Sebastien Locteau

"The mellow glory of the Attic stage"  I brought down the Christmas three down the attic and found my old military and trophies boxes. Christmas is almost here. Most of you are shopping expecting the last minute deal. For most people Christmas is the joy of family time and holiday. Food flowing around even with very little money a Christmas can be very enjoyable. L eft,  My old military chest and some of my old trophies For me Christmas has a very different meaning. I am going to share something very personal. People always ask me why I love so much coaching, and why I look so happy and wonder how my family cope with me been away most of the time. I never liked Christmas, I always thought it's too commercial and don't want to feel obliged to buy something because I have to. I believe in buying presents to someone when your feelings are there, if you see something which you think can make someone you know happy you can do it 364 days a year and not

And thank you. Winning the Eircom Spider Award with the runireland crew was a nice feeling, but the true winners are the community we are building between us. It showed you do care about our website and do care about our news, articles and online entries so a big thank you to you personally. Now back to the article...........The sensation of putting one foot in front of the other in a smooth flowing action of single sport running is not regarded enough as technical sports. Many books are out there, about how to train but not enough about how to run. Developing runing skills through Drills and specific sets are important. Triathletes for example although the legs are predominantly the main limbs used in the bike and run sections the individual muscles in both the upper and lower leg are contracting in a different way when running. There are no shortcuts to becoming a good runner. Technique, speed, strength and mobility training, together with an awareness of the

what's next ? While Dublin City Marathon is coming this weekend, some of us are planning our new season. I thought some of the tools in this article might help you to do so. Rest and Regeneration It is during rest and recovery that gains are made as the body supercompensates for the stress accumulated in training. Without adequate rest and periods of regeneration, performance may stagnate or even decline. • Schedule a minimum of one 24-36 hour period with no training during the week. • Adhere to the guidelines for recovering the various energy systems. E.g. a high intensity hill climbing session will require a longer recovery time than a moderate aerobic session • Ensure training plans include unloading weeks; time to recover both physically and psychologically that includes easier practices and different activities. • Schedule a transition or off-season every year that lasts 2-4 weeks that does not involve any formal training (athletes can still cross train fo

Let's learn about yourself, and learn from my experience (Forest Marathon 2017) 1) get the objective right. If you have a half marathon time, it can help you as a reference for the full for example you can double your half marathon time and add 10%. so if you run 2h for the half you potentially run 4h24min for the full. Keep in mind this is only a reference, not a scientific fact or stat. if you usually do long run at about 80% of your max Heart rate with no problem and finish yoru half in a great physical state you will be certainly in a 5% ratio or less compare to the 10%. But if you have difficulties to maintain the tempo and are over 85% of your Heart rate, you need to include a muscular fatigue and revise your objective and add over 15% over the double add on of your half marathon time 2) 10 to 12 weeks preparation ? It just depends what training base you have. The body need a time to adapt a training regime and it can only be done progressively for your

chemical Pneumonia / Chemical Poisoning   Most people know I suffered from chlorine poisoning from the 24h swim in Waterford in April 2011 which jeopardised my Channel swim. When my lungs collapse twice in a week with my nose, ears, and eyes bleeding I realise something was wrong and thought “what have I done to myself?” Chlorine gas was first use as a chemical weapon in 1915. In World War I 1843 soldiers were exposed to chlorine gas. I decided to write about it to share my experience and leave a trace on the web to other people who might experience something similar. Doctors tried to look for more information and found difficult to solve my health issue. They do have people inhaling or drinking some chemicals by accident but not for a long period of time and on purpose. The next day after the event, I went to see my doctor, he asked me to go straight to the A&E. I wasn’t too keen about it so just went home with a steroid prescription and antibiotics along wi

running on the water ! Sebastien Locteau Helping and Supporting Cope Galway and Croi charities Supporting my two favorite charities through the COPE Triathlon and free training sessions and fundraising money for Croí for my channel swim is really exciting. I have been lucky in the last two weeks to be assisted by Lilly Muldoon. She does not realise how important it is to have a assistant coach behind you and be the safety net of each session and keeping the office work up to date. Training people each year at the Free training sessions for Cope is really enjoyable, whatever the weather or the ability we just meet and train. Last Monday I was very lucky again to have three assistant coach with me, Lilly Muldoon & Tony Daly from Predator Triathlon Club and Karl Prendergast from Galway Triathlon Club. Week 2 session of the 16th May was Transition training with mounting / dismounting the bike, then 10km bike and Swim 500m. It brings some new ideas, and give

Let's do it again ! Coach Sebastien Locteau delivering the session We had our first training session last night. The Cope Triathlon is coming soon, and there are only few places left for this year Triathlon. COPE always has been one of my favorite charities. They provides services to those isolated in our community - including sustenance and social supports for older people, a refuge for women and children affected by domestic violence and accommodation for men and women experiencing homelessness. I was pleased with last night training session. 16 people showed up with 3 coaches. We swam about 700 to 900m, preceded by a short presentation of swimming techniques in Triathlon :   Technique: head and body position, arms and leg action, breathing, turning around buoys and looking up without breathing.   We then went for a nice and easy 5k run and I was impressed that some who never ran before or very little were able to do it. I suppose group effect doe

The day I became a Zombie Picture courtesy of Vanessa Daws First Irish 24 hour swim in Waterford ( Picture courtesy of Vanessa Daws) A friend John Gilbert from Pulse Triathlon suggested he was going to swim 6h in Waterford. I asked him to send me the email and I discovered there was a 24h swim, which consisted of 24 times 1 mile swim. I emailed the race organiser, Colm and asked him if I could attempt to swim a full marathon. I am preparing to swim the channel for Croi in Agust 2011 and needed a preparation race. Well this is my story swimming the first Irish 24h ultra swim. Me and John Gilbert as a friend and crew where he swam the 6h ! I found interesting while preparing my bag that you only need a swim tog, goggles, towel and hats to make such an event. The hydration and nutrition part was very heavy compare to the equipment required. We all had a different challenge, the guys planned to do a steady 1mile 24 times with 30min recovery whi