Brick Results and Training this Week

Dear Athletes

Please be advised of the following training schedule this week:

Mon - am = run (as discussed at the brick session, please ignore program & shorten this to a 35 mins easy jog) & Time-4-Me at 9.30am; pm = bike (wind trainer session in Mount Hawthorn 6 / 6.15pm)

Tue - am / pm = all swims (5.30, 6.30 and 7.30am + 7pm) are all available. Easy session.

Wed - am = easy social ride at 5.50am & Time-4-Me at 9.30am.

Thu - am = Cottesloe Beach openwater session at 6.30am - come along for some FUN!; pm = recovery run drills and intervals at Lake Monger.

Fri - am = all squad sessions (5.30, 6.30, 7.30 and 9.30am) are available; pm = Rotto Boot Camp - meet at Rous Head at 6pm - don't be late!

Sat - am = brick session on Rotto (~1.5k, ~90k, ~10k); pm = afternoon swim skills session. At this stage, we may have to cancel or leave the 1pm squad swim with a session to complete (TBC).

Sun - am = run on Rotto. Ferry back at 11am.

Brick Session Results:

Today's Brick Session was a perfect display of how fickle it can be trying to predict race results and split times due to the varying nature of the elements! The ocean was rough and full of stingers, the bike was very windy, and the run was very hot...but you just never know if you might get these results at Busselton on the 2nd May, so well done for toughing it out TEAM! Take these results with a pinch of salt - they are not an indication that you are getting slower!!!!

It was a great turn-out this week, with 25 athletes completing the 1.5k swim + 73km bike + 12km run. My overall feeling is that a) people pushed a little too hard on the bike and then suffered on the run and that b) people's nutrition wasn't where it should be, most notably due to dehydration on the run. If you haven't yet listened to our advice on nutrition at http://www.theteamcore.com/podcast.html, you need to do so as a matter of extreme importance - it just might save your bacon on race day! Having "bad days" or "tough days" at the "office" like this is what training for a HIM is all about - better to get it "wrong" today, than on the 2nd May!

As a "footnote" I was very proud with the tenacity and team spirit you all showed today - be it a good day or a bad day (weatherwise) on the 2nd May - this is what will get you to that finish line!

Results can be seen now at: http://www.swimsmooth.com/Documents/Brick_2.xls (please note, guestimations have been added in yellow for those who didn't complete certain sections).

The results broke down like this:

Swim - on average ~ 2 mins slower for predicted HIM time than last week, apart from Mary who swam 45 seconds faster and Jo exactly the same! Well done girls!

Bike - bit of a "mixed bag" on the bike, some people quicker than last week's predictions, some slower, showing that the conditions affected people differently. Stand-out improvements came from Mel Cundy and Helen Masson this week, both riding ~ 7 mins better than last week.

Run - here's where the tale was really told though! Without exception, every member of the group ran between 5 and 15 mins slower than their predicted HIM time from last week, even if they were looking better on the bike this week. This simply shows that despite strong rides into the elements this week, the increased effort required on the bike resulted in a much slower run time. This is a lesson well worth considering for the race.

Total - everyone's total time (due to the run in particular) was slower than last week (by 5 to 20 mins), with the exception of Joanna Thomson who performed 5 mins better than last week, showing some great improvement! Well done Jo!

Hope that all makes sense - big shout out to the random lady who bought me a coffee whilst I was getting all of your splits down!

Cheers

Paul