Watch out for this!

Quite disturbing news about trip-wires being laid across the bike path on the Freeway North - watch out!

http://www.bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=26075

Also, The Capel Vale "65 Roses Grand Ball" will be held on Saturday 15th May in the Grand Ballroom at the Burswood Entertainment Complex from 7pm to 1am in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Charity. Tickets are $180.00 per head and registration forms can be seen here: 

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

Cheers

Paul

Easter Weekend!

Dear TEAM

Hope you are all looking forward to a well-earned weekend off from work with your friends and families - I know I can't wait to get down to Pemberton with my Dad and sister to show them that part of the world!

So, just to reiterate from last week, training will look like this, this week:

Wednesday 31st March:

5.30am = long, endurance swim set featuring some land-based stretching first and a good dollop of technique work in the warm-up akin to Monday's shorter 7am session which everyone really enjoyed this week.

9.30am = fresh & fruity session at Claremont Pool (please note that all of our 9.30am sessions are now back to normal in lanes 6, 7 and 8 of the 50m pool, so there's no reason now to hideaway!) We have a great session lined up this week plus a surprise visit from a very special 2-time Olympian guest who will swim with the group and then chat to all the aspiring English Channel swimmers afterwards....not to be missed!!!

Thursday 1st April:

6 / 6.15pm = run session on the north side of Lake Monger. I will not be present at tonight's session unfortunately (I have a date with Lady GaGa...a Christmas present from my Mum...don't ask!), however, the session should be done as 5k, 4k, 3k, 2k, 1k with 90s rest between each and with each set getting 10s per km quicker than the last, aiming to finish with a really strong final km. Even though I won't be there, I'd highly recommend you still all meet up to do this challenging session together if you can. Please use the main 1km warm-up circuit (out on the main road) as your loop for the main set.

Friday 2nd April (Good Friday):

There will be no 5.30am, 6.30am or 9.30am swim session today at Claremont Pool (as it will be closed!). However, never one to let you guys down, we shall meet at 7am for a 7.15am start at Cottesloe Beach (on the grass bank in front of the pylon) for a 1.6km out & back handicap "dash" down to The Blue Duck and back. We will seed this as per lane ability, i.e. a group containing those normally in Lane 1 will set off first, with Lane 2's setting off 3 minutes later, Lane 3's a further 2 minutes later and any Lane 4's aspiree's a further 90 seconds later. Winner will be the first person back across the finish line regardless of start position. This will be loads of fun and we'll have a nice Easter Egg prize for the winner!! If anyone can offer someone to provide water-support on a kayak or ski that'd be great - I'd love to get 4 people helping out in this regard for each wave of swimmers. Please let me know! It'd be really great to get a good crew down there, so please try to make it if you can and perhaps bring a friend or two! There will be no charge for this swim - all I ask is for you to enjoy yourselves safely and responsibly!

Saturday 3rd, Sunday 4th & Monday 5th April (Easter Weekend):

There will be no official training sessions over this weekend. My recommendations for those doing the Half Ironman is to complete the State 80km Time Trial championships - please see www.atta.asn.au for more information.

Tuesday 6th April:

All sessions (5.30am, 6.30am and 6.15pm) back to normal.

Enjoy and see you soon!

Paul

Training this weekend

Dear Athletes

How did you all shape up after Monday's storm? Looks like our car is pretty much written off - our beloved Subaru! Every single panel on the car has severe denting from the hailstones - amazing stuff! Hope you weren't too badly affected!

OK, so here's what's on over the next few days:

Thursday:

6/6.15pm = run session at Lake Monger. A good set to test your fitness adaptation tonight as part of our easier week of training.

Friday:

5.30am and 6.30am = Fresh & Fruity as normal, and boy-o-boy do we have a session for you today! ;-)

9.30am = session at Cottesloe Beach...should be lots of fun! Meet on the grass bank opposite the pylon. All welcome.

Saturday:

6.30am = steady ride of ~2hours for those doing the Half Ironman. Recommendation is to meet at the Bell Tower and do a River Ride.

1.00pm = squad swim session at Claremont Pool - openwater technique!

Sunday:

Point Walter Triathlon (1.5k/40k/10k) - highly recommended for those of you doing the HIM in Busselton...just 5 weeks away!

See you out there!

Paul

P.S All 9.30am "Time-4-Me" sessions will be finally back to normal in the 50m pool as of next week - wahoo! Please note though that no sessions will operate on the Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (2nd to 5th April) due to the Easter break, though please stay tuned about details of our very famous Good Friday Swim 1.6km Swim Challenge at Cottesloe Beach instead!

It all ended in tears!

Dear Swimmers

Just a quick email to thank those of you who have participated in the free filming sessions at Challenge Stadium this past two Sundays to help us out with our new Swim Smooth project. We can't wait to tell you more about it once the editing and narrative has been filmed in early April. 

Those of you who swam last weekend should have now received your footage on DVD, and if you haven't, they're ready to collect down at the pool. If anyone is struggling to view their footage on the computer, chances are your computer is lacking the DIVX codec...that can be downloaded for free at www.divx.com and is a worthy addition to your PC / MAC's software anyway.

Today's filming went really well despite a late start due to not being able to access the pool until 8am...we then really did have to "Benny Hill" it to get ready for your arrival! Thanks for your patience if you were in that earlier group. We got some fantastic under water shots with the new rig, but sadly we had a rather costly accident at the end of the day (see above) when the heavy underwater housing was dropped! We'll be out of action for a while with this getting it repaired, but should hopefully be back up and running soon!

Lastly, anyone needing some accommodation down in Busselton for the Half Ironman on the 1st/2nd May weekend should contact Stuart on 0405 433745 - he's got a spare room going in some nice accommodation.

Cheers and see you all this week.

Paul

Possible Refurbishments at Claremont Pool

Dear Swimmers

Looks like a nice weekend ahead - hope you're doing something nice!

I just wanted to write and inform you that as you may have seen in the
Post, the Western Suburbs Weekly and in this weekend's West
Australian, it is looking very likely that the Claremont Pool will be
closing in June for 5-6 months for full refurbishment prior to the
start of next summer. It is not 100% clear that this will be agreed
upon by the council, but we will know for sure after the 13th April.
It may equally be that they postpone until next year, but we will know
soon enough!

I have only just found out about this myself in the last week and am
not totally in the know about the plans for the new centre, but what I
do know is that this should provide a well needed face lift to the
centre.

But now to the crunch...

...the prospect of a 5-6 month pool closure for our squad (as you can
imagine) has been quite worriesome for me. However, I have been
speaking with an alternative pool very close by which is looking very
promising as a venue to host us over this period. Phew! I'm not
counting my chickens just yet but I have put in a proposal for some
additional lane space and also some additional weekly sessions, which
(if they come off) will be of great benefit to the squad. For those of
you who train with us at 930am and have small pre-school children,
you'll be pleased to know there is also a great crèche facility which
you'll be able to use.

So all up, I am trying to see this as a good oppurtunity rather than
something which threatens the whole program - so like me, I'm asking
you not to panic please!

As soon as I know anything further I'll let you know.

I do hope that you'll all be keen to continue with the squad if we are
forced to relocate and that you're pumped for some of the new ideas
and sessions we have instore for you!

Have a great weekend.

Paul

Brick Session this Saturday CANCELLED

Dear TEAM

I'm just writing to inform you that I've decided to cancel the official Saturday morning brick session at Cottesloe Beach. In the end only 5 people expressed an interest in doing the session unfortunately and given the time commitment that I would be down there for (~5 hours) I just can't make this work. Sorry if you had hoped to attend. Obviously this doesn't stop you doing your own 1k swim + 70km bike + 10km brick session...and if you're doing the Half Ironman at the start of May, this is what I'd be encouraging you to do.

I'll ask for interest again for the proposed session on the 10th April in a couple of weeks and see how we go with that one.

Sorry to disappoint - it seems like a good number of people are no longer racing the event (for various reasons) and this is having an impact on the interest in this kind of specific session.

Have a great weekend everyone and don't forget we do have the 1pm squad swim session on this Saturday which you might like to do if you just do a bike/run brick in the morning...its a great one for developing your open water drafting skills etc.

Cheers

Paul

Video Filming Project & This Weekend

Dear TEAM

Just a quick thank you to all of those of you who volunteered your time on Sunday for some filming in Challenge Stadium's awesome outdoor 8 lane pool (above). This filming is part of a new project that we (Swim Smooth) are collating which will help swimmers and coaches around the world define and determine what they need to do to help correct their strokes and improve their efficiency. It's a super interesting project and we can't wait to share more details with you once all the filming has been completed.

We still have another round of filming to complete this Sunday (21/3) between 9am and 5pm. Please check your details against the list at:

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

...we have specifically highlighted the strokes of John Harris, Julie Ponthier and Jane Davis whom we'd very much like to film if you guys were able to attend at 2.30pm? No worries if not, but it'd be a great help for us if you'd be keen.

Every swimmer will receive an edited copy of their footage on DVD for free at the end of the month.

You might also be keen to see this short, humorous series of stills looped as a movie file that we put together showing the set-up of our rig. It takes us ~1h30 to do so, but don't panic, this condenses it down to 55 seconds! 10 points for anyone who can correctly identify the theme tune from which famous British Comedy show of the 60s, 70s & 80s:

http://gallery.me.com/swimsmooth/100312

OK, so onto training then this week:

Wednesday: 5.30am and 9.30am (25m pool) swim sessions as normal at Claremont Pool

Thursday: 6/6.15pm run session at the north car park of Lake Monger. Session will be 16 x 500m this week on the hilly course.

Friday: 5.30am, 6.30am and 9.30am (25m pool) swim sessions as normal at Claremont Pool

Saturday: 1st official Brick session of 2010!! Please RSVP for this session!! We need to know how many people plan to attend. Cost will be $20 or 2 strikes on your PAYG card. All athletes will receive a detailed breakdown of their splits for the 1000m swim + 70km ride + 10km run session. Meet in the car park at Cottesloe Beach at 6.10am for a 6.30am in-the-water start. Please note the Sculptures By The Sea is still running this weekend, so it may be a bit busy down there!

Saturday: 1pm squad swim at Claremont Pool - loads of fun!!

Cheers

Paul