A must read for this week.

Our first session for the New Year was a good one. It is great to see everyone as enthusiastic as ever about improving their fitness through the sport of triathlon and also testing the limits of their fitness by signing up for more challenging events later in the year. By the way, the girls lead the boys by four to one in the New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon September 25th.

The long run seemed to be popular with a good number of you. We will continue with this option on a Sunday morning provided it is what you would like to do. This week we will keep to the same distance. Those faster finishers could complete and extra lap of the small side of Victoria Park to allow the other runners to catch up. That way no one will lose their friends eh Minky?

Having three coaches on deck during the swim was fantastic. It meant that we were able to pay more attention to each individuals technique. I hope you found the feedback useful. The majority of faults occur during breathing. Paul Newsome from Swim Smooth wrote a great blog last week about the common faults that occur when breathing during freestyle swimming. There are some very good pictures demonstrating these faults. It is a must read for everyone. Click here to have a look. I also spent the weekend watching Swim Smooth's Catch Masterclass DVD. I think it is well worth a look and will help you understand the importance of the catch to your stroke and the drills we teach to improve it. Paul's rendition of the Muppet's theme song at the end is gold!

We have been invited as a club to take part in the Mike Penman Memorial 10km race on April 9th by Victoria Park Harriers. Just turn up on the day and register. The race kicks off at 2:30pm from in front of the Victoria Park Harriers club house. This would be a great event to test your running fitness if you are not planning to compete in either the Ful-On Duathlon on April 9th or the Dragon Slayer Duathlon on April 10th.

This week is our long swim. It will be based on your CSS times if you did the time trials pre-Xmas. It does not matter if you missed that session we can give you an idea of the intensity we are after on Sunday. We will spend the first part of the session refining your technique. I expect that you will all have fins and a pull buoy by Sunday.

See you Sunday! Tim (LFTC Coach)