Sebastien Locteau

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 alon...

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 me a ...

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 effec...

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...

Series finale ! Sebastien Locteau, Laura O'Shaughnessy, Sonia O'Sullivan ( Irishtown stadium 2011) Another sunny day over the Irishtown stadium today. Today fm, SPAR, Runireland crew were helped by the Crusaders AC for the final set up of the last 5k race today. Sonia O'Sullivan was our guest, and Maired Farell from Today FM our leader for the event. Will Hanafin was brilliant as usual and with Alan O'Donohoe, I really had a great time in the last 5 days. I was very lucky to have Lilly Muldoon and her children today, they just did all the set up and work you saw on the pictures. The two teenager were just fantastic, with a great spirit and were a great crew for runireland. We had a nice photo shoot with Sonia O'Sullivan who held a big number 5 and myself caring the little "K" at the bottom. Not sure how the picture came off after me going around trying to get the sponsors on the shot, and dealing with the participants. The...

Another successful event ! Another beautiful day in Mullingar this time, where Mullingar AC ran a great show ! Lovely location with over 600 people. The celebrity guess was Neil Delemare from "The Panel". I never met him before and will definately be watching him more in the future. A gentleman and everybody knows how hard it is for me to take a joke, well he succeeded and made me laugh. The event itself was a success, and the Today FM team was up early again, preparing the goody bags, banners etc.... The SPAR team was also there as usual making sure people get their Tshirts and sponosred product. Mullingar AC with Bobby leading the team were on the clock and nothing was going to stop the race to start in time. The volunteers, ambulance, garda were like a well maintain clock like a military mission which each details was treated as important which made it a success, congrats to Mullingar AC. I forgot two important people in the last few days I worked...

Galway City Harriers top notch job ! What a beautiful day today in Galway with over 900 people turning up on the beautiful city of Galway. I knew most of the people involved in the race from Galway City harriers and their experience in organising big event is well known. registration went smoothly, plenty of marshals and the weather has been booked perfectly for the race. what could you expect more ? Read on..... Liam Hennessy the president of the Athletic Association of Ireland came to witness the impressive turn out of over 900 people coming for a fun run, in a great atmosphere. SPAR crew, Today Fm and runireland teamed up again with the local club Galway city harriers to provide a fantastic event. As per the last few days, great people, superb atmosphere and great weather. Participants received a great quality Technical Tshirt and the usual goody bag after finishing the event. Galway City Harriers, with the experience of running the famous Street...