Photo of the Day from Maui

Andrew is a surfer, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

Andrew from the coffee shop does Maui

Photo of the Day from Maui

Group start, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

From Saturday's ride up Baldwin, with some 2 minute efforts.

Photo of the Day from Maui

Andrew, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

3hrs + ride today finishing with some 2 min'ers up baldwin climb. Andrew won the polka dot jersey today with his climbing efforts - nice job Andrew!

Maui Group Pic

Maui Group Shot, originally uploaded by jfilliol1.

(L-R) Kyle Jones, Jordan Rapp, Adam van Koeverden, Andrew McCartney, Jeff Symonds, Lauren Groves and Sarah Groff

Article: Sports Science is NOT evidence based - and it can’t be

I came across this article on the sports coaching brain site - an great resource for some thought provoking articles. The following quote from the article summed up what coaching is to me, and why the art of coaching is something special:

"evaluate the research, look at the data then use your experience, instinct and intuition to make an intelligent, calculated judgement call."

This article contrasts to the recently increased prominence of sports scientists in the high performance sporting community. Taking a more sophisticated and structured approach to preparing athletes is an important evolution in elite sport, however coaches continue to drive the process of improving sport performance and their experience, instinct and intuition will continue to play the lead role in world leading athlete preparation.
As the article suggests, while sports science can aid athlete preparation and performance, its not as simple as "evidence based" vs "belief based" as some would suggest.

The challenge for coaches is to make sports science work for us, and that the bottom line is that its purpose is to improve performance today.

The Boot camp starts soon

Looking forward to starting 2009 with our first camp in Maui, Hawaii next week and doing some 'team building'exercises.

Top 20 Canadian moments of 2008

Thanks to Craig Taylor for the image

This article was in the National Post paper this morning:

Top 20 Canadian moments of 2008
Sean Fitz-Gerald, Bruce Arthur, Joe O’Connor and Daniel Nugent-Bowman, National Post
Published: Saturday, December 20, 2008

Nobody finishes second like Canadians finish second. If they gave out a gold medal for a second-place finish in 2008, Canada would probably have won, unless another country edged it out a few metres from the finish line.

Cutting to the section about Simon:

>>>>

1. A silver stretch run

As the heat suffused his skin, as pain burned in his body, Simon Whitfield was watching the men's triathlon run away from him at the Beijing Olympics.

He had been in a similar position eight years before, and then, the little lean man from Kingston, Ont., had tapped some secret reserve of will and sprinted past everybody for the gold. Then, it felt like a miracle. Of course, then, he was 25.

This time, though, he was falling away from three younger men, including the top two triathletes in the world. The gap reached 40 feet or so with about a kilometre remaining. Whitfield's coach, Joel Filliol, thought to himself that after everything, it just wasn't going to happen.

"Normally," he would say, "when you get dropped, that's it."

Except that eight years after Sydney - eight long years of training, of racing, of getting married and starting a family, of pondering retirement - there was one miracle left. Whitfield threw his visor aside, and he reached for whatever was left, and three words flashed in his mind: Sing like Kreek.

And Whitfield closed the gap. He thought of Canadian rower Adam Kreek bellowing the Canadian anthem on the podium a few days earlier, and he emptied himself of will. And with 100 metres to go, our boy was alone in front as in the crowd, his coaches were screaming out, "Sing like Kreek!" And for a moment under a Chinese sun, anything was possible.

It was not enough, of course. Jan Frodeno of Germany had a little more, and he kicked past Whitfield to finish five seconds ahead, and Whitfield earned a silver. But what a silver it was.

"That's got to be the best race of his career," Filliol would say. "All things considered, that's got to be the best."

Yes, it was.

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Read the full Top Twenty Canadian moments of 2008 here