Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Quick one about kit...
Just a quick one as I sit here at the departure lounge waiting for our flight to the UK - it was lovely seeing some of you this morning at the 530am and 930am sessions and I hope you enjoyed the longer Christmas Cracker Session at 530am. My back us feeling so much better already it's just incredible! And yes, I will still take it steady of course whilst I am away!
A number of swimmers this morning noted that someone had maybe mistakenly walked off with their gear, namely Amanda's pull buoy and paddles, Anka's tempo trainer and Aaron's fins. I don't think this was the same person in all cases but if you are able to do a quick check of your gear that'd be great please. Interestingly all these items were marked up with their owner's names / details.
A good solution when there is so much kit on the pool deck is to look at getting a mesh kit bag where possible to help keep everything together. I personally love mine for this reason. Something for your Christmas stockings perhaps from your loved ones??
Also, generally the number of fins and pull buoys that we have for squad use has really dwindled just recently and if I could kindly ask you to remember to always return any kit you use after use, that'd be very much appreciated. My theory is that some of the public outside of the squad are possibly mistaking our gear as being available for public use so if you ever see this happening please offer a kind reminder that it is only for squad use.
Thanks for your help with any / all of the above, but if you do have some of Anka's, Amanda's or Aaron's gear by mistake please pop it down on Friday morning with Sally to swap things over. Thanks!
Dull, wet and windy England here we come!
Paul
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Bon voyage to Emma!
- 4 x 100
- 1 x 200
- 4 x 100
- 1 x 300
- 4 x 100
- 1 x 400
Friday, December 13, 2013
Houston...we no longer have a problem (hopefully!)!!
Monday, December 2, 2013
Christmas swim training / holiday period
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Swim Thru Perth entries are open!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
80% of you could drastically improve your swimming simply with better pacing...
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Last few days with the coaches...
Monday, October 28, 2013
Pain in the old bum!
- pilates / physio with Chris and Michelle
- stand-up office (pictured - as recommended by Ray S from the squad - thanks Ray, works a treat!)
- inverted traction machine
- funny MBT shoes to correct my posture on pool deck
- experimenting with different sleeping positions
Friday, October 4, 2013
Training this weekend
Don't forget that despite the school holidays and the Royal Show, Saturday's 1-2pm squad session at Claremont Pool will be on tomorrow. It's a cracking session to come and hone your open water skills and also work hard and have fun!
Also, in case you missed last night's free webinar about our 2014 Rottnest Channel Swim Program, that can be now viewed here (73 minutes):
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ4WkSABf5g&feature=youtu.be&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZZ4WkSABf5g%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
Finally, subject to my slightly niggly shoulders being ok, I should be at Challenge Stadium tomorrow morning in the Outdoor 10 lane pool completing a 3000m Time Trial if you care to join me at 530am.
Have a good weekend.
Cheers
Paul
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Tonight's Rottnest Channel Swim Program Q & A location
If you're planning to "attend" tonight's Rottnest Channel Swim Program Q & A, you'll be able to see us live at:
http://youtu.be/rzwkyl_B0Dk
...for those of you who registered your email address, you should have received a direct invitation which will allow you to participate in the conversation.
Hope to "see" some of you then!
Paul
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
2014 Rottnest Channel Swim Q&A, 8pm Thursday 3rd October 2013
- those of us doing the 2014 Rottnest Channel Swim (be it Solo, Duo, or Team) will be swimming down at the Claremont Jetty tomorrow morning (Thursday 3rd October), meeting at 5.45am and hopefully in the water by 6am. Sunrise is ~5.51am. As this is our first foray down there for a few months, we will take the opportunity to suss out the 1km out and back course (for those of you new to this loop) and aim to swim 2-5km depending on where you're at with your program. Last year I got into the habit of doing a really solid 10km swim (5 loops of 2km) every Thursday and it was a great chance to practice pacing, sighting and of course nutrition. Don't be scared by those distances, most were swimming 4-6km on this particular session. It is likely to be cold tomorrow (15-16ºC) so wetsuits might be well advised for some of you and that you shouldn't push yourselves too hard on this first time down - no need to be a hero! This swim is entirely at your own risk, so please take care and we'll try to buddy up with someone of similar speed. I will personally be participating in this swim each week, so besides this first introduction to the Jetty, I will not be down at the Jetty in a coaching capacity, but as a swimmer like you all (at least pre-swim...I'm usually a lot more chatty post-swim!). The water depth is typically no more than 1.5-2.5m and is usually quite clear. There is the occasional jelly fish to contend with but the biggest risk is people swimming into each other on the out & back loop, so please stay vigilant and practice your sighting!!
- as mentioned I will be running a Q&A session free of charge tomorrow evening online at 8pm (WST) for ~1hr using a "Google Hangout" as per: https://plus.google.com/events/cl7qag83sk9uq9hu33ff2q1a14c to answer any questions about our 21 week program leading up to the Rottnest Channel Swim on the 22nd February 2014. I would please ask that you have fully familiarised yourself with the program at http://swimsmoothperth.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/its-here-our-2014-rottnest-channel-swim.html and you come prepared to listen in and ask any outstanding questions that the program doesn't answer. I would please prefer not to waste time answering questions that are already contained within the program (i.e. Where is Claremont Jetty? What date is the swim?) but would like to get into some detail about best training practices, technique tips, shoulder injury management, nutrition strategies, boat skippering and navigation etc. This will be the best use of our time. You may need to download the Google Hangout Plugin and if you are intending to "attend" please flick me over your google email address (or email address linked to your google account) and I'll add you in as a guest. This will be strictly first-come, best-dressed and will allow you participate in the video and ask questions. You will of course be able to still see the Hangout without this access if you simply visit the page above and for those of you who can't make it, we plan to record the session and post out a YouTube link on Friday so you can catch up. This is my first time running a fully-fledged Hangout, so fingers crossed it all goes smoothly! You might find it to be a good platform to even use in your own businesses.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Breaststrokeathon December 1, 2013
Monday, September 30, 2013
Paul Newsome sent you an invitation
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Saturday, September 28, 2013
A quick reminder about which sessions are ON / OFF this weekend...
Thursday, September 26, 2013
October 2013 to March 2014 Swim Smooth Perth Lane Allocations
A great deal of observation from a) regular attendance, b) time trial results, and c) observable paces being held in the various squad sessions following the tests 3 weeks ago has gone into collating this list. I am hoping it's 98% complete and accurate, however, there are a few gaps with respect to paces per 100m of some of the very new faces in the squad (namely the Tuesday / Thursday 6.30pm sessions and the Saturday 1pm session) so if you have any amendments or additions for me, please just let me know.
- that you are all pacing as well as possible in the harder interval sessions.
- that you know exactly what your current threshold (CSS) pace is (you will notice that I have made some minor tweaks to the resultant paces from the 800m time trial for some of you based on how you've responded and having been progressing recently) and that you're training at the right intensity*
- ensuring that you leave an appropriate gap** between you and that you don't try to close this down to draft on the feet of the person in front of you, unless I specifically state that as an aim for the session, i.e. Saturday 1-2pm
- Tuesday 11.30am @ Claremont Pool (same session as the 5.30am, 6.30am and 6.30pm session - technique & low intensity endurance work)
- Wednesday 11.30am @ Claremont Pool (same session as the 5.30am session - long, hard endurance work)
- Thursday 5.45am @ Claremont Jetty (long, continuous open water swim building from 4km to 10km on our 2km circuit)
- Friday 1.30pm @ Claremont Pool (same session as the Wednesday 9.30am, Thursday 6.30pm and Friday 5.30am / 6.30am squads - hard intervals OR an easy recovery swim)
- Saturday 5.30am @ Challenge Stadium Outdoor 10 lane pool until the end of November and then Claremont Jetty (long, steady endurance work)
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
It's here! Our 2014 Rottnest Channel Swim Program!
Monday, September 23, 2013
Ceinwen & Lisa to swim the Catalina Channel, CA right now!
As most of you are no doubt aware a group of four "Sandgropers" are over in California right now preparing to swim the 32km Catalina Channel. In fact, right now if you switch over to http://www.mapswim.com/catalina/ you should be able to see Ceinwen Roberts starting her attempt which will take anywhere between 7.5 and 11hrs. Her GPS tracker will give live updates of her progress as will the Twitter feeds @ceinywilliams11 and @ssandgropers
Unfortunately after nearly 6 hours in the water on our Saturday afternoon, Paul Downie suffered some bad shoulder pain and had to withdraw his efforts. Then on Sunday it was Wayne The Train's turn and unfortunately he wasn't even able to start owing to a poorly timed ear infection. I am sure you will be with me wishing these two swimmers the speediest of returns to full health. It just goes to show how tough this marathon swimming business is!
So after Ceinwen today, Lisa Delaurentis will also attempt the swim on Thursday at 3pm Perth time using the same @ssandgropers Twitter handle.
Go girls! Best of luck from everyone here in Perth!
Paul
Swimming this Long Weekend
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Home stays for coaches - can anyone help?
- Morgan Williams, UK
- Cath Liversidge, Calgary, Canada (although actually a Pom from around the corner from me in the UK!)
- Stacee Seay, Chicago, USA
- Dominic Tsui, Hong Kong
- (potentially) Karl Stine, Florida, USA
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Mind the Gap!
- pace awareness
- the benefit of swimming at (or close to) CSS pace - defined simply as the pace you're able to currently maintain for ~1500m racing
- ensuring you leave an appropriate gap in front of you, namely 5 or 10 seconds (or for the person in front to be at the green sign at ~9 meters before you set off)
- 4 x 100m at CSS pace, with 1 beep recovery (or your approximate average pace for the 800m time trial which will be very close to the 400m / 200m tests that we've used previously)
- 1 x 400m at CSS + 3" per 100m (i.e. 3" per 100m slower than the 100m intervals)
- 4 x100m at CSS pace, but with only 15 seconds rest (we will use the re-sync button on the top of the Tempo Trainer for this)
- 1 x 400m at CSS + 1" per 100m
- 4 x 100m at CSS pace, but with only 10 second rest
- I was actually relieved to move to lane 2. What I found was that the short repeat sessions (Tuesdays and Fridays) I was ok in lane 3. But Wednesdays would blow me up big time. I got to the point where I was honestly nervous before turning up on a Wednesday morning cause I knew it was going to be too hard! Interestingly, while I was relieved to move down a lane I think other people see moving lanes as a "demotion" of sorts. I just never saw it like that. I think there is a bit of "ego" around which lane you swim in. But who cares? Don't you want to do whatever makes you a quicker swimmer? I see guys in other lanes doing short turns and jumping on feet and I laugh – how can you be getting anything from that?
- Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack talks about threshold sessions where if you are working above threshold you can only do a little bit of work at that level (like trying to pull your threshold up) whereas working just below your threshold you can do a lot more work at that level (like pushing your threshold up). Obviously we do a bit of both of those over the course of the week. But lane 2 felt like I was able to sit just below threshold – and therefore do more work. It was comfortably uncomfortable. And almost straight away I was getting through the Wednesday set (my suspicion is that we're not talking massive numbers here are we? Would it be like 4-6 seconds / 100m between the groups???). The start of the long sessions in lane 2 would feel easy to me – but that was ok because it would always catch up with me by the end of the session. Over the weeks I started feeling stronger and stronger over those distances. Which meant I could jump on the front and do some of the harder work. Then today, after 5-6 weeks in lane 2 building my strength and aerobic base I could jump back into lane 3 and hold my own (still lots of better swimmers than me in lane 3 but the point is that I didn't feel totally out of place).
- I would also say that mentally there is a massive difference in being able to lead a lane and being the worst swimmer in the lane just struggling to hold on. I don't know what it's worth as a % but being one of the strong swimmers makes you swim better. It's probably the puff your chest out factor!"
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Race Around Rottnest!
Join in the Adventure Race phenomenon with the Race Around Rottnest on Saturday September 21st. Tackle it solo or get a team of 2, 3 or 4 together and make a day of it!
Hotel Rottnest will host the post event function where you can kick on with a live band, presentations, food and drink as well as live finals footy on the big screens after you cross the finish line!
Registrations are now open with early bird prices closing on August 31st! Register now at www.racearoundrottnest.com.au
We've teamed up with Autism West as the chosen charity for Race Around Rottnest. All participants will be supporting this very worthy cause by raising awareness and funds to enrich the lives of families living with Autism. This is your chance to make a difference. Get involved.www.autismwest.org.au