Winter (and Kona) are coming.

Unfortunately the darkness is closing in and it is time to move our Tuesday run session back to our winter training base, Well St Common. The upside of Well St Common is that it is well lit. The downside is that it is not as secure as the Victoria Park running track and in training we are sometimes a considerable distance from our starting point.

If you bring a bike to training please bring a lock. I also suggest you keep any other equipment to a bare minimum and please do not bring any valuables that you are not prepared to run with.

With our own aquathlon approaching we will continue to emphasise 5km race pace development in our Tuesday night session. We will then look at altering the session as we have the Jekyll and Hyde Park Duathlon coming up, the last of the London League races and a number of you have signed up for running events from half-marathon to ultra-marathon distance over the autumn and winter.

Congratulations to all those who took part in the London Triathlon over the weekend. Well done especially to those who braved the conditions on Sunday afternoon which were positively awful!

I came across an article the other week and thought it would be worth sharing. It is an interesting theory as to why consistent progressive training with adequate recovery leads to improvement in performance while minimising risk of injury. It also explains why fluctuations in training load, often the result of not following s structured training plan, can and often does lead to injury. Click here to have a read.

The Ironman World Championships are only a few weeks away. It looks like both the men's and women's races are wide open this year. The recent Ironman 70.3 World Championships provided a little insight as to who is currently in form. Leanda Cave won the women's pro race. You might have seen her training at the Lido in the past with Red Top. Sebastian Kienle won the men's pro race with an incredible bike leg that set up the win. Here are a few interviews with some of the favourites for Kona (Sebastian Kienle, Leanda Cave, Craig Alexander, Mirinda Carfrae).

So, who is your favourite to win Kona this year? See ya, Tim (LFTC Coach).

How we structure our training and other club activities

With a massive increase in interest in our club and many new members signing up each week this seems like an opportune time to explain how our sessions are run.

Over the summer months our swim sessions take place on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. On Wednesday we have a 7pm session and an 8pm session at King's Hall Leisure Centre. The 7pm session is our 'beginner's technique' session. This is ideal for those looking to learn the basics of front crawl. The 8pm session is more fitness based. We call this our 'threshold session'. The focus of this session is developing sustainable swim speed. The distance covered in the session will be 2km to 2.5km.

Saturday at 7am is our 'long swim' session at London Fields Lido. The focus of this session is the development of aerobic endurance. There will always be an element of technique however the focus here is biased towards fitness development. The distance covered in the session will vary from 2km to 2.5km depending on the lane you swim in and the session plan for the day.

Sunday at 7am is our 'technique swim' session at London Fields Lido. The focus of this session is refinement of your front crawl technique. There will always be an element of fitness however the focus here is biased towards technique development. The distance covered in this session will vary from 2km to 2.5km depending on the lane you swim in and the session plan for the day.

On Saturday and Sunday we have a 'high volume' and a 'low volume' lane so that we can cater for the different abilities within the group. You should bring fins (flippers), a pull buoy and hand paddles to each session. These pieces of equipment are used not only to develop technique but also to develop different elements of your swim fitness.

Our run sessions take place on a Tuesday night at 7pm in Victoria Park and Saturday morning at 8:15am in London Fields after our swim session. Tuesday night is high intensity intervals and Saturday morning we have an option of high intensity intervals or a long aerobic run. These sessions last approximately an hour and include a structured warm up, technique drills and a cool down.

Thursday night we have a 'spin class' taken by Coach Karl at Fitness for Less on Cambridge Heath Road. There are also group rides, open water swims and various other group activities arranged by members of the club. Our Facebook page is the best place to get info about these. 

All our sessions, with the exception of our Tuesday run, require you to book in advance so that we can control numbers and ensure the right coach to athlete ratios. You must complete a registration form if you wish to attend any of our sessions for health and safety reasons. Registration forms can be obtained by contacting the club via email.

Each year we take part in the London Triathlon League and choose a number of races of varying distances to compete in as a club. Over the last two years we have also run an early season training camp at Club La Santa in Lanzarote which has been very popular. So there we have it. A bit of an outline as to how we run our training sessions and other club activities. While I didn't mention socials these also from an essential part of our club not to be missed! 

See you at training. Tim (LFTC Coach)