Friday, May 29, 2009

Two Reminders

Dear Athletes

Please be reminded of two things which I require your kind 'input' on at this moment in time:

1) Team Kit - do you want to order any of our new winter range? Deadline for orders has been extended to Monday 8th June - but please, no orders after this point as it will take 6 weeks for the order to be delivered. Thanks for your cooperation. 

2) Team Core Social Evening - Saturday 13th June at 8pm up at Bar One Twenty in Hillarys Boat Harbour, Sorrento Quays. Are you coming? Hope so! You need to let me know. Remember, if you are receiving this email, you are invited!


Cheers

Paul





Thursday, May 28, 2009

Running Tonight

Dear Athletes

Please be advised that we shall be meeting tonight from 6pm for a 6.15pm start at McGilvray Oval for our run session. However, tonight we won't be running on the grass at the oval as I have a small circuit set-up just around the corner on Montgomery Av. Hope you can make it!

Cheers

Paul

Monday, May 25, 2009

Public Holiday Monday 1st June

Dear Athletes

Please be advised that all sessions WILL run as normal next Monday (ie
Monday 930am swim and Monday 6pm wind trainer session) despite it
being a Public Holiday.

Cheers

Paul

Friday, May 22, 2009

Another cancellation - sorry!

Dear Athletes

Please be advised that there will be no wind training session at the Sweat Shack on Monday 25th May. These sessions will resume again on Monday 1st June as normal at 6pm for a 6.15pm start. Sorry for any inconvenience to our regular riders!

Please also note that I will not be at cycling on Wednesday morning for our usual 5.50am ride. Riders should head down towards Mosman Park water tower and do 2 solid laps of the golf course before returning to the Bouchard Cafe for coffee. Enjoy!

Cheers

Paul




Thursday, May 21, 2009

Cancellation of this evening's RUN Session!

Dear Athletes

It is with regret that we have chosen to cancel this evening's planned running session at McGilvray Oval due to the impending bad weather and forecast storms. 

As many of you are still on a bit of a break after the Half Ironman (and therefore low numbers would be expected), my suggestion to you would be that you do a tempo run this afternoon or later on this evening if the weather does ease up. My recommendation would be an easy 10 mins warm-up followed by a 20 to 30 mins run effort at about 75 - 80% intensity (solid, but not eyeballs out), followed by a 5 to 10 mins easy cooldown. 

It may well turn out to be fine at 6pm, but this session WILL NOT go ahead tonight. Sorry for any inconvenience.

In the event of an electrical storm tomorrow morning, Claremont Pool will also close and prevent our 5.30am, 6.30am and 9.30am sessions going ahead. However, the forecast is looking much better for tomorrow and I am 99.9% confident that we will be able to go ahead with these sessions. After all, you wouldn't want to miss getting "Fresh & Fruity" on a Friday would you! 

Myself and Adam will be down there regardless tomorrow come rain, hail or shine, so I hope that you can join us!

Cheers

Paul





Monday, May 18, 2009

End of Season Party & TEAM KIT





Dear Athletes

Hope you all had a great weekend. The weather is still holding fine at the moment, but apparently due to change later on this week. But as they say, "if it ain't raining, it ain't training!"

Whilst I'm sure public opinion and even that within the group is divided, at least by the vote going against Daylight Savings in the future, we'll be able to start doing our good old early morning open water skills session in the ocean again in the summer before work! Stay tuned!

END OF SEASON PARTY:

It gives me great pleasure to invite you ALL to our End of Season Party at Bar One Twenty at Sorrento Quays in Hillarys Boat Harbour on Saturday 13th June from 8pm sharp.

This is our annual get together to celebrate everyone's achievements over the course of the season, including the Open Water Swim Series, the Rottnest Channel Swim and of course the Triathlon Series and Busselton Half Ironman! We hope that you can all attend. The invite includes one guest (those wishing to bring more, please email Paul). The night will kick-off with some fun awards and then the DJ will get everyone pumping before the main nightclub opens at 9pm.

This will be a lot of fun, so please attend if you can. Entry is FREE. Anyone who thinks they can donate any spot prizes towards a proposed raffle on the night, please email Paul.

Please, please, please let me know if you plan to attend by simply replying to this email with the title "I'm up for some fun and games on the 13th!"

TEAM KIT:

We still have a few remaining pieces of TEAM CORE cycle kit remaining if anyone would like either a jersey ($95), some shorts ($100), or the full set ($175). Sizes as follows:

MEN'S SHORTS:

1 x Medium (non-bibbed), 1 x Large (non-bibbed), 1 x XL (non-bibbed), 1 x XXL (non-bibbed), 1 x XXL (bibbed)

MEN's JERSEYS:

2 x Small, 3 x Medium

WOMEN'S SHORTS:

1 x X-Small (non-bibbed)

WOMEN'S JERSEYS:

1 x Small, 1 x Medium, 1 x XL

WINTER CYCLING KIT:

Thanks to Joe Kierath for expertly modeling our Winter & Race Clothing range (above). We are now taking orders for the following items:
  • Fleece 3/4 Bib Shorts $130 - very cosy!
  • Wind-proof Vest (no arms) - folds down very tiny indeed - excellent! $70
  • Wind-proof Jacket - folds down very tiny indeed - excellent! $80
  • Sleeveless Base Layer $30
  • Winter Gloves $45
  • Fleece Overshoes $38
  • Socks $15
  • Tri Shorts $75
  • Tri Singlet $70
  • Standard Tri Suit $130
  • Running Shorts $45
  • Running singlet $50
Anyone wanting any of this cool gear (all branded up in The TEAM CORE colours) should please reply to this email with "Kit Order" as the headline, and specify your sizing from the chart information here. I'll be collecting orders up until Monday 1st June, so anyone still wanting some of the summer cycle clothing can also request those as well.

Cheers

Paul

Thursday, May 14, 2009

World Long Course Team Selections

Well done to the following athletes for their selection in the 2009 World Long Course Triathlon Championships to be held here in sunny Perth in October!

All athletes will be representing Australia and this will be an amazing experience and honour for them on their home turf!


MEN:

Tim Howley
Sandy Burt
Mike Bowles
David Laidlaw
Glen Blackwell
Graham Crocker

WOMEN:

Nat Sumner
Judi Clemie
Suzanne Laidlaw
Sally Scaffidi
Desiree Silva

Nice job! Now there's just the small matter of getting some quality training in over these upcoming winter months!

Cheers

Paul





Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Feedback Update

Dear Athletes

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to you all for providing me with such excellent feedback over the last 10 days, both on the running of our various multi-sport programs and also on your preference of training sessions over the winter. We have been quite literally overwhelmed by the response and are currently in the process of planning the next 4 months as we speak.

The following are a couple of pointers that have arisen. This is a relatively long post, but hopefully very informative for those of you wondering "what next" over the winter period:

1) SQUAD NUMBERS

No sooner did we cancel the Tuesday and Friday 7.30am sessions for the winter period than do we need to look at the potential of bringing them back! As you know, we like to limit the attendance in any given session to ~24 people. Between two coaches, this amounts to an excellent coach:athlete ratio and thus excellent levels of individual feedback and stroke correction. This is something which you have all commented on as a real plus point of the squad. Thank you. The 5.30am & 6.30am TUE / FRI sessions look like (on paper) that they will be as popular over winter as they were over summer. In reality it hasn't yet panned out this way and the plan is to see how things go over the next couple of weeks before we make any final decisions to bring the 7.30am sessions back. We'll keep you posted, but request your understanding and support if we do get a 'rogue' session with a big turn-out in the meantime. 

This is one of the more difficult sides of managing a program which gives you the athlete the ultimate in flexibility to only pay for the sessions you attend with your PAYG cards as opposed to committing you to a set block or period. Again your support is much appreciated here.

Don't forget, we are also maintaining the Tuesday evening session from 6.30pm to 7.30pm which is exactly the same as the early morning sessions for those who might like to try this one.

2) SATURDAY OPEN WATER SKILLS SESSION

Similar to the Tuesday and Friday morning sessions, this session at 1pm every Saturday is also proving to be one of our most popular. This actually assists in the running of this particular session due to all the partner, trio and group drafting work we do in this session. Should this become particularly busy, we have been granted a 4th lane to manage these numbers. As yet, we have not had this confirmed for our Tuesday and Friday morning sessions, but are still pushing for this.

As a foot-note, myself and Adam will not be here this Saturday for this session, but Ceinwen will run this session with one of my programs. We have been asked to run a full Swim Smooth Clinic for the Sorrento SLSC this weekend, so please excuse us. Adam will take next Saturday as well whilst I take a weekend off down south.

3) PROGRAM OPTIONS

Of the programs which I highlighted as being potentials over the next 12 months, the most popular have been the City-2-Surf 12k, 21.1k and 42.2k events; the Rottnest Channel Swim; the Sprint / Olympic Distance Calendar and the 2010 Busselton Half Ironman. There are also a good number of you more experienced athletes who have expressed an interest in some assistance with your preparations for the World Long Course Triathlon Championships in Perth and Ironman WA in Busselton. Our conclusion for all of these programs in order to continue to run the most efficient squad sessions possible, is to provide a range of skeleton programs for these events, with full programs being in operation for the Busselton Half Ironman 2010 and the Rottnest Channel Swim.

We envisage this working like so: we shall arrange a date over the next 4 weeks to run an evening or weekend seminar on the principles of good training practices and how these can be applied to your specific event. We will look at goal setting, relative quantities of volume for the 3 disciplines, training zones, recovery practices, periodization and getting your taper right. It will be an excellent opportunity for those involved to formulate smaller sub-training groups over the winter periods for sessions such as the long run and long bike / brick sessions which many of you have commented that you'd like a little more support with. We will then offer up a range of templates which you can each use and then obviously individualize for your chosen event through participation and direction on a daily basis at our squad sessions. We are very confident that this will be an excellent way for you to keep motivated over the colder winter months - if and when they come! Watch this space!

4) OTHER COOL IDEAS

Other ideas proving popular at this stage are: some x-country running and cycling sessions, possibly as part of a boot-camp-style-getaway-weekend; a swim session with the last 20 mins devoted to learning how to tumble turn (for those interested); the addition of a weekly tempo run session; a half-day Swim Smooth Clinic with full video analysis for each participant. Again, we'll keep you posted on proposed dates.

5) TRAINING THIS WEEK

Here are some pointers on a couple of sessions some of you have been querying:

Thursday evening run session - this will be at McGilvray Oval behind Challenge Stadium this week, meeting at 6pm for a group or solo warm-up and starting at 6.15pm. We are looking at changing this venue from next week, so watch this space!

Saturday morning cycle session - no official ride this week or next. However, if anyone is keen, you can meet at the Bell Tower at 7am for a ride around the river. Starting on June 6th, we shall be running some Saturday morning group hills rides up into the Kalamunda region - more details to follow soon! In the meantime, get on them there hills! ;-)

Cheers

Paul







Sunday, May 10, 2009

Winter Program Kicks off Today!

Dear Athletes

We hope you have had a good weekend and a nice relaxing week for those of you who competed at the Half Ironman last weekend!

Just a reminder that all the sessions at http://www.theteamcore.com/weeklyprogram.html will be in operation this week, including the return of the Monday evening Wind Trainer session held at the Sweat Shack at 22 Fairfield Street, Mount Hawthorn. This meets at 6pm and commences at 6.15pm. Its a lot of fun and guaranteed to get your heart rate pumping! You just need you bicycle and a wind trainer (though we do have some spares on a first-come, first-served basis).

Also, if you haven't yet filled out the feedback form at http://www.theteamcore.com/feedback_winter.html (takes less than 2 mins!) to notify us of which sessions you plan to attend over the winter period, please do so now. We need this from everyone (even you who are super regular!) as space is going very quickly at the more popular sessions, e.g. Tue / Fri early morning swims and also Saturday afternoon swim sessions. Avoid missing out, please register asap!

Cheers

Paul

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Reserve your place in the squad over winter!

Dear Athletes

We are now going into our Winter Season which will run from Monday May 4th to Sunday October 4th and as such we are anticipating a slight drop-off in squad attendances in each of the three disciplines (swim, cycle and run) during this period. 

5-mins FEEDBACK REQUEST:

We also appreciate that having postponed some of the sessions over this period, that some of you may like to look at switching your weekly preferences around and maybe try attending some of the earlier / later sessions now that we have a little more space available.

Some of you may wish to take a break as well for part, or all, of this winter period. Others may have been "waiting in the wings" for the Half Ironman program to finish and would now like to get stuck into some of the exciting new programs that we will be offering during this period (full details of which will follow in the next 2 weeks).

It's definitely a time of "change", and as such, we just need to ask that you would kindly spend just 5 minutes letting us know about your plans so we can better cater for your needs and that of the growing squad community. 

Even if you have been attending the swim / bike / run squad sessions religiously for the past while, are happy with your "spot" and plan to continue as-is through the winter, we need to hear from you to "firm everything up" so to speak. You might even have some ideas or suggestions you might like to add which will help us to continue to build this program.

Please visit this link asap: http://www.theteamcore.com/feedback_winter.html 

NB. Preference will be give to those already attending the squad with respect to reserving your place, and equally to those who train over the winter for when we kick-off the Summer Season in October.

Half Ironman Program FEEDBACK REQUEST:

Overall, we were very happy with how the Half Ironman Program ran this year and how you all performed at the Half Ironman on Saturday. However, we are of course biased! We'd love for those of you who swam, biked, or ran with us during the last 4 months and then competed either in a team or as an individual to share your thoughts and ideas on how the program went for you and how we could improve for next year. 

This feedback will take you roughly 15-mins but it would be really very much appreciated - thanks in advance! Here's the link: http://www.theteamcore.com/feedback.html

FINALLY...

One of our biggest improvers from the Half Ironman (Jo Thomson) has been raising money for a very worthwhile cause in Cambodia through the http://www.rosecharities.info/roseaustralia/index.htm foundation. If you visit the link you can watch a 4-mins video clip about her campaign and if you were keen to contribute, you might like to sponsor her post-race. Definitely watch the video clip if you get chance - it made me cry!

Thanks groovers, see you all soon!

Paul



Monday, May 4, 2009

Hot Shots by Adam from the Half Ironman




Dear Athletes

Please follow this link ( http://www.bornskinny.com/bs112_HIMbusso09/ )to see some more of Adam's Amazing Photos of the Half Ironman - there are some really cracking shots in there - enjoy! Here's a couple of sneaky-peeks...(Elvis shot is courtesy of Petra - thanks Petra!):






Full Results of the Busselton Half Ironman

Dear Athletes

Wow! What a weekend! Awesome conditions greeted the TEAM CORE athletes down by the jetty at Busselton for this year's Half Ironman. It looked set to be a fast day for most, but with record numbers in the race, drafting on the bike course was always going to be a concern. We had some great results, some solid results and a couple of unfortunate incidents during the day, but this is really what racing this type of event is all about. Sometimes you have everything go your way and you have a great day, other times you don't. What is important is that you maintain composure during the adverse times and focus on doing the very best that you can at that moment in time. And if you needed a prompt to get you smiling and seeing the lighter side of things, there was always a wacky-looking Elvis impersonator (or 5!) on the course to help you!!!! So, without further ado, here are the results:


...the top-3 men are shown in blue and the top-3 females in pink (please note, it has not been possible to calculate the team entrants times as team member names have not been stipulated in the results. So please, if you were in a team and know your details, let me know).

  • Nathan Jones had a really solid race to take 2nd in the 25-29 AG and 21st overall - showing his prowess on the bike to post the 10th fastest bike split of the day.
  • Sandy Burt also took out 2nd place in the 45-49 AG and 28th overall - despite suffering a bad bike crash just 2 months ago that threatened his whole season with multiple fractures of his ribs, this was a stellar result.
  • Tim Howley finished just 2 minutes behind Sandy to round-off the podium in the 45-49 AG and showed his experience on the run, each lap being within 30 seconds of the other!
  • Matt Illingworth set a staggering pace on the bike as he searched for the course record, only to end up with a puncture on the final lap sadly. Still 7th place in the 40-44 AG is a good result with a much-improved swim split to boot!
  • Mike Bowles dusted off the cobwebs with a tremendous return to the sport finishing 6th in the hotly contested 45-49 AG with an 8 minute PB on the swim and 15th fastest bike split overall - showing promise for the World Championships later this year.
  • Alan Nicholls also saw a good improvement on his swim time to finish 3rd in the 50-54 AG category and hung on well with a typical gutsy run leg.
  • Rob Newman has been plagued all season with injury and unfortunate mishaps but that didn't stop him taking a top-10 spot in the 45-49 AG with a new overall HIM P.B too! This really was a superb result for Rob and a big boost going into Ironman Canada later this year.
  • We haven't seen too much of Zane Randell this season, but an 8 minute improvement from last year with a really strong swim and bike combo is a great result.
  • Joe Kierath only turned 18 a couple of weeks ago and as such was the youngest competitor on the course on Saturday. Over the course of the build-up to this race, we had predicted Joe's result to within 30 seconds of his gutsy first performance over this distance. Joe's strength and experience will grow over the years to allow him to really back-up his super-strong swim and bike disciplines with a solid run leg. Joe finished a very credible 6th in the competitive 18-24 AG category.
  • Sally Scafidi destroyed her competition in the 40-44 AG category to be the first of our 3 AG category winners across the line in a time of 4h46'36", just 8 minutes shy of the overall female podium. Nice work Sal!
  • Marius Grobbelaar finished just 2'28" behind where we predicted he would finish from the recent string of brick sessions to take out a top-20 position in the 40-44 AG category. As his first attempt at this distance his consistency over the first 2 laps of both the bike and run legs (within 5 seconds of each other!) will surely lead to future success in his AG as his experience and strength grows.
  • Graham Crocker - half man, half machine never ceases to amaze by taking out 1st place in the 60-64 AG category in a time that most of us could only dream about: 4h46'50". Congratulations Graham - age is clearly no barrier!
  • Daniel Tarborsky surprised himself with a very credible sub-4h50 first time performance. Having come from a very limited swimming background just 6 months or so ago and to go sub-35 mins for the swim on Saturday was a testament to his hard work in the pool - well done!
  • Paul Heyes had a dream of breaking 35 minutes for the swim and did just that - by 4 seconds!!! finishing 16th in his 45-49 AG category. Well done, mate, told you you could do it!
  • Ian Klasens also overcome a very limited swimming background to smash the swim in an amazing time of 32'10". He also clocked the 8th fastest bike split overall. With a bit more work on the bike to run transition, Ian will go well at Busselton Ironman in December. Incidentally, we predicted Ian's time to within 2 minutes from his Brick Session performance a few weeks back.
  • Jess Huston was on fire on Saturday taking out a stellar top-10 position in her 25-29 AG and a finish time of 5h01'35" which proved to be well over 10 minutes quicker than we had her pegged down for. Awesome result Jess - well done!
  • Dan Timbers followed just 21 seconds behind Jess with a much-improved swim split of 34'56" and nearly 30 minutes quicker overall than last year - smoking!
  • Tim Cooney was without a doubt the "Dark Horse" of this year's HIM squad, again finishing a good 10 to 15 minutes quicker than we thought he would to finish 35th in his AG. Not a bad first-time outing mate! Well done!
  • Anthony Tholet backed up a gutsy IronmanWA performance with a great result of 5h05'11" just a couple of months after his 2nd child too! Ant showed real consistency in pace on the bike and run disciplines - is 2nd and 3rd lap being just 1 second apart! Amazing.
  • Bruce Matthews hung in tough for a credible 5h07'12" finish and a vastly improved sub-30 swim split. Well done mate for getting through this one, it was a tough day but you lived to tell the tale!
  • Another Englishman taking off nearly 30 minutes from last year's time was Matt Biddle to finish top-50 in the 40-44 AG category. Again, a much improved swim split a superb pace awareness on the bike set Matt up for this commendable result.
  • She said that she hadn't trained much and we haven't seen too much of her recently, but Jen Newman did amazingly well to finish 13th in her 30-34 AG category in a time of 5h08'15" - must be all that secret training Jen! LOL!
  • Suzanne Laidlaw raced well to shave off just under a minute from last year's time and to also take-out a top-10 finish position in her 40-44 AG category. Well done Sue!
  • Carl Andrews suffered badly with the flu in the lead-up to this event and wasn't sure if he'd be racing or not on the day. Despite all that and really not feeling too hot on the day, Carl still knocked off over 6 minutes from last year's time. Don't worry mate, with a similar preparation next year and an anti-flu shot, you will smash that 5 hour barrier!
  • He wasn't dressed as a waiter this time around, but still managed a lap of the run dressed as Elvis Presley! Glen Blackwell also knocked off over 30 minutes from last year's time and will soon be knocking on that sub-5 hour window with Carl. Well done champ.
  • Dean Turner showed great pace awareness on the first 2 laps of the bike ride, finishing each within 1 second of each other! Dean finished in a time of 5h15'12" and took out 31st spot in the 50-54 AG category. Well done Dean!
  • David Laidlaw was a man on a mission this year, finishing over 5 minutes quicker than last year and averaging over 36km/h on the bike! 2 minutes of this time came from a much-improved swim leg - well done mate, the effort was surely worth it!
  • Judi Clemie proved that her 2007 result was a not a fluke but a sign of her experience over this HIM distance. Judi finished 15th in her 40-44 AG category with a great time of 5h21'43". Well done Jude!
  • Mike Hodgson had a much-improved swim split of 33'07" on Saturday and ran strongly to average just over 5 mins per km. With a bit more work on the bike, Mike can be assured of lifting this performance higher still. Well done!
  • Stuart Murray unfortunately missed the start of the swim leg and had to frantically chase them down. Still to knock out a 35'52" swim split (including the missed start) was a real sign that Stu's swimming is improving. Stu also averaged just under 35km/h on the bike leg which is a good step in the right direction.
  • Chris Swallow also had a good swim, just breaking the 30-minute barrier on the day. This result saw him finish well within the top-100 of the hotly contested 30-34 AG category.
  • Mark Rayner put the disappointment of last year's DNF behind him and started the day with nearly a 5-minute swim time improvement and a very credible run split of 1h50'00" off the bike. Well done Mark!
  • Despite crashing on the first lap of the bike course and also suffering a 5-minute time penalty, Renee Baker had a great day and learnt a lot from this race for future races. Incidentally we had predicted Renee's result to within 30 seconds of her actual finishing time of 5h26'50", so without the "hiccups" of the day this would have really been a top performance. A swim split of 30'49" is a massive improvement from Renee's starting point in January at the back of the first swim lane - well done!
  • Despite not having had a great run build for this event, Helen Buckle still managed to P.B both the swim and bike disciplines, averaging a cool 33.5km/h on the bike and riding each lap within 60 seconds of each other. Great pace awareness. Hopefully Helen's legs will now have a little time to recover and get things back on track for her strongest discipline, the run.
  • Nathan Thomson loves numbers, and surely he will be impressed to know that he went 26 seconds faster than our initial predictions! Well done mate on your first HIM event and with a 34'05" swim split, this shows very positive signs of what is to come in December at IronmanWA!
  • It was a welcome return to Busselton for Nat Sumner who finished 28th in the 25-29 AG category after a hiatus from the sport for a few years. Great to have you back and firing Nat!
  • Brett Semler must have been pretty happy when he got out of the water in just over 32 minutes and backed up his race by averaging bang-on 5 mins per km on the run leg - well done that man!
  • Glenn Young was another athlete similarly impressed with his swim split of just under 32 minutes, and rightly so. Consistency on the bike leg to ride each lap within 80 seconds of each other saw Glenn finish his first HIM in a very credible 5h36'36".
  • Not only did Neil Welsh survive the swim, but he averaged 1'48" per 100m for the 1.9km distance which from where you started just a few months ago Neil is a great achievement well done. Neil finished 114th in the 30-34 AG category.
  • We haven't seen too much of Lindy Brand this season but despite a tough swim leg, Lindy went on to ride each of the 3 bike laps within 60 seconds of each other and take out 27th position in the 35-39 AG category. Well done Lindy.
  • Anne Murrell missed a mention in last week's race preview (sorry Anne!) but she had a great day to win the ladies' 55-59 AG category with a 40 minute swim split, an average pace of over 32km/h on the bike (if you don't mind!) and a solid 2h08' run split. Great result Anne, well done!
  • Liza Magennis should be very happy with an average swim pace of 1'54" per 100m and a consistency on the run of just over 30 seconds between the 3 laps - hot stuff Liza! This saw Liza finish 29th in the 35-39 AG category.
  • Melissa Murphy was stoked to have swum the 1.9km in just over 41 minutes, and rightly so! Well done Mel. An average speed on the bike of bang-on 30km/h and good pacing on the run saw Mel post a 5h45'55" time. Nice job!
  • Two Melissa's, two minutes apart - this time Melissa Cooney, wife of Tim "Dark Horse" Cooney finished 36th in her 40-44 AG category with a stellar run split just less than 30 seconds behind Tim's. This was an excellent result for Mel and again (incidentally) just 2 minutes off where we predicted she would finish. Not bad for a mother of 5 young children - seriously! Well done Mel, hope you loved it!
  • Lisa Hitchcock surprised herself with an average swim pace just on the right side of 2 minutes per 100m, before backing up with an average speed over 30km/h on the bike and a strong run to boot - well done Lisa!
  • Our fourth Mel across the line was Melissa Cundy in a time just 4 minutes outside of last year's performance. Despite holding off the same flu that Carl was suffering from, Mel swam 3 minutes quicker than last year and still gave us her trademark "Cundy Consistency" on the bike leg before suffering a touch on the run. Well done for toughing it out Mel!
  • Just breaking the 6 hour mark was Paul McQueen who finished 92nd in the 45-49 AG category. We think something funky must have been going on with Paul's timing chip, showing that he averaged 42.6km/h on the 3rd lap of the bike and 3'53"/km on the 2nd lap of the run, but we're confident he did break the 6-hour barrier. Well done Paul!
  • Chris Murphy and main sponsor of the TEAM CORE, did exceptionally well to break 6 hours and go 10 minutes quicker than last year given his recent workload. Hopefully the legs held up well for you though Chris this time around!
  • Carly Innes needed not to have worried about the swim, having completed the 1.9km in 35'13". Carly finished the race just under 6 hours as well which is a great result for her very first HIM event - well done!
  • Jo Thomson has to win the most-improved award by breaking 40 minutes on the swim, averaging just under 29km/h on the bike and topping it off just over 2hrs for the half marathon run to finish just 22 seconds shy of 6 hours. Great result Jo!
  • Sandy Tindale proved to be very consistent in the final 14km of the run leg to finish a very credible 3rd place in the 55-59 AG category, with a good swim split of 35'35" also. Nice job!
  • Karlee Cannon had pretty much everything that could go wrong, go wrong on the day...but she soldiered on and still finished with a big smile in a great first-time effort of 6h08'07". First off she lost her bike computer in T1 so had to go back and get it, then it wasn't working anyway, then came a puncture followed by an unfortunate trip to the "sin-bin" for 5 minutes for a call on unavoidable drafting...most people would have quit then by this stage, but Karlee held it together and with a very commendable spirit, put it all down to experience for next time! Well done Karlee, you did well!
  • Julie Kiely had to have been happy with a 40-minute swim split over the 1900m course - it was a great result again for someone with a very limited swimming background! Julie then rode each lap of the bike within 20 seconds of each other before a similar display of pace awareness on the run - nice job Julie!
  • Anna Foster started the program with a goal of completing the Half Ironman for the first time. Our initial predictions were that she would finish in ~6h30', but she far surpassed that to knock out a very credible 6h11'59" for her first crack at this distance and to take 41st place in her 25-29 AG category. Well done Anna, you did yourself proud!
  • Helen Masson swam a full 4 minutes quicker than last year, but then unfortunately suffered some bad abdominal cramping on the run which made things tough going. Still, she toughed it out and got through it, all still with a big cheesy smile, going to show that nutrition really is the 4th discipline of endurance triathlon and which can (and often has) hampered many a race, my own included. Well done Helen, you'll nail it next time, don't worry!
  • Desiree Silva was only just back from a trek up Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia before taking on her first Half Ironman, which she did in style, finishing 30th in her 45-49 AG category in a time of 6h15'33", some 5 minutes faster than our fastest predicted pace for Desi - well done that lady!
  • Petra Cameron knocked out a very commendable 6h16'47" HIM on Saturday to finish top-50 in her 35-39 AG category, a full 28 minutes quicker than we had initially predicted that she would go - well done Petra!
  • Gabe Alves managed very little training indeed for this event, having just had his first baby with Belynda just before Christmas. However, he had set himself two very simple goals - 1) to finish and 2) to not puncture...having punctured twice last year on this same course, he just wanted a clear run at the course and that he did. Well done buddy!
  • Mary Tennant unfortunately suffered a nasty bike crash right at the start of the bike leg which saw her having to take an unprecedented trip to the medical tent to get bandaged up etc. Luckily, despite hitting the tarmac with her head quite heavily and also badly banging her shoulder, Mary did not break anything, but will be sore for a couple of weeks. All this on the back of a 36'44" or 1'56" per 100m P.B swim too! Such a shame, but unfortunately these things occasionally happen and I've also personally been in this situation myself too as well. Well done Mary - here's to next time!
  • Gillian Evans made the very sensible and commendable decision to withdraw from the event on the very morning of the race. For the last 3 to 4 weeks Gillian has been suffering from a very nasty, lingering bout of bronchitis and has been throw several stints of antibiotics. We were hoping that she would miraculously come good for the event, but time was sadly not on our side and Gillian made the right decision to pull out and not seriously risk her health on the day. Well done, Gillian, it was a tough call, but the right one.

So there we have it chaps, another race down, another season gone...onwards and upwards as they say to another winter of fresh and fruitiness before we do it all over again next year - I do hope you can join us, till then "...you ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog...uh-hu, thank you very much!"

Paul & Adam







Friday, May 1, 2009

To Infinity & Beyond!

Dear Athletes

Well I was over the moon to have met someone down in Mandurah who has
lost more weight in just 4 months than me and Jackson weigh together!
Amazing story. He was of course the winner of the latest Biggest Loser
competition and we just so happened to bump into him on the way down
to the Half Ironman. Apparently he's keen to get into some triathlon
himself! He wished the Team Core the very best of luck for the race
and was kind enough to pose for a quick photo too!

Training going forward!

Dear Athletes

Despite us now officially going into our winter "season", the fun doesn't stop here with The TEAM CORE. As promised we will be running a full swim and triathlon program over the winter to keep you entertained and fit! Most other squads in Perth will break now for 4 to 6 weeks, however, we recognize that many of you may not be training for a specific event and simply want to maintain your fitness that you've established over the summer. We think that's great and look forward to assisting you with that. 

One area which we shall be looking at incorporating into some of our swim sessions, is spending ~ 15 minutes at the end of every Tuesday session teaching you some of the other strokes, i.e. butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. We'll gauge your opinion on this first obviously and see if it proves popular...if not, we'll just scrap that idea and come up with something else equally entertaining!

So, our full winter program can now be viewed at http://www.theteamcore.com/weeklyprogram.html - the only exceptions being that there will be no Monday 9.30am swim, no Monday evening wind trainer session, no Wednesday morning cycle session, no Thursday evening run session, and no Saturday morning cycle session for the week commencing Monday 4th May. All other sessions are on though (swims) and we shall resume all these sessions on Monday 11th May for your reference. I do hope you can attend!

Have a great weekend and see you soon!

Paul