Thursday, March 31, 2011

Training this weekend and seeking all paddlers!

Dear Swimmers

Please be advised of the following pointers for training this weekend:

  • Friday's 9.30am Time-4-Me session will be in the 25m pool at Claremont Pool this week
  • Saturday's 1-2pm squad session (focusing on open water skills) will be back on again this Saturday and going forwards. There will be no early morning ocean swim this week*
  • A quick look forward to next week and a reminder that next Friday (8th April) the 9.30am Time-4-Me session will be held at Challenge Stadium - please see the whiteboard for details, but we should be in the Outdoor 8 lane pool for your reference.

* Paddler's needed for this weekend and over the next couple of months:

If you have a ski, can paddle and fancy doing something a little different on a Saturday and/or Sunday morning and want to help us in the process of raising money for Breast Cancer Care (please see our new fund raising website: http://www.channeldare.com/ ) as 8 of us train up to attempt to swim the English Channel, please let me know as we're seeking willing paddlers to help support our long ocean / river / lake training swims over the next few months. This Saturday we plan to swim from Trigg to Cottesloe (a distance of ~13km) and desperately need some assistance if at all possible. We plan to meet at 6.15am at the Trigg SLSC tower for a ~6.30am start, heading south. We're just looking at transport logistics as we speak for this one. Any keen can please get in touch with me simply by replying to this email. Thanks - your help will be much appreciated! 

If you can't make it this week, but would like to assist in future weeks, please let me know what / when / where you can do etc - thanks!

Cheers

Paul


Wednesday, March 23, 2011

This weekend...

Dear Swimmers

Hope you're having a fabulous week - it looks set to be a hot one!! Just a couple of quick reminders this week about changes to the schedule with the various carnivals and water polo events at Claremont:

  • Friday 25th March - both early morning sessions (5.30am and 6.30am) will be at Claremont Pool as normal...see you down there for a super Fresh & Fruity set (it's a cracker this week!). Despite telling the 9.30am crew this morning that we'd be in the 25m pool for the 9.30am session, this is in fact incorrect - we will be in the 50m pool in lanes 6,7 & 8 - wahoo!! Sandy Burt will take this 9.30am session with myself returning next week - enjoy!
  • Saturday 26th March - the normal 1.00pm pool open water skills session will take place for the second and final time this week at 6.30am at Cottesloe Beach due to a water polo competition being on at the pool. 20 people attended last week and we had a great session focused on sighting and swimming straight in the open water. This week our focus will be a little more on drafting and turning. Sadly, the GPS unit that I gave Renee last week to track her progress failed to correctly collect her data from the session, so I'll select another random candidate this week and hopefully see how we go there. Saturday's at Claremont at 1.00pm will return as normal from the 2nd April onwards.

OK groovers, have a great end to your week! See you out there!

Paul



Monday, March 14, 2011

Reminder of venue changes this week!

Dear Swimmers

Just quick reminder of the following session / venue changes this week owing to various carnival / water-polo events at both Claremont Pool and Challenge Stadium (which we often use as an alternative venue). 

If it's not mentioned below, assume everything is as normal as per the details here: http://swimsmooth.com/perth_timetable.html

Thanks for your support and understanding at this "higgle-de-piggle-de" time!

  • Wednesday 9.30am Time-4-Me session will be at Cottesloe Beach. Meet on the grass bank just in front of the pylon and to the north side of the Indiana Tea Rooms just before 9.30am. Session will be focused on open water skills, a small amount of (optional) running, and some fun relays etc. Well worth popping down. Please note, that it may be a little busy down at Cottesloe this day due to the Sculptures by the Sea expo.
  • Friday 9.30am Time-4-Me session will be at Claremont Pool in the outdoor 25m pool with Sandy. This session was really enjoyed by everyone last Wednesday, so just because it's in the 25m pool, please don't let that dissuade you - a change is as good as a holiday! ;-)
  • Saturday - there will be NO 1pm squad session this week (19/3/11) and next week (26/3/11) at Claremont Pool owing to a water polo fixture. Instead, you are all cordially invited to a two-part open water skills and fitness session down at Cottesloe Beach at 6.30am. You don't have to attend both weeks, but it'd be great if you can. Meet on the grass bank just in front of the pylon and to the north side of the Indiana Tea Rooms just before 6.30am. Session will be focused on open water skills, a small amount of (optional) running, and some fun relays etc. Well worth popping down. Please note, that it may be a little busy down at Cottesloe this day due to the Sculptures by the Sea expo. The session will run for 60 minutes each week and will be just one tick off your card or $15 casual rate if you want to bring a friend. Swimmers should be capable of swimming 200m continuous freestyle without stopping as a minimum. Ideally suited to those doing the Busselton Half Ironman or wanting to improve their open water swimming abilities.

Cheers

Paul


Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...

...oi, oi, oi!!!


I'm extremely proud to say that as of this evening there is one more Aussie with a very Pommie accent here in Perth - wahoo! It's taken me exactly 9 years to receive my full Australian Citizenship, but I'm finally there and very, very happy to boot!

Throw another shrimp on the barbie, cobber!

Cheers

Paul

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Voting and 9.30am session reminders

Dear Team

Thanks to your help we are now in 2nd place on the About Swimming Reader's Choice Blog award but are still ~270 votes behind first place, so if you do enjoy our feelforthewater.com Blog or even have friends that you know read it as well, please encourage them to vote for us if they haven't done so already - every little helps! Entries close at 5pm today, so this is our final push! Here's where you can vote:


TIME-4-ME SESSIONS:

Just a reminder that Wednesday's 9.30am session will be in the 25m pool at Claremont Pool and Friday's 9.30am session will be in the Outdoor 8 lane pool again also with Sandy coaching. Hope you can make it!

Cheers

Paul






Thursday, March 3, 2011

Please vote for us!

Dear Team

Hope you're all about to have a cracking long weekend. 

Just to let you know we've been nominated in the top 5 Blogs on the internet through independent site swimming.about.com for our Swim Smooth blog feelforthewater.com - we'd dearly love to win this competition so if you've enjoyed our Blog and want to support our cause, please vote for us simply at:


Cheers!

Paul


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Spot light on the Wednesday early morning swim!

Dear Swimmers

Hope you're all recovering from the weekend's Channel Swim if you were involved? I'm feeling the heat is more sapping right now than the effort to swim 20km to be fair! ;-)

Just to let you know that it is anticipated that numbers at most of the squads will ease off a bit over the next few weeks whilst the Solo swimmers in particular take a well earned rest. If you've been waiting to get a place in the squad for a while now, please re-email me to confirm this interest and I'll try to slot you in where I can. The plan is to see how this week pans out and make an assessment as to where we're at with respect to space going forwards, so I'll contact you next week to let you know if there's space available.

One session that will undoubtedly free up a bit is tomorrow morning's 5.30am Wednesday Long Swim. If you've never attended this one it works like this: we arrive at 5.30am and spend 10-15 minutes stretching on pool deck before hitting the water at ~5.45am. All lanes effectively follow the same session (albeit at lane/swimmer-specific intensity) with the goal of making it as far through the session as you can, or want to. We have up to 7.30am available, so on a good day the fast lane would get in up to 6000m, but there is no problem at all with jumping out after 45-60 minutes or whenever is best for you. We will maintain the same endurance-based focus of this session as prior to the Rottnest Swim as without doubt, those who were not Channel-ing it last weekend but whom have attended this session as their 3rd of the week have found it to really help lift performance and fitness. Admittedly it's not the world's most "interesting" session (given longer intervals and close awareness of pacing strategies over lots of shorter intervals and drill work), but I guess it's whatever floats your boat and what you hope to achieve at this stage in the season. It would be ideally suited to those of you now focussing on the Half Ironman in May or even some of the various Ironman events on offer.

Hope to maybe see you then? Please let me know if you plan to try this out tomorrow.

Labour Day Weekend:

Just to confirm, swimming will be on as normal this Friday 4th March (5.30am, 6.30am, 9.30am), and also Saturday 5th March (1pm), but there will be NO sessions on Monday 7th March (7am and 9.30am) owing to the Labour Day Public Holiday. Swimming will resume as normal on Tuesday 8th March.

Cheers

Paul