A steep learning curve...

Sometimes opportunities fall into you lap that you question you deserve and are certainly shocked to have. Luckily this one turned out to be extraordinarily positive.

These past 2 days I've spent at the Triathlon Canada meetings in Calgary. I was asked to attend because of my involvement in the development of the NCCP Community Course for triathlon. Walking into the meeting room 1 hour late was shocking to say the least! (I was late because Tracey (T) and Kristine (KK) were held up in Vancouver. Something about air conditioning on the plane or lack thereof!) So, we three gals joined a room full of what I consider to be the "who's who" of Canadian Triathlon.

Barry Sheply, Joel Filliol, Mark Bates, Patrick Kelly, Kurt Innes Olympic Cyclist, Larry McMahon the head of coaching development for Tri Can, Craig Taylor who knows so much and pretends to know nothing! On top of that I was again working with Kristine Chambers who has developed all the NCCP manuals and basically created Comp Intro from the bottom up. There were others too... several I didn't get the name of as I sat in the back like a fly on the wall, wanting to absorb every comment, every presentation, every moment. It was amazing just to be in the room.

What was the purpose for me being there? This was an opportunity for "T", "KK" and I to present the new community program we worked so hard to create, and to do revisions on the now 5 year old Comp Intro Coaching Program. So, even though I would have liked to stay in the room of the "Big Cheese" and listen to the Bejing debrief and numerous other discussions on High Performance Training and Racing in our country, I stayed on task and spent 2 very full days with KK and T.

In the end, our ideas for re-framing the current program to certify coaches in the Competition Stream for triathlon was accepted by the "Big Cheese" folks, and we had amazing brain storming sessions on the new plans for coach development which will be implemented across the country. On top of that, every conversation gleamed an ounce of learning. Today Kristine and Jim had a great discussion on physical literacy. On the way to the airport Glen gave us a 40 min run down on the thoughts of the group to capitalize on Simon's silver medal at Bejing and find the next great Canadian Triathlete to maybe take his place! Thank goodness for traffic... it lengthened the trip!

I am now headed to 4 days of learning and learning and learning at the Sport Leadership Conference in Calgary. I'm tired, and my brain is full, but I'm pretty excited too.

Off to bed... Thanks for reading!