Happy New Year!

Dear TEAM

Just a quick one to wish you all the very best for a great and prosperous New Year! I'm really looking forward to attending the new year open water races with those of you competing, starting off with this Sunday's event at Leighton Beach.

A quick reminder then that we will recommence the full training program as of Monday 3rd January as per the details at http://www.swimsmooth.com/perth_timetable.html - even though it's a Public Holiday we'll be there to kick-off our new Monday morning 7am technique session and then Tuesday evening's 6.30pm session also starts next week (4th January) as well with Sandy Burt taking this particular session. Sandy's been doing some additional poolside shadowing over the last few weeks with me and obviously looked after the whole squad whilst I was away in November. Sandy brings an unrivalled passion and knowledge for the sport of triathlon and is very keen to run the session for those registered every Tuesday evening.

Lastly, I'm still looking around for a paddler to assist me with my second Rottnest Solo crossing on the 26th February if anyone knows of someone who'd be keen? Please put them in touch with me directly. I'm hoping for a really strong crossing this year and an improvement of my 2009 efforts. Really pumped for this one!

Cheers and have a great night this evening!

P.S 8am swim down at North Cott SLSC tomorrow morning (1st January 2011) if anyone is keen? 2 to 10km...

Paul

Happy Christmas!

Great turn-out this morning for the Christmas Eve special. It seems that Santa needs a little help with his arithmetic as his 12 Days of Christmas turned out to be a little more than that!! Hope you all enjoyed it though.

Thanks so much for a great year everyone - you guys rock! Just a reminder that we'll be meeting at 8am on Boxing Day for a little swim down at Cottesloe Beach and then we have the following sessions available next week:

• Wednesday 29th = 5.30am & 9.30am
• Friday 31st = 5.30am, 6.30am & 9.30am
• Back to normal as of Monday 3/1/11 with the addition of Mondays at 7am (technique session) and Tuesdays at 6.30pm (technique / endurance work)

Hope you can make it. Like I say, in this period between Christmas and New Year I'm anticipating it being a little quiet with people being away, so if you wish to join in on one of the sessions that you're not normally nominated for, this should be fine next week.

Ho, ho, ho!!

Cheers

Paul

Additional Lane Space & Room at the Inn?

Dear TEAM

Just a quick note to let you know that I've been successful in securing an additional (4th) lane for the following swim sessions:

• Tuesday 6.30am to 7.30am
• Friday 5.30am to 6.30am

...this is great news and will help manage things at peak times. If you are on the Reserved List at http://www.swimsmooth.com/pauls_images/Squad_2010_2011.pdf and are still seeking a spot in the squad and these times work for you, please let me know before 5pm on Monday 20th December so that I can tweak the lane allocations accordingly. Interestingly enough the lane with the peak demand these days appears to be the fastest lane, which is good to know as the reason behind this is a recent improvement from those of you swimming in lane 2 now being able to push it up a gear to swim on some faster turn-around times. Good stuff. I was urging a few of the girls from lane 1 this morning to also give lane 2 a bit of a try-out, so hope you ladies enjoyed that - you did very well!!

Room at the Inn anyone?

Every year the squad has a 3 month visit from London-based Tim who comes over to enjoy the lifestyle over here, get some training in and enjoy the escape from the British winter. Tim normally house-sits for people over this period with it being a popular holiday time and has a house-sit organised from 1st January onwards, though his accommodation up till that point (from now) has just fallen through sadly. If you have (or know of anyone who has) a room for this period or even requires a house-sitter whilst they're away on holidays, please give Tim a quick call on 0405 432 982 - he'd really appreciate it!

Cheers

Paul

Christmas Training Times & This Weekend

Dear Swimmers

Hope you're all doing well and looking forward to Christmas - talk about a busy one! We move into our new house on the 21st December so it's going to be "go, go, go!!" Can't wait!

So, just a reminder then about the Christmas training program. As mentioned, I wanted to keep the program going this year over Christmas as much as possible as a large number of you are training very hard for the Rottnest Swim. We currently have 33 people in the squad training for the solo swim (plus me) and many more duo and team entrants besides. It's going to be a great day on the 26th February! I'd like to get some squad long-sleeve t-shirts done up and know a few of you in the squad are exceptionally arty, so if you have any ideas, please let me know - it'd be great to get everyone wearing them at the Rottnest Hotel. I quite like the concept of becoming a "diesel engine" with all the long, steady training that we do for this event if that helps...??

Christmas Training Dates for Your Diary:

• all as normal up to and including Christmas Eve, i.e. 5.30am, 6.30am and 9.30am at Claremont Pool. Sessions will all run with a special Christmas "twist" - it'll be a lot of fun!
• Christmas Day - nothing apart from lots of turkey and mince pies!
• Boxing Day (26th) - 8am Cottesloe to Swanbourne (or thereabouts) and back. Casual swim...do as much or as little as you like. Meet on grass bank in front of the Pylon at Cottesloe.
• 27th and 28th December (public holidays) - no early morning lanes available at any pool. Will keep you posted as we may meet for some more OW swimming.
• 29th December - 5.30am and 9.30am sessions as normal at Claremont Pool (both sessions open for anyone to attend as numbers are likely to be quiet)
• 30th December - 5.30pm rough water swim at Trigg Beach (meet at the SLSC tower)
• 31st December - 5.30am, 6.30am and 9.30am sessions as normal at Claremont Pool (all sessions open for anyone to attend as numbers are likely to be quiet)
• 1st January - 9am, 10km swim at Trigg Beach (5km out and back with paddlers) - this is not a race, just a training session and hangover remedy!
• 2nd January - 8am, 5km Leighton Beach race
• 3rd January - all back to normal from here forwards - refer to http://www.swimsmooth.com/perth_timetable.html for full details.

A note on the NEW sessions!

The Monday 7am technique session and Tuesday 6.30pm technique and endurance session will commence on Monday 3rd January and Tuesday 4th January respectively. These sessions are NOT yet running but we are happy to confirm that they will now proceed as of the start of January - wahoo! I am also confirming some additional lane space in our early morning sessions to try and get those of you on our reserved list into the squad permanently. Watch this space, update to follow!

This Weekend:

We have a fantastic 1pm Saturday squad session lined up for you this week - if you're racing openwater this season, don't miss this one at the Claremont Pool! The big event this weekend is the Scarborough to Trigg beach 1.8km swim on Saturday morning at 8am. On Sunday (for anyone keen) we will meet at Leighton beach to do (up to) 8km as 4 x 2km lengths. Meeting at the slightly later time of 9.00am adjacent to the old iron stairway across the railway in the car park there.

Catch you out there!

Paul

Guinea Pigs needed...

Dear Swimmers

I'm looking for two male "Arnies" from the squad (i.e. those with Sinky Leg syndrome who swim much quicker with a pull buoy / wetsuit than without) who both own their own wetsuit, preferably one which is a few years old. We have been given two Blue Seventy "Axis" wetsuits to run some trials on. These suits are designed specifically with Arnie's in mind - the way the suit works is that it features less buoyancy in the upper torso and added buoyancy in the legs. This is Blue Seventy thinking outside of the box and the conventional of just having more buoyancy all over which just lifts the swimmer higher overall without correcting the Sinky Leg issue. I've tried this suit myself and was very impressed with it's performance.

The test will be to do three 400m trials in a) your old suit, b) the new suit and c) in normal bathers to compare the results. The two suits are sized appropriately for someone ~70kg and 5'7 to 5'10" and another for someone ~85kg and 6'0" to 6'3".

Please let me know if you're keen to partake. Testing will take place in the next two weeks.

Cheers

Paul

Just a quickie...

Sorry for all the emails this week Team whilst we get everything re-established at Claremont Pool.

The new Squad List has been updated as of 2.00pm on 8/12/10 and if you could take a very quick look at http://www.swimsmooth.com/pauls_images/Squad_2010_2011.pdf and only get back to me if there are any problems with your squad allocations. Equally, if you have nominated for more sessions than you are likely to attend, please let me know asap as the reserve list is growing ever bigger and I would like to be able to offer people a spot if we have the space available.

This morning's Wednesday endurance session was really well liked if a little light on in terms of attendance, so it'd be good to see a few more of you tapping into this one if you're looking to build the K's up at the moment.

Thanks and see you Friday!

Paul

Stunning Weekend Results

Dear Team

Great start this week at the newly refurbished Claremont Pool - all is going well and it's great to be back. See you down there soon.

I haven't had full reports through yet, but there were some scintillating results at the weekend from members of the squad.

The big news was Kate Bevilaqua's superb overall race win at Ironman Western Australia in front of initial race favorite and previous winner, Rebekah Keat. I'm so gutted I missed seeing Kate race as by all accounts it was totally inspiring! More results at ironmanlive.com. Kate was joined in her win in the mens event by other local hero Courtney Ogden proving that they build them tough over here in WA!

Also racing were Paul McQueen, Matt Biddle, Hannah McKerrchar, Ron Sammut (who scooped another race win in his age group), Daniel Tarborsky, Jane Day, Matt Illingworth and Guy Crawford. I'm sure I've missed a few people from the listings and if I have and you have any race stories from the day, please email them through and I'll compile a full report. I'm very keen to see Dan T's improved GPS plot of a much straighter swim than May - well done Dan!

The day before was the Swim Thru Rotto which I was very sad to have missed myself. Again I haven't seen the full reports yet but know that the Pocket Rocket Ceinwen Williams scooped up another impressive win in her age group so I am told and that the event was very enjoyable for everyone who journeyed across.

So this weekend there is the Fremantle Ports Swim Thru in Saturday and then the Champion Lakes Swim on Sunday which quite a few of us will be attending. Maybe see you there...?!

Cheers

Paul