Busy, Busy, Busy.

The latest injury has forced me into an almost a complete cessation to running, anywhere. Instead I’ve been doing rather more paddling than I require, at least for a while. Strangely the injury doesn’t play up during or after canoeing, only after a jog. I suppose it’s something to do with the impact of the foot strike which takes the full body weight all at once on the hip. Gradually it’s receding but it’s always lurking in the background. Frankly I’m getting past caring and will just have to take it as I comes.

Altogether I’ve been kept rather busy with paddling matters this last few weeks, hence the dearth of entries in this blog. Running of any sort hasn’t had much of a look in lately which is probably just as well. Returning from a paddle on a Saturday morning nearly a couple of months ago now I was accosted by the club’s chief racing coach who had a bit of a problem. It seems that the organisation of training sessions for the lower ranks of the club has been somewhat lacking for the past couple of years. Coaches who have taken on the job have faded away after a few weeks partly due to the lack of response from those who have dipped a toe in the Hasler competitions and found it enjoyable, but haven’t had the commitment to progress onto regular coached, training sessions.  Basically, the ‘A’ team, that’s divisions 1.2 and 3, are fine and fully self motivated. The middle order, divisions 4 through to 7 come and go a bit, but are generally self motivated, but receive the attention of the chief coach. As for the remainder it’s been pot luck whether anyone turned up for them to take a ‘coached session’.

Last year’s overall club performance however, was good enough to get it into the Hasler final at Richmond, in which it came a creditable 9th. It was later recognised that over 50% of the season’s accrued points came from the lower order divisions. Consequently it was thought that if the club wanted to repeat the Hasler experience it might be a good idea to encourage the lesser lights by providing consistent and regular, organised training sessions. How that is to be done is by providing someone, (anyone), who is prepared to turn up regularly to lead the sessions.  Cue… well, me.

Two of us have been asked to help. The other guy now takes the Saturday morning session and I’m leading the Tuesday and Thursday evening sessions. We all play from the same hymn sheet which is the training sessions as laid down by the chief coach. Neither myself or Saturday’s leader are qualified coaches so we adhere strictly to the coaches plan. So far it’s had a mixed reception. Those that really want to commit to regular sessions have been few and far between. To my knowledge only a couple of those who have started out have carried on to doing more than three or four sessions. For the most part they tend to give it a try a couple of times then drift off. Although we are currently in the holiday season and the weather hasn’t really been conducive of expending a lot of energy, it’ll probably be some time yet before things start to coalesce and we get a ‘hard-core’ together.  

Or, then again, perhaps it’s just me.