Great aerobic base

Many athletes keep blogs, some detail their training, others focus on their community events, and some just their personal thoughts. Examples include;

• 2004 Olympic Gold Medalist Adam van Koeverden (CAN)
  
• 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Stephanie Rice (AUS)
• 2000/2004/2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Ian Crocker (USA - who has a few posts, but all are very worthwhile reading. Especially look back this one, posted after he DQ'd the US 4x 100 Medley Relay in at the Melbourne World Championships in 2007, thus denying Michael Phelps his 8 gold medals at the meet.)
• 7-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong (USA)

Personally I enjoy keeping up with Canadian triathlete, Simon Whitfield's blog. In the latest post he had linked to this article on another local Olympian, Svein Tuft.

A lot of time, in the coaching community there is discussion of 'long term athlete development'. Which is partially the basis for Swimming Canada's implementation of the new Age-Group National pre-qualifying times for 2010. Coaches discuss the theoretical way of getting all athletes to perform well as they get older and move toward maturity. Part of the problem with all this talk however is that great athletes are, by definition, outliers. That is, they are exceptions to the rule, and do not follow a 'normal' path of development.

Svein Tuft is an excellent example of this. He choose to bike around BC and Alaska with his dog instead of finishing high school! Which, from a training perspective puts in some excellent aerobic base mileage. Think about training for 8 hours a day, stopping to rest when you need to, doing most of it pulling a heavy weight behind you... doesn't sound like something most people would jump up and do on a whim, does it? This is what he did for a good 7 years. After bike touring around for a while, he discovered that he was now pretty darned good at cycling, and started competing - racing sometimes, then taking time off to get back to his travels. All culminating this summer in a 7th place finish in Beijing. Not bad for a guy who didn't start competing until he was 22.

Trying to pretend that everyone fits into the same mold creates a lot of very mediocre performances. All of this goes to show that when working with a high level athlete, it's important to recognize the individuality - after all, that's what you want to emphasize if you want to create a champion!