Training this WEEK

Dear All

 

Well what a fantastic Olympic Games it has been so far - totally inspirational!! The swimming in particular has been a massive favourite for me as your # 1 "Swim Geek" - Michael Phelps, Eamon Sullivan and the three Australian female superstars (Libby Tricket, Leisel Jones and Steph Rice) are just sensational right now. Its also very addictive sitting down and watching all the TV coverage (as good or as bad as you perceive Channel 7s coverage to be!). I've found that the Official Olympic Games website at http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/SW.shtml offers the easiest way of finding all the results that you may have missed during the day.

 

Make sure you don't miss the two triathlon events next Monday (women's) and Tuesday (men's) where my tip is for a win for Emma Snowshill and Javier Gomez in the men's. Both should be great events.

 

So, whilst you are no doubt pinned to your seats watching as much as you can, don't forget to get out there and keep yourself active as well! I went for a swim today visualising that I was swimming like Phelps and despite being relatively unfit right now, it was amazing how good I actually felt in the water by feeding off this inspiration - so make sure you get along to a few sessions this week and give it a try and see what I mean!!

 

Upcoming "attractions":

 

Those that are running the City-2-Surf will no doubt be well on their way with their preparations for that event - but what of the other big events this season? We have full details of the various programs that we will be offering up at http://www.theteamcore.com/futureprograms.html

 

Personally this year I will be preparing for my first ever Rottnest Solo Swim which I'm very excited about. We're going to get the program for this rolling from the start of September and then really hitting off on the 6th October (20 weeks). Its a great challenge and if you've ever thought about doing a solo, duo or team, now could be the year to make that happen. We'll be introducing a Saturday morning long distance open water swim session from October onwards which will be a great chance to practice some open water specific skills and swimming with a support paddler. Let me know if you are keen - we have about 12 people keen so far.

 

Training this week:

 

The weather has really picked up in the last fortnight, but three of our sessions are struggling to attract the interest that I would hope and that will allow us to keep running these sessions. These are:

• Monday morning long run (free) - meet at UWA Car Park at 6am on the corner of Mounts Bay Road. Whilst we all run at various speeds, just having the motivation of meeting someone else and running with a group can do wonders for getting your week off to a good start!
• Tuesday evening run technique and drills (1 credit) - meet at McGilvray Oval at 6pm for a 6.15pm start. This session is ideal for those wanting to improve their form and technique in an environment which is supportive, encouraging and motivating - you don't need to be a "whizz" to partake in this session as all abilities are catered for.
• Wednesday evening swim session (1 credit) - meet at Claremont Pool at 5.50pm for a 6pm start. This is a challenging but enjoyable threshold-type swim intervals session (e.g. 100s and 200s). As numbers have been low since its inception, those who have attended have reaped the rewards of some good individual attention on their strokes.

We really need numbers to get up to 10+ to make these sessions sustainable, but rather than just cancel them immediately, we'll give them until the last week in August to see if they pick up at all and then make a decision on whether to cancel these sessions. You don't need to let me know if you're coming, just check out the details at http://www.theteamcore.com/weeklyprogram.html and venues at http://www.theteamcore.com/wherewetrain.html

 

So, this week, all the sessions are running as normal (http://www.theteamcore.com/weeklyprogram.html ) and this Saturday's bike/run session will meet at 7am at the Dodgy Digital Dunnies (http://www.communitywalk.com/teamcoremap#00046JR7). We'll be doing a 100km freeway ride followed by an 8km run off the bike for those specifically building up for the Ironman in December and other longer distance events. Make sure you bring ample nutrition and fluid even if its a cold start.

 

Great stuff - see you out there!