The Story of Gerard Donnelly, Part 2: The Coaching Years

Get Fast Podcast, Ep 100 (Part 2), with Gerard and Jordan Donnelly

After retiring from professional triathlon in 1990, Gerard Donnelly coached runners and juniors, came back to racing as a masters cyclist and won Australian titles again. As more riders asked for his help, calls about training kept interrupting his day job as a painter, and that is how TriVelo Coaching began. In the second part of the podcast's 100th episode, recorded in 2021, his son Jordan takes him through it.

How did Gerard start coaching?

He was coaching long before he retired. As sports master and head of phys ed at St Bernard's in Essendon, he coached the school's runners and swimmers. In the late 1980s he and other triathletes ran a triathlon coaching school in Melbourne, with weekend courses in swimming, riding, running and nutrition. Gerard wrote the first program for it, which he found ironic years later when he set out to get certified as a coach. They also took wind trainers into schools to get kids started in the sport.

After triathlon he turned to the marathon. He coached his brother Frank from 2:56 to 2:48 to around 2:40 over three years, running the hills together. Gerard and Frank were also in the three-man team that won the teams event at the Melbourne Marathon.

How did he coach his own kids?

Gerard coached his four children as juniors, careful not to be a pushy dad. He kept a notebook for each of them with every session and every race, so they could aim to beat their last effort. The talk in the car after a race was about how they felt they went, never why they didn't win.

That became his coaching philosophy: "if you organize yourself with the process, then the result should take care of itself." He also taught them to start cross country races at their own pace while the field sprinted, then work through it later.

How did he come back as a masters cyclist?

Slowly. He had spent close to 15 years mostly away from training while raising a family, and came back eight to 10 kg heavier with no aerobic base. It took three or four years of being average, and five or six years before a breakthrough race. His advice to athletes with young families is to keep doing something, even a short run every second day, so you never start from scratch.

He fitted training around work and family with early starts, meeting a group at 5:30 am twice a week for teams time trial sessions and finishing in time for work.

What changed after riding with Cadel Evans?

On a family holiday at Barwon Heads in the 2000s, Gerard followed Cadel Evans off a local group ride and asked if he could sit on his wheel. Evans was doing five efforts with a minute's rest between them, riding to power. His speed changed with the wind, but his power stayed the same.

Gerard had trained by feel for 20 years. He bought a power meter, read everything he could about training with power, and made Evans' five-by-five session one of his own go-to sessions. The bigger lesson was structure: "if you want to be better you have to do things better."

What did he win as a masters rider?

• Tour of Bright: after eight or nine attempts with seconds, thirds and fifths, he won the masters race by 8 seconds, after struggling with altitude on the climb to Hotham.
• Australian Masters road race, 2014: his first masters national title, at Buninyong in Ballarat, 26 years after his Ironman title. He won a four-rider sprint pushing over 1,000 watts, the highest power he had ever recorded. He credits position, timing and then effort, in that order.
• Phillip Island Grand Prix: 10th in an open race against elite riders, which he puts down to tactics as much as fitness.
• Champion of Champions: four times Australian Masters Champion of Champions, the award for the best points across the road race, criterium and time trial.
• The clean sweep: in Adelaide he won the road race, criterium and time trial at the same Masters Nationals. He calls it the most rewarding result of his masters career.

Gerard has also won two Masters World Championship silver medals.

How did he finally win the time trial?

He had lost the national time trial by under a second more than once. To win it he slept in an altitude tent for eight weeks, cleaned up his food and lost 4 kg, trained specifically for the event, and had a professional bike fit.

The new position made him slower at first. In his first race in it he averaged 38 km/h, against the 42 km/h he was used to. The fitter told him to keep training in the position and trust the process. It took about three months to come back, and by race day he was faster than before. His advice for any change is to give it months before judging it.

In the road race he attacked just before a technical descent, went clear with two others and rode the last climb alone. The criterium was wet, with a tight last corner 200 m from the line, so he made sure he was second around it.

How did TriVelo Coaching start?

Gerard had gone back to painting in a business with his brother Frank to support four children. As his masters results grew, more riders asked for help, and calls about training kept interrupting his work. Frank told him to stop painting, start charging for coaching and make it a proper business.

TriVelo was the result: "tri" for triathlon and "velo" for cycling. Gerard chose a white kit so riders would be seen in the early mornings. By 2021, TriVelo coached athletes in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, the Caribbean and South America.

What does he believe about coaching?

• He thinks of the athletes he coaches like his own children. A back-of-the-pack triathlete who moves to mid-pack with a 15-minute PB means as much to him as a national title.
• He is blunt when someone's goal and commitment don't match, so they aren't disappointed on race day.
• Every coach is still learning. He tries methods on himself before relying on them.

He gave two recent examples. Jordan went from 278 to 358 watts on the bike. An athlete named Emma in New Zealand went from a 1:58 half marathon to 1:51 on four runs a week, built around hills.

Part 1 tells the story of his racing career, from his first triathlon to the Commonwealth Games.

Related

• The Story of Gerard Donnelly, Part 1
• About Gerard Donnelly
• Cycling coaching
• Real athlete results
• Apply for coaching