Day two had a much later start time — it was 1 pm until we were even sat for the athlete briefing, which felt very unusual given it was the final day of competition. That morning, I'd met up with Katrin (Davíðsdóttir) and (Matt) O'Keefe, and we were put through a swimming session with the guys at Deep End Fitness. I had no expectations of what we were in for. I just turned up in my training shorts with no drawstring, a borrowed pair of goggles and an open mind. Katrin obviously entered poolside with the brightest swim costume ever designed and was ready to get to work! I quickly reminded her of the last time we swam together and who was victorious (me) to re-establish who was the boss and counteract the bright pink swim costume flex. 

The session itself turned out to be REALLY beneficial, not just in that moment but over the rest of that day. The focus was more specifically on breathing techniques and underwater swimming. We learned different ways to expand our lung capacity, how to approach those uncomfortable final moments of gasping for oxygen, and how to swim underwater efficiently. We did a few underwater swims, and I was mid-swim when I realized that the breathing exercises would benefit Sam in the swim event he had that same afternoon. 

Due to my past experiences with TYR Wodapalooza and other competitions, the first time you get to touch the water is when you dive in during the event. With swimming being such an important factor in the event, ensuring you are comfortable and get straight into your swimming flow in the first 20 meters is crucial — and often where the pack starts to split. Given that the swim event started with a 50-calorie Echo Bike, controlling your breathing was vital.

The morning session proved to be very useful

While running through our warm-up flow, I included the breathing techniques I'd just picked up that morning and also incorporated them into some of Sam's lat mobilization. We put a little more emphasis on his heart rate and opening up his lungs, as we both knew being able to function at a high heart rate and be able to suck in and utilize as much oxygen as possible was going to be key when hitting that treadmill at the end. We worked through this particular warm-up pretty quickly, probably because of the lack of elements which needed specific work. We ended up getting into some deep Dad chat, laughing at how savage our kids can be, how much DIY Sam has to return home to and how sometimes it's much easier being away and competing compared to the reality of being a responsible parent.

In our start-of-season planning and goal setting, we highlighted that Sam was generally a middle-of-the-pack guy in most swimming portions of events. Not a weakness, so to speak, but not classed as a strength, just in the middle. During the warm-up, I'd asked Sam how he felt about the swim to gauge his confidence levels. 

"I'm nervous about it," he replied. 

I nodded back with a reassuring look. Most people get nervous before open water swim events; It's unknown, you can get kicked or elbowed, spotting your direction is hard, and there are generally more things out of your control. I'd have loved him to reply, "I'm looking forward to getting in the water!" but we'll save that feeling for the Games later this year.

The day before, Sam seemed to like to stick to emotionless cues

Focussing on the task at hand, what he needed to do and how to do it. That's how most top athletes work, but it was apparent Sam wasn't interested in any other information. I noticed him switch off to other competitors when they mentioned how hard something would be or how much the rain would impact the workout, etc. So, I tried to lean into that. 

Per usual, I'd watched some of the earlier heats to see the flow on the floor and where the event was biased to. Obviously there is the swim portion, but my observations were that people were losing valuable placings in the field from being lackadaisical on the transition in and out of the water. Echo Bike to swim, swim to double unders, double unders to swim and then swim to runner. Each transition could vary from :10 to :25 seconds depending on the athlete's urgency; up to 1:00 of time potentially wasted. So, we focused on that in our last talks before he went to the corrals. 

Then, the event started

I'm not sure if other people do this when watching people on Echo Bike. But I compare the cadence of the athlete's hands to get an understanding of their pacing. I'd check Sams to Brent, Sam's to Pat's, Sam's to Ricky's and Sam's to James Sprague's. Brent and James were going the fastest. Sam was similar to Ricky and was faster than Pat. Sam ended up getting off the Echo Bike around 8-10th in his heat, which surprised me, and after catching up with Sam after the event, it surprised him too.

Sam stuck with the urgent transitions and already strolled past a couple of athletes from the bike into the water. It was anybody's guess at this point — you could kind of grasp where people were in the swim, but it wasn't easy. I decided not to try and see where he was and just wait with anticipation as athletes appeared back up the ramp onto the Bayside arena. A pale-skinned, red-faced man with solid sock tan lines came out of the water in 3rd position. It wasn't Pat and no other guy rocks the dad look like Sam. So it had to be him! 

At this point, I was back scanning the field to see where other athletes were positioned while also texting Coach Josh, sitting at home on a slightly lagged live stream, and was clearly very excited with how he was executing.

Sam worked through the double unders with no problem — hitting two sets of 75. He nipped past James Sprague and entered the water in 2nd, closely followed by James, Ricky and Roman. Sprague must have hooked himself onto a dolphin on the second swim and impressively pulled himself into the lead ahead of Brent. Sam got out of the water in 3rd place again but was in a literal foot race with Roman to round out the event. Sam looked calm when he got on the runner, striding and breathing well.

Sam had knocked 4:00 off his 10km time in the off-season, with all the training sessions being on a runner. So, I think he was confident of his ability to finish hard on the machine. Roman, who got on the runner :05-10 seconds behind Sam, was moving with a bit more urgency. The judges had their hands up, indicating a finger up for every 100 meters they had left. Sam's judge dropped to 4 fingers and then within :03, so did Roman's. Roman was catching. Both Sam's and Roman's judges dropped to 3 fingers up at the same time. 

Not far in front, though, was Brent, and I found out post-event that Sam had no idea Roman was catching him, as he was more focused on trying to nip in front of Brent. Roman's running gait was deteriorating. He was falling off the pace that he had started at while Sam's leg cadence was speeding up. Sam held onto his 3rd place and put himself in a great position to finish the day. 

2nd Overall, 12 points from Ricky, only a few in front of Brent and ~30 away from 4th. I don't know how Sam managed to spot me in the crowd because I was miles away from his lane, and the stadium was packed, but he did. He pointed over to me and gave a little fist bump/bicep tense in the air, and it's those moments, in particular, you love as a coach: Seeing your athlete execute a workout flawlessly and being on the finish line, proud of their performance. He was really happy with how he did in that event, as I was and Josh! Cue more messages along the likes of "BRO! LFG!!! Man can Swim!" between me and Josh.

We didn't have long before we had to turn it around before the final event

Just long enough for Sam and I to shoot off, borrow O'Keefe's room key and for Sam to get a little freshen up between events. I decided to cut the warm-up time down by 15:00 compared to usual, as we'd figured at this point that 15 minutes would be more valuable trying to unwind and prepare than standing around in the warm-up area. With that being the case, we agreed that when we meet in warm-up for the last event, we get straight into it. 

There were quite a few different movement patterns to be prepared for in the final. We had a mixed kettlebell front rack, rope climbs a portion of that being legless), toes-to-bar and handstand walks. Shoulder endurance and grip looked to be the separator while keeping a consistent round pace was the focus. Again, I drilled home the importance of transitions, something Sam had nailed in every event so far. Specifically, the transition from the handstand walk to the rope. I think it is obvious to look at 18 toes-to-bar and have your strategy based on hitting them unbroken or not. But given the potential time wasted or gained between the handstand walk into the rope climb, we decided to have that as our focus point.

"Don't hesitate to go into rep 1 on the rope, then move straight into the toes-to-bar; stay away from grindy reps early on, but make rest periods between sets really short".

Fast forward to the event, and that's what Sam did. The whole field seemed to be within :10 seconds of each other after the first round. It was mayhem; 20 bodies were upside-down simultaneously and scuttling up and down the ropes. 

It was only towards the back end of round 2 that we saw the field level out. Sam basically had to win the event to win the competition, and hope that Ricky was 3-4 places back in order for him to jump the points cushion. He was in there, though, back and forth with both Brent and Ricky, as each of them had a period where they took the lead momentarily. Brent picked up his kettlebell after finishing the third round and got a couple of his 'Go Go Gadget' leg reps in before Sam had his kettlebells set overhead, and Ricky had himself sandwiched between the two of them. 

I wasn't allowed in the spectator stands for this event (due to ticket restrictions), so I had to stand in the coach's area to the side of the arena — which was already packed with a load of media team members, owning cameras as long as my arm and as wide as my head. It seemed everyone else was 6 feet tall, plus! So, given my generous 5 foot 8 stature, I actually couldn't see what happened for the majority of the final lunges. I managed to find a gap where I could see Sam, and just as I got eyes on him, his foot slipped on the moist signage of the competition floor. 

The arm that was overhead seemed to be pulled out of position, and Sam was brought back 10 feet or so to lunge again. That was a hard watch from the sidelines. Sam was in there, and it was anyone's game at that point. Ricky was safe, but Sam was hunting Brent down. Sam took it like a pro, reset himself and finished the final lunges. I was pretty convinced that given Brent and Ricky had beat him in this event and the point cushion to 4th place, Sam had secured himself a 3rd place finish. And he did!

We waited on the competition floor

For what seemed like over 30:00. I took the role of holding some of Sam's kit, gymnastics grips/wristbands, etc., which, by the way, smelt a lot like HARD WORK! Haha. Probably because that's what had gone down for the last two days — hard work and perfect execution on all events. Not a single no rep (other than the kettlebell slip) and a smile on his face to finish off. No more than you can ask for as a coach. 

Sam walked off the competition floor, and seeing him get recognition from the fans was great. Something I'm sure doesn't motivate him, but it's nice to see — given he's always a bloke that slides under the radar and just gets the job done!

We shared a couple of handshakes and hugs, got a few pictures for Coach Josh back home and said our goodbyes. Off Sam walked back to his Volvo Estate rental car, sock tan game leveled up, hefty check in hand, ready to cash it straight in at his local Home Depot store when he got home.