Friday, February 29, 2008

Public Holiday Training

Dear All

As you know its a Public Holiday on Monday, however the team will still be out there training, so no need to miss a session!

Monday am: RUN - we'll meet at the usual spot at the UWA carpark, but this week we'll make it a 7am start time so you can get an extra bit of sleep! We'll be running for 1h30 for those doing the HIM, so please come prepared with fluid hydration belt / bottle.

Monday pm: BIKE (windtrainer) - we'll be back on the windtrainer at 22 Fairfield Street, Mount Hawthorn (remember to park on Anzac Road though as the parking "policemen" are hardcore on our street right now!). Meet at 5.45pm this week (normally 6pm) for a 6pm start.

IMPORTANT: Please email me if you are on the list below but cannot attend, likewise, email me if you are not on the list but want to attend (space is limited to 18 riders so you will be added to a waiting list on a strictly "first-email-best-dressed" policy!):


Trevor Magee
Lisa Palmer
Alan Bax
Michelle Newsome
Ian Murray
Mel Brand
Janet Musker
Rob Buckle
Andrew M-2-Z
Clinton Doak
Mel Cundy
Carl
Mary Tennant
Karen Wynne
Georgia Wood
Nelson Woss
Jane Day
Helen Buckle
Cheers

Paul

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Next few days of training...

Dear All

Owing to the fact that I am anticpating that many of you whom are training up for the Busselton Half Ironman may potentially be away for several of the upcoming weekends (including Karri Valley Triathlon on the 15th March and Easter the week after), I have decided to reschedule our sessions slightly over the next few days in order to get some of the sessions in that I hope you all will before the race. That way, if you are planning a family trip away over Easter, at least you can rest safely in the knowledge that you have got the necessary miles under your belt!

Thursday:

am: this will still be a moderate swim session owing to recovery week (no change)

pm: this will still be a moderate run session owing to recovery week (no change)

Friday:

am: we will meet at 6.45am for a 7am start down at Cottesloe Beach this week. Plan is to do either a) 2 loops down to North Cott and back (3.2km) if you're feeling fresh; or b) 1 loop to North Cott and back (1.6km) followed by a few ins&outs a-la Saturday morning's typical session. All-in-all this will still be a moderate session.

Saturday:

am: there will be no openwater session this morning, instead we shall meet at the Dodgy Dunnies carpark on the south-west side of the Narrows Bridge at 6.20am for a 6.30am (sharp) start. We will head down the Freeway bike path to accustom ourselves with the new route in preparation for the next few weeks which will follow this same course. Whilst some may argue the "enjoyment factor" of this ride, it is a great one for Busselton...if you want to race well on race day, this route is a "must". We'll ride for ~2h30 to 3h00 at a steady pace (given that its still recovery week) and then hop off and go for a 20 mins run off the bike around South Perth. As such, I'd recommend driving down to the Dodgy Dunnies prior to the bike start with your gear, although please make sure you have nothing valuable on display for fear of thieves in the area!*

Sunday:

Rest Day

*please note that Saturday's will now take on this format for the next several week...so a reminder that its 6.20am meet for a 6.30am start at the Dodgy Dunnies - you have been "briefed!" Cheers.

Paul

Sunday, February 24, 2008

The results just keep coming!

Dear All

Well its the start of week 7 and the start of our 2nd recovery week on the Half Ironman Program. Our focus now starts to shift towards lengthening our sessions and getting specific to racing on the flats of Busselton, now just 10 weeks away. Make sure you enjoy this week and adopt a very much "recovery is key" mentality please. This recovery phase is SO important if you want to adapt and build on what's instore for the next 3 weeks of "build".

Meelup Triathlon Results:

Several members of the squad competed this weekend down in Meelup at the 1000m swim, 30km (very) hilly bike, 8km (hot) run and we managed some exceptional results in the process. Joe Kierath put on a stella performance to win the junior event and was also the fastest member of our squad by 3 mins at just 16 years of age!! Yeah, that includes kicking "Grandpa Paul's" behind as well! Paul managed the 2nd fastest swim split overall (which I put down to simply swimming straight in the rough conditions over necessarily being one of the faster swimmers out there...it really pays to get your openwater practice in guys and we're going to crack-down on this more and more leading up to Busso), and also came 3rd in the 25 to 29 age-group. Very happy with that for a "rusty old boy". The double-act in the girls 25-29 AG was a superb performance by Georgia Wood (1st) and Sally O-Dea (3rd). Georgia also posted the fastest female run split of the day and was even faster than elite women's winner, Angela Milne! Top result. Clinton Doak put in a strong performance to finish 4th in the 20-24 AG and (we think) retain the State Championships leader's jersey in the process. What makes Clint's result all the more amazing was that on the day before the event he rode 190km with a run of 30mins off the bike in preparation for his upcoming assault on the Ironman Australia event in just under 6 weeks time! Michelle Newsome had a strong performance in the women's 30-34 AG with a confidence-building result in the 8km run assuring her that the Busselton HIM is a very real prospect for her. Whilst we are unsure of Jane Day's actual finishing position on the day (we think it was 3rd in the 40-44 AG?), we know that she was very happy with her result, and so she should be with a 36:30 8km run off the bike in hot conditions!! Trevor Magee did a top job of completing his first (and longest) triathlon in at least 4 years and showed us all what is possible with commitment and putting your mind on the "job" at hand - well done Trev - we were very proud of you mate!

I'll be trawling thorugh the results tommorow for some more info and in case I've missed anyone's results...needless to say though we all came away with smiles on our faces and arms laden with Pure Blonde beer cartons for podium finishes. Thanks to everyone down there who supported the Team including the Giantman, JT, Michelle, Rob & Helen "Buckle", Sam and Keith, everyone's respective partners and of course our roving photographer Adam who snapped off these great shots:

http://www.bornskinny.com/betasite/meelup08_gallery.htm

Cheers

Paul

Monday, February 18, 2008

Time-4-Me Sessions

Full details of the Tuesday & Thursday "Time-4-Me" sessions at the Challenge Stadium can be found here:

http://teamcoretalk.freeforums.org/viewtopic.php?t=48

Its a great week to be Australian! Or at least a "wannabe"!

Dear All

Well, its a great start to week # 6 of our Half Ironman program with some great sporting results from over the weekend! We'll come back to the Rotto results in a mo...but in case you haven't already heard the amazing news that West Australian Eamon O'Sullivan absolutely smashed Alexander Popov's world 50m record for the freestyle event at the NSW Championships. O'Sullivan completed the distance in 21.56 seconds to become the fastest swimmer in the world...ever! Amazing. More news here:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6egO7eAxZGrNl5QYnYXBjLGITmw What makes this accomplishment so special is Eamon's exemplary battle with injury over the last 2 years, remaining headstrong and focused on his goal of gold medal at the Beijing Olympics (he even played down the WR yesterday, saying that "he mustn't lose sight of the goal" - pretty inspirational if you ask me!!). He goes by the nickname of "The Silent Assassin" and whilst I'm not sure how 'silent' he'll keep himself after this result, his attitude is deserved of great admiration. This so-called "flying under the radar" (which I'm always talking about) is so necessary...as much as you should reward yourself for a good training session when these occur, the most important thing is to keep riding 'high' when you have a less-than-favourable session. Take last week for example...a lot of us felt pretty flat out there (me especially)...the true question though is whether we become dispondent and down about that or pick ourselves up and look forward to a good week this week...and for those of you down at running this morning, I could certainly see that spirit amongst ALL of you - so well done Team!

OK, official results are not yet out for the 2008 Rottnest Bankwest Channel Swim (a gruelling 19.5km channel crossing completed by 2100 swimmers in between 4 and 12 hours as either solo, duos or teams), however, I can confirm an absolutely outstanding result from our top-lane swimmer Mark Scanlon who finished 3rd overall in the event in just a shade over 5 hours!!! Mark can be seen in training action here:
http://swimsmooth.blogspot.com/2007/11/swimming-bands-only.html Two of our other top-lane swimmers (Judy Young and Rob Buckle) also had superb races to make it across to the island in 6h21 and 6h30 respectively for their first solo crossings. Well done chaps!

We had many people from the group compete in the duo and teams categories as well - I haven't heard any results from anyone else as yet apart from an excited test message from one very ecstatic Mary Tennants after her team made it all the way across - well done Mary! I would really appreciate everyone emailing me back as soon as you get chance to let me know how you went (times / places etc - any info you have), who you did it with, and a brief report of how you enjoyed the day...even if its just a couple of lines - we want to hear all about it!!! That includes those of you whom have just done 1-2-1 sessions with Paul if not with the whole squad.

Bike Session tonight:

Despite the rumours and the cooler weather, I have taken the "executive" decision (LOL!) to run tonights bike session on the road. This will be our final hills ride session. Meet at Reabold at 6pm for a 6.15pm start. We'll be riding over to Hale Road together to do some hills over there tonight. This is our last hills session before we get a little more serious about the 'flat' for Busso.

Today is a GREAT day! OK, too much caffeine perhaps...get a grip Paul! ;-)

Cheers

Paul