This snail needs a new shell...!

Dear TEAM

Hope you've all had a great weekend. I don't like using the Blog to send out personal info / requests etc but was hoping that someone out there might be able to help out as we're in a bit of a pickle!

On Saturday morning we were called by our landlord where we've lived very happily on an extended lease for over 3 years and were told that (due to some of his own personal circumstances) that he needed to give us notice to vacate our lovely little home here in Mount Hawthorn. This has really thrown us for a loop especially with young Jackson in tow, a fully-loaded household full of "proper" furniture (no more backpacks for Paul & Mishy!), and with myself due to be in the UK for the whole of June helping develop the coaching system over there and running our series of Swim Smooth Clinics. He's given us 2 months notice (~15th July) and was as sad as us I think to be turfing us out. C'est la vie! This will make things a little tight on the time front.

So, here's the question - does anyone know (or have) any good property listings coming up within that sort of time frame? Can you recommend anyone to us that we can speak to? We're looking at renting again (realistically) but this whole thing may finally force our hand at looking to buy as well. Renting-wise we'd be looking at staying in a similar area to where we are right now, buying wise (realistically) we'd be looking at somewhere like Narrogin...erm, OK, maybe a little closer to home than that then, but for sure it's going to have to be a bit of a longer trek to work!!

If you have any tips or ideas, we'd really welcome your thoughts. Could I request that you email Mishy (the boss) direct at mish@swimsmooth.com

Thanks guys - I'm sure we'll get over this little hurdle - plenty worse things have happened at sea as they say!

Cheers

Paul

Bacon - saved!

Dear Swimmers

I'm wondering how many of you woke up yesterday morning, heard the thunder and thought "the last place I want to be right now is out in an outdoor swimming pool!"

As luck would have it, we were (and will be) scheduled for the Indoor Pool on a Thursday morning over the winter months and as such it didn't matter one iota what it was like outside as we all had a fantastic session indoors. Feedback was that it was actually quite cool swimming in a 25m pool for a change and the difference in people's swimming speed was quite pronounced given all the push-offs (providing you're good at them!). Having 5 lanes was also a bonus and allowed for more accurate targeting of people's target paces.

So, don't be afraid next week if its raining because it was lovely and warm indoors!

Have a great weekend and hope to see some of you on Saturday in the Outdoor 8 lane pool for our 1pm squad session.

Cheers

Paul

5 minutes will make all the difference!

Dear Swimmers

So, this morning was our first early morning session at Challenge Stadium. It was a little chilly on pool deck, but in the water was lovely (apparently!). I had thought about setting up a side-line business renting out Ugg boots to get you comfortably from the changerooms to the pool without your feet getting cold...who knows, maybe it could catch on, but no doubt that'll be a lot of soggy post-swim Ugg boots to cart around! My suggestion is to wrap-up warm and have a nice, warm, thick towel waiting for you. Obviously this would be the same swimming at Claremont Pool too...it's just getting into the cooler winter months that is all.

There were a couple of the expected remarks of "it's soooo far to walk from the reception!" but really it's not that bad and we have to comfort ourselves with the fact that if it wasn't for this lane space availability at Challenge Stadium, there would literally be no squad swimming over the winter until Claremont reopens. For this I am extremely grateful and hope that you all can see the positives in this, even if it's just the fact that you all knocked out some pretty impressive 100m splits this morning with the pool being that good bit quicker than Claremont!!

OFFICIAL EARLY MORNING SWIM START TIME = 5:35 / 6:35am:

OK, so enough of the waffle then - one thing that we have decided to act upon with the slightly longer distance to walk is the official session start time. I asked Adam to meet you all in reception to get a good gauge of exactly when you'd be let in. All the clocks at Challenge (for your reference) run 3 minutes fast (this is true, seriously). Adam noted that you were actually let through reception at exactly 5:29am (real time). I was ready to greet you all set-up on pool deck and the first swimmer hit the water at 5:34am. Given that this is likely to be a standard occurrence we have decided to make the official start time for the 5:30am squad 5:35am. This will put the 6:30am squad back to 6:35am. Both squads will run for exactly 1 hour as normal. I am hoping this minor shift will not inconvenience anyone but allow the 5:30am squad in particular some slight relief from worrying about if they'll only get a 55 minutes session in! Someone asked why I would do that as surely this would only encourage people to be 5 minutes later getting out of bed in the morning (!) and if this is you then so be it, but please know that we are doing this to be fair to every member of the squad - fair go, mate! 

I will get the 5:35am crew started as soon as you get down on to the pool deck, so there's every chance that you might squeeze in a couple of extra minutes depending who lets you through on reception.

This change will only effect the 5:30am and 6:30am squads due to the reception opening time being the unavoidable hurdle that we have to get around here. 9:30am / 1:00pm sessions will still be at 9:30am / 1:00pm.

One final thing...the pool allocation details that I sent through last week have so far only been 50% accurate (ho-hum!) and as mentioned these are subject to change. Please always check the white board at the bottom of the stairs as you come through reception.

More food for thought on Busselton swim times:

Kindly sent through from Lindy Brand:

 

I had a friend of mine who is a bit of a stats guru (and a tri nut) look at the HIM swim times last week. He noted the following:


"the avg swim time for the top 50 finishers in 2009 was 26:16, 
the avg swim time for the top 50 finishers in 2010 was 29:18min - 
that's 3:02min slower on avg

, so if you went slower by less than that - well that counts as faster in my book!!!

 Luke McKenzie was 1:57 slower himself..."

 

Maybe of some comfort for those that did the HIM this year in terms of slower swim times… Apparently there is talk that the swim course was a little short last year, hence the difference.

Cheers

Paul

Food for navigational thought...

Dear TEAM

Many people who raced last weekend (across the board, not just from our squad I'm relieved to say!) were a little disappointed with their swim times at the Busselton Half Ironman. How could this be and how much time can you really lose through navigational issues, limited practiced drafting ability etc? It would seem, quite a bit actually...

As promised, Daniel Tarborsky who swims with us in our 5.30am sessions has very kindly shared his Garmin GPS data from the event. This type of feedback is invaluable for us as we look at how long a swim leg is .vs. what it is advertised as, and also at how far the athlete actually swam compared with the shortest route possible around the given course. The results might surprise you. Daniel is kind enough to share these Google maps especially considering his own analysis of the data which would suggest that his sighting and navigational technique could have been somewhat improved. However, I think there is a real message in this for all of us - and just because you don't know how far you have swum off course in the past in terms of actual measured distances or as a percentage of your overall swim, doesn't mean to say you haven't done it!! The old axiom:

"...whatever gets measured gets done (or managed)"

...is probably no more true than here. Up until now we haven't had the facility to truly measure someone's accuracy in navigation whilst swimming in the open water, but now (armed with his Garmin 310 XT) Dan shares exactly how far he swam in three separate events (Busselton Half Ironman, Port MacQuarie Ironman and the Hillary's Sprint Triathlon). With this knowledge we can go about fixing this known issue with some targeted sighting practice in Saturday afternoon's 1pm pool session and also in some of the pre-planned open water practice sessions Dan will do solo and also with the squad when it gets a little warmer again.

OK, enough waffle, here's the results:

Busselton Half Ironman, 2010

...and a closer look at the wiggly line:

Results:

• Distance swam per Garmin: 2.33km
• 'Straight line' distance measured using Google Earth ruler (includes runs to and from the shore): 1.98km
• Distance extra swam: 0.35km
• Percentage extra swam: 18%
• 'Straight line' distance measured using Google Earth ruler (shore to shore): 1.93km
• Dan's actual swim pace was 1:47 per 100m if you take his actual distance swum, however, looking at the pace as per the advertised distance of 1900m, this actually equates to a staggering 2:12 per 100m! To put this into real perspective, Dan would be lapping himself in a 50m pool every 420m or so had his pace been put into a perfectly straight line swim!! Over this distance, this would have saved him exactly 10 minutes!

Port MacQuarie Ironman, 2010

Results:

• Distance swam per Garmin: 4.13km
• 'Straight line' distance measured using Google Earth ruler (includes runs to and from the shore): 3.84km
• Distance extra swam: 0.29km
• Percentage extra swam: 8%

Hillary's Sprint Triathlon, 2010

...and a closer look at the wiggly line:

Results:

• Distance swam per Garmin: 1.02km
• 'Straight line' distance measured using Google Earth ruler (includes runs to and from the shore): 0.82km
• Distance extra swam: 0.20km
• Percentage extra swam: 24%

So, even if you think you're as straight as a dart in the open water, I highly encourage you to re-address this aspect of your swim training, because if I were to tell you that you could save 10 minutes off your Half Ironman swim split just by being straighter in the water you'd think I was pulling your leg - the data, it seems, would suggest otherwise and I dare say that there are many of us out there who might be a good deal less accurate than Dan's navigation too!

Food for thought indeed...

Cheers

Paul

Confirmation of Session Locations at Challenge

Dear TEAM

Please be advised that we start officially at Challenge Stadium from Monday 10th May. The following schedule of lane allocations will be the typical format, though is subject to change. Please always check the whiteboard as you walk in at the bottom of the stairs. You might like to aim to get to the pool 10 minutes before your session time to familiarise yourself in this first week back:

• Monday 7-8am = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Monday 8-9am (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Monday 9.30am-10.30am = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 8 lane pool

• Tuesday 5.30-6.30am = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Tuesday 6.30-7.30am = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Tuesday 7.45-8.45am (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 10 lane pool

• Wednesday 7.45-8.45am (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Wednesday 9.30-10.30am = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 10 lane pool
• Wednesday 10.45-11.45am (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 10 lane pool

• Thursday 5.30-6.30am = 5 lanes in the Indoor 25m pool (this is the Indoor 50m pool set-up as a short-course pool for the winter)
• Thursday 6.30-7.30am = 5 lanes in the Indoor 25m pool (this is the Indoor 50m pool set-up as a short-course pool for the winter)

• Friday 7.45-8.45am (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 8 lane pool
• Friday 9.30-10.30am = 3 lanes in Outdoor 8 lane pool

• Saturday 1-2pm = 3 lanes in the Outdoor 8 lane pool
• Saturday 2.30-3.30pm (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 8 lane pool
• Saturday 4-5pm (1-2-1 session) = 1 lane in the Outdoor 8 lane pool

I'm hoping we get off to a flying start next week and am doing everything possible to ensure as smooth a transition up to Challenge Stadium as I can.

Can't wait to get started!

Cheers

Paul

Busselton Half Ironman Results

Phew! Just got back from down south after a fantastic weekend of racing down in Busselton!

The TEAM had some great results, all of which can be seen here: http://theteamcore.com/images/Busso_Results_2010.pdf

There was a total of 37 finishers from the squad, 2 unfortunate DNFs (Did Not Finish) and 2 DNSs (Did Not Start).

In the women's event, Kate Bevilaqua and Katrina Mercer battled it out for 2nd and 3rd place overall behind eventual winner Lisa Marangon. It came down to the final 3km between Kate and Katrina, with Katrina bravely holding off 4th place by just 10 seconds. This was a stellar result for both girls - Kate showing her class, strength and endurance in the latter stages of the race with Katrina doing a fine job in her very first Half Ironman event!! Not many people can say they did a sub-4h30m HIM on their first outing! Brilliant stuff.

Carle Green was similarly impressive in the men's race finishing 12th overall and first age-grouper in just over 4h15m - amazing!

My good friend and the guy who first got me into triathlon way back in 1994 came over for a visit (Garrie Prosser) and came 3rd in the 45-49 age group proving that he's still very much got it!!

Also taking podium places in their age-groups were Alan Nicholls, Nathalie Laurendeau, Sally Scaffidi, Lyndal Tudehope, Graham Crocker and Sandy Tindale. Fine, fine work groovers!

A special mention must go out to Liz McSweeny who took on her very first Half Ironman and was worried about completing the swim distance in the whole lead-up to the event. To see Liz exit the water after 1.9km was probably the highlight of mine and Adam's day and Liz can go away from this feeling extremely proud of herself! Well done Liz, we're chuffed to bits for you!

I am still waiting to hear back from Daniel T who wore a Garmin GPS around the swim course. Swim times across the board seemed to be very slow this year and as such I'm thinking that maybe it was a little long as conditions appeared OK out there - but what do I know, I was stood on the beach in my nice warm uggies sipping a flat white!!

Well done to everyone who competed. I have stripped down some of the data from the official results so you can see a little clearer what your swim, bike and run times were as well as the halfway mark on the bike and the 1/3 and 2/3 mark on the run - should be food for thought for pacing strategies going forward. Top marks on pacing has to go to Carle Green again here whose bike laps were within 6 seconds of each other and run laps within 10 seconds of each other - teacher's pet! Nice job mate!

Cheers and see you all again next week starting at 7am on Monday up at Challenge Stadium - can't wait!

Paul

Final Week at Claremont!

Dear TEAM

Hope you're absolutely loving this glorious weather - its simply first class!

Thanks to everyone who has already got in there early and completed their Winter Squads Feedback form. If you haven't yet done so, please make sure you reserve your spot in the various sessions that we will have available over winter. Remember, it is not compulsory that you attend every session that you nominate for, but it does help me to manage squad sizes and avoid over-crowding. 

If you plan not to swim with us over the winter, please be so kind as to also complete the form so that I'm not holding spaces open for anyone. 

You can complete the form now at http://www.theteamcore.com/feedback_winter2010.html

You can check your booking status at: http://www.theteamcore.com/images/Squad_Winter_2010.pdf

Remember, we will have no official training sessions after Friday 30th April's 9.30am session until Monday 10th May's 7.00am session. This will be our transitionary period up to Challenge Stadium where we'll commence on the 10th May until the 1st December whilst the Claremont Pool is closed for refurbishments.

For those keen to still attend and keep swimming next week, here are my suggested sessions in order, i.e. the first session = Monday 7.00am, the 2nd session = Monday 9.30am / Tuesday 5.30am / Tuesday 6.30am / Tuesday 6.15pm, the 3rd session = Wednesday 9.30am / Friday 5.30am / Friday 6.30am, the 4th session = Wednesday 5.30am and the 5th session = Saturday 1.00pm. Enjoy:

http://www.theteamcore.com/images/Suggested_Sessions.pdf

NB. These five sessions are taken from the 35 session water proof Training Plans that we produce. If you would like a full copy of the program delivered in this super-versatile and user-friendly booklet format, please visit http://www.swimsmooth.com/products.html - cost is just $60.00. This particular sample is from the Level 1 Ironman Program and the typical session length is 2400m; for those of you swimming in lane 2 I'd typically recommend adding 3 to 400m to the suggested main set and for those of you in lane 3 please add 6 to 800m to the main set. Hope this helps - the Training Plans really are a great resource for your kit bag and for times when you find yourself swimming alone and in need of some inspiration...the three levels offered typically equate to our three lanes of ability in our squad sessions for your reference.

OK, so here's how our last few days shape up then before the mini "transition" break:

Thursday 29th April = no running session this evening. All HIM athletes are advised to take today as a rest day.

Friday 30th April = all sessions (5.30am, 6.30am & 9.30am) as normal at Claremont Pool. We'll make this a really fun session to wave goodbye to Claremont for the next 6 months, so please try and attend if you can! I would recommend that the HIM athletes either come down for an easy swim, or take the morning off and do a light 45 mins ride in the afternoon followed by a short jog of ~10 mins, preferably once you're down in Busselton.

Saturday 1st May = no bike ride or early morning swim due to the Half Ironman. There will also be no Saturday 1.00pm swim session this week (use the 5th session above if you still want to swim). 

Sunday 2nd May to Sunday 9th May = no official sessions (see notes above).

Monday 10th May = Winter Training Program commences at our new home of Challenge Stadium. Please see http://www.theteamcore.com/weeklyprogram.html for full details!

NB. I am still waiting to hear about the various additional requested swim sessions at Challenge (i.e. evenings and another early morning swim) and will update you all as soon as I hear anything.

So, on that note, may I take this opportunity to thank all of you for your support down at Claremont Pool over the last 2 years...we've had some great times, lots of fun and despite having 12 swim sessions per week, hardly ever a repeated session! That's a lot of sessions and variety and I would like to thank you all for your ideas and inspiration on that front - this feedback is what keeps everyone's spark and love for swimming alive, so long may it continue!!!

Best of luck to everyone competing at the Half Ironman this weekend. I shall post the results out later next week.

Cheers

Paul