Coach Babbles

Starting this week, you can officially call me Coach Babbles. (Side note: really hate the photo I took last year for the website.  I should probably get that changed. Brown hair was a bad choice. Why didn't anyone stop me!?)  Willamette University Track and Field officially started their season up on Monday and this is my second year helping out with the multi-events aka Heptathlon and Decathlon, which is what I did in college.  I am pretty excited to help coach again, minus the whole standing outside in the 30 degree weather and rain thing.... Although, it does remind me of the good ol' days...or something like that.

Nationals my Junior year at WU. Photo cred: Christopher Sabato.

Even though it's a little bit of a commute down to Salem, I always love being back at the track. I'll be driving down twice a week for practice and then go to their meets on the weekend.  I learned a lot from helping out last year and am excited to pick up more coaching tips this year.

Coaching, to me, is so much harder than competing.  It's one thing to figure something out on your own and and convince your body to do it, but to explain an event to someone else, in a way they understand, can be hard.  Finding the right balance between constructive criticism and positive reinforcement can also be a challenge, but I love when I can see an athlete start to pick up on something after I have worked with them. (It still doesn't happen a ton yet, because I have a lot to learn on the coaching side of things, so when it does, it's extra cool.)  The schedule will be pretty busy until May, which is perfect timing for the little trip Bradley and I beginning to plan. More details on that to come later though.

So, in honor of track season I have a great workout that can be done pretty much anywhere: home, gym, track, hotel room, you name it... I stole it from Tina over at Carrots'N' Cake.  Bradley and I did it last night in our living room, which proves you don't need a ton of space for it.

source

I had sent this workout to Brad last week and he had finished it in 22:34, so last night his goal was to beat his previous time. My goal was to try and keep up with him, since I had no previous time to work off of.  He finished it in 19:06 and I tried my best to stay with and finished in 20:57. Burpees suck. Overall, I was happy with my time, especially because it was faster than Brad's first attempt and I was sore from workouts earlier in the week.  

Now, let's all cross our fingers and hope that the sun, which is currently out, warms things up a bit for practice! 

Cheers, 

<3 BB