That's all folks!

Dear TEAM

Just a quick note before we head off to the airport to catch a flight to Canada for 2 weeks of skiing, egg-nog and roast moose - I just wanted to say thank you all for a superb 2009! It has been a real pleasure coaching every single one of you and seeing how you've all been improving and enjoying the various sessions that we offer! It started off as quite a nervous year (being the first full year in operation and not knowing quite how it would all go) and then with the birth of little Jackson etc etc, but through your support and commitment to the squad we have been able to develop something really quite special at the Claremont Pool and I look forward to making it even bigger and better in 2010!

Whilst away we might email out the occasional photo from our trip so you can see what we're up to and contrast your boiling temperatures with our freezing climes - brrrr!!!

So, this week is a great week to be down at the pool and ocean learning some new stuff and new ideas from all the new coaches that we have in operation. As a reminder, here's who's on and when:

Tuesday 6.15 PM = Adam Mullens taking you through a long aerobic set as per earlier this morning.

Wednesday 5.30 AM = Ceinwen putting you through your paces with a 1.5hr endurance set and again at 9.30 AM Ceinwen will take you through our Fresh & Fruity Session.

Thursday 6.00 AM (Cottesloe Beach) = next up is Adam Mullens together with 7-time world marathon swimming champion, Shelley Taylor-Smith who will be taking you through some tips and techniques to swim better into and out of the waves - it'll be heaps of fun and who better to learn from than arguably the world's best ever open water swimmer!

Friday 5.30 & 6.30 AM = sharing the load in our Fresh & Fruity Session will be Nikki Rogers (Commonwealth Games bronze medallist) and the ever-strong Adam Mullens (3rd session this week!). Ceinwen will be back later at 9.30 AM to take you through a relaxing technique set. 4.30 PM will be the SOLO swim session (please refer to your Master Plan for this - it's Week # 6 from the Monster Session program - a cruisey 5.0km).

Saturday 6.00 AM = meet at the Bell Tower for a 67km ride out and around Kalamunda (~3h30). 8.00 AM = swim at Cottesloe Beach (max of 4.0km) and then at 1.00 PM = Shelley and Ceiwen will be teaming up for an afternoon of fun open water technique work in the pool!

Sunday = Champion Lakes 2.5km, 5.0km or 10.0km swimming event. Highly recommend SOLO swimmers with some good distance under their belt already to give the 10.0km a go (as this then takes some of the pressure off in January to qualify), but if you haven't yet swum over 8.0km, suggestion would be to build a little more base first and then tackle the 10.0km in January. If you do the 10.0km, don't worry about times, just get into  good rhythm, enjoy yourself and keep well fuelled!!!

Over and out!

Paul

P.S I am so sorry but I inadvertently missed John Annear's Busselton Ironman results from the weekend - sorry John, especially given he placed 2nd in his age-group and qualified again for Kona - nice work!