Q&A with Des Gooda, DGC Tweed Coast Multisport
Des holds the title of Triathlon Queensland 2018/9 Coach of the Year, and his local squad, DGC Tweed Coast Multisport, were crowned Triathlon Queensland 2018/19 Small Club Champions. Des has also this year been nominated as Triathlon Australia Age Group Coach of the Year.
We chatted with Des to see how he’s been coping without major events on the horizon, his tips on training and the key to a long-term relationship with triathlon.
Des we’ve known you for a long time now, but we’ve never seen you without your regular dose of triathlon, how are you and the training crew faring?
We are certainly doing better now than earlier in the pandemic as everyone has realised we just need to get on with it as best we can and deal with what is thrown at us.
We have the possibility of some races going ahead in the near future and we are staying positive and focused on this and will certainly be ready for the first starting line. Our biggest challenge is that majority of events that are currently approved are in QLD and outside the border ‘bubble’. Our QLD based athletes will do us proud.
You have over 25 years’ experience in racing and coaching triathlon, that’s a bloody long time to be addicted to a sport! What fuels your love of triathlon?
I still have an absolute passion for the sport after all these years from both a coaching and racing perspective, and I am still learning from it. I am surrounded by an amazing bunch of people within the triathlon community and I try to give back as much as I take from it. I am obsessed with helping people be not only better athletes but also simply better versions of themselves. I get as much pleasure out of seeing a first timer run down the finish chute of a Tempta as I do putting someone on a World Stage.
When it comes to training, what is the importance of goals? And how do you keep setting new goals at the moment without a clear training time frame?
Goals are very important as it gives you a specific ‘target’ to aim at and enables a more structured training scenario. Under the current pandemic circumstances, it is just a matter of narrowing down the view somewhat and only planning ahead in line with restrictions and staying positive and focused on what we can control.
What are some common misconceptions people have about training?
Some athletes still believe they need to go out and trash themselves in every session to become better. This could not be further from the truth. The biggest ‘myth’ in world sport is ‘no pain, no gain’. Some are so busy trying to learn the tricks of the trade, that they never actually learn the trade!
If you could give only one crucial piece of advice to a triathlete, new or experienced, what would it be?
Consistency produces sustainability, sustainability produces longevity. Trust the process.
