endurance and strength training when taking a sabbatical from her gym time. If you are interested in working with Gina, let us know and we can begin discussions based on your goals and her availability.