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