Friday, November 30, 2012

Saturday 1pm

Dear Swimmers

Just a quick reminder that due to many of the squad (including the coaches!) competing at the Rottnest Swim Thru on Saturday afternoon, there will be no 1pm squad session at Claremont pool this week. Sessions will resume from next week as normal.

Hope to see you over at Rotto!

Paul

Friday, November 23, 2012

Saturday 1pm session

Dear Swimmers

Due to my participation (on the boat I might add!) with Aaron's midnight Channel Swim tonight, tomorrow's 1pm session will not be down at Claremont Jetty as previously advertised, but will be down at the Claremont Pool as normal. Sorry for any disappointment - hope to see you then and hope to not be too dreary after no sleep!

Cheers

Paul



Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Aaron swims the Rottnest Channel…at night!

Show your support for Aaron's swim by attending the BREASTFAST OF CHAMPIONS with all proceeds going to Breast Cancer Care WA!

On Friday, November 23rd at midnight, Aaron Richardson will set off into the dark waters of the Rottnest Channel and swim solo the 20km to Cottesloe Beach, arriving around 7:30am Saturday morning. I'll be assisting Aaron as his swimming coach - it's going to be a great night! 

Aaron is doing the swim to honour his triathlon coach, mentor and close friend Sam Naudin who lost her long battle with breast cancer in January this year. Her courage and kind giving nature has inspired Aaron to take on this brave challenge in order to raise $30,000 for Breast Cancer Care WA.
Watch the video for more info @ www.youtube.com/watch?v=br8zxuoPopI

Join us in supporting Aaron and his cause by attending the BREASTFAST OF CHAMPIONS where we will welcome him on completion of the massive swim. The breakfast will be hosted at the Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club where there with be loads of entertainment and great prizes up for raffle to raise money.

Tickets are only $40 and include: 
• Gourmet Breakfast 
• Reverse raffle tickets to win great prizes (stay tuned for items)
• Entertainment - live music, DJ and activities 

TICKETS ARE LIMITED SO GET IN QUICK

Purchase TICKETS @ www.breastfastofchampions.eventbrite.com.au or get in touch with one of the hosts. All money raised will go towards Aaron's target of $30,000 for Breast Cancer Care WA! 

And if you can't attend the breakfast then show your support my making a DONATION @ www.everydayhero.com.au/breast_in_the_west

Cheers

Paul




Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Look after those shoulders of yours this season!

Dear Swimmers

Wow! Those were some nasty stingers last Saturday at City Beach if you did the event and well done to all those of you who survived it! No easy task!

OK, so this week I have two things for you regarding shoulder injury and management following on from Prue Newnham's physio screening last Saturday at Claremont Pool.

  1. Dr Gary Couanis is running a research project for long distance open water swimmers into the effects of training load on shoulder pain. The study involves having three FREE ultrasounds of your shoulders (worth $618) done over the course of the season to monitor the state of your rotator cuff muscles as you prepare for the Rottnest Channel Swim. Details of this project and to get involved can be seen here if you're on FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/549253368424635/ and you can contact Gary at swimmer.research@gmail.com - forms can be found here: http://swimsmooth.com/pauls_images/research1.pdf and here: http://swimsmooth.com/pauls_images/research2.pdf
  2. Jeremy Nyman from http://woodlandsphysio.com.au/ has created this excellent PDF on what to do about Swimmer's Shoulder if and when it strikes - read it here for some useful preventative stretches: http://swimsmooth.com/pauls_images/SwimmersShoulder.pdf

Have a great day!

Paul

Thursday, November 8, 2012

City Beach this weekend and Manhatten Island Marathon Swim (MIMS)

Dear Swimmers

Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to a cracking weekend of open water swimming.

First up, I have some fantastic news in that myself, Wayne Morris, Ceinwen Williams, Paul Downie, Andrew Hunt, Geoff Wilson and Lisa Delaurentis have all been selected to compete in the prestigious 28.5 mile (~46km) Manhatten Island Marathon Swim (or "MIMS" for short) on 8th June 2013 which we are just thrilled about. It is a hugely lengthy application process which even involves having to write an essay about why you want to seek selection. We're now just so stoked to have got in and be seven of about only 30 or 40 swimmers worldwide to be selected for the race. The Rottnest Solo swim on 23rd February 2013 will be a very nicely timed lead-up event to this mammoth swim which will see us circumnavigating the entire "Big Apple". For more info see: http://www.nycswim.org/Event/Event.aspx?event_id=2302&from=faq - can't wait!

Secondly, I am personally swimming the 10km event this weekend at City Beach (starting at 8am and hopefully done by about 10.30am) and have just been informed that we can use a paddler for the event to assist with feeding otherwise it'll be quite a lengthy dog-leg into the beach each time to pick up some nutrition after each 2.5km lap. I realise it is very short notice, but if anyone would be keen to assist and help out with paddling (and have their own paddle) I'd love to hear from you!

Cheers and have a great weekend,

Paul



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Thursday 6.30pm sessions

Dear Swimmers

Finally! The weather seems to be back - wahoo! Can't wait for the City Beach open water swim this weekend (enter at http://www.openwaterswimming.com.au) and the Lake Lesch swim on Sunday (enter at http://maidavalemastersswimming.com/2012/10/14/2012-lake-leschenaultia-swim/)

So, the new Thursday 6.30pm session has been going now for 5 weeks and is specifically focused (as per the Wednesday 9.30am session and the Friday 5.30am and 6.30am sessions) to be a threshold development session, i.e. tough with brilliant pacing!

Unfortunately, due to a clash of bookings which the pool hadn't foreseen, we have been allocated the 25m pool for the next few months up to Rotto for this session...

...now, before you groan and moan and think that it won't work as well, let's extol the benefits of this session and also performing it in the 25m format:

  1. all our intervals are usually set with the beepers on 25m, so working in a 25m pool is actually better in this regard as you do not have to account for differences in the 50m distance with and without a push-off. For those of you with good turns, this can make a massive difference between the two pools, with the 25m actually working better in this situation. As you should all know now, pacing effectively on these sessions is of paramount importance.
  2. and for those of you with not very good turns, what better way to practice them! Twice as many turns as normal!
  3. and for those who believe that turns aren't important for open water swimmers and triathletes, they in fact are - use each turn to really emphasise a superb torpedo push-off and your flexibility and general efficiency will thank you for it!
  4. we have 5 lanes allocated to us, so rather than having 3 lanes and having 2 sub-groups in two of the lanes which can get messy with differences in speed, this won't occur.
  5. the 25m pool is much more shallow than the 50m pool, but all the better for developing a better catch and pull through a-la Rebecca Adlington here: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/08/bent-it-like-becky.html and here: http://www.feelforthewater.com/2012/08/bend-it-like-becky-part-2.html - pulling too deep is not an option without touching the bottom!
  6. for those with sinky leg syndrome, the shallow water really emphasises your sensation and perception of this and accordingly will allow you to tune that up as per: http://www.swimsmooth.com/swimming-balance.html
  7. it's a much more close-contact environment with the coach being of a shorter distance which is very nice for a change of feel with respect to communication 
  8. it's simply different and variety is (as they say) the spice of life!
  9. all the British elite swimmers do at least one swim per week in a 25m pool and we all know how good they've become in the last 8-12 years...sorry, couldn't resist :-)
  10. and if you do feel like it's all just too "Red Mist" for you and not as perfect as you'd like, I'll lend you my new super-dooper rose tinted goggles as used by Nicole this morning to put a positive spin back on the tough endurance set (which she did very well at by the way!).


Nicole, building a bridge and "getting over it" with a pair of rose tinted goggles - well done Nicole - you did great today to turn that around!

So, we still have 6 spots available in this squad - open to the first six people to email me back and request a spot...go!

Cheers

Paul

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Saturday 1pm swim this week

Dear Swimmers

Just a quick note to say that this Saturday's open water skills session will take place as normal at the Claremont Pool from 1-2pm despite originally advertising an actual open water session down at Claremont Jetty in the Swan River. Unfortunately I haven't yet secured use of some full water safety support and consequently would prefer to keep the session in the pool this week. Sorry for any disappointment this causes.

We shall look to be in the river on Saturday 24th November - watch this space!

Cheers

Paul