Last Race Night of the Year

Good grief, who's done their Christmas shopping? Not me. How did Christmas roll around again so quickly?

Anyway, it's race night on Wednesday. The last one for 2015. On the menu is:
25 Back or Free
50 Fly or Free
100 Breast
200 anything (so long as it's swimming)

Race Night, SOM and Wooden Spoon

Results for Wednesday's race night are now up in all the right places. All the usual suspects were there, along with a few unusual ones. Out of the 14 swimmers racing 6 new records were set so that was a good effort. Four records went to the women and 2 to the men; also 4 records were for breaststroke, one for freestyle and one for backstroke. As a club we seem to be very good at breaststroke. I don't know why, I'm just making small talk.

Swimmer of the Month
This month it was awarded to Angela Oliver. Angela has really dedicated herself to her training and built up her fitness and her speed. She went to the North Island champs in Levin and swam a PB in every event, and absolutely walloped her 400IM PB in particular. This took a lot of dedication - great work Angela!

WS - aka Enthusiasm Award
The North Island champs gave a few opportunities to award the wooden spoon. In reality, this month it is more of an enthusiasm award. Just like Angela, Dave B was showing great dedication, this time in a relay. He was putting so much effort though that by a whisker he missed his turn. Fortunately, so did the IOT. We like your style Dave.

Why do we sometimes swim at easy pace?
If you find swimming at cruise (basic endurance) pace boring or difficult you are not alone. As athletes we tend to want to work hard and push ourselves. Not only that but our bodies are very good at tricking us into thinking we are working at an easier pace than we realise. In other words we are often putting in more effort than we think we are.

However, to make gains we need to work at a variety of paces and intensities, both lower and higher. I've been promising a venn diagram (remember those) for some time and finally produced it. It will nicely show the different benefits derived from the 3 main endurance training zones. If you are interested then head over to the Technical Tips page on this blog or be lazy (like me) and just click this link.

Benefits of Endurance Training (Venn Diagram)

I will post it on Facebook plus I've saved the diagram as a pdf if anyone wants me to send it to them.

Get Your Game Face On

We have race night on tomorrow night (Wednesday 4th) so if you want to practice your starts, try and beat your lane mate or simply feel the rush of water past your ears then show up ready to race.

Races on the menu include 25m Br or Free, 50 Free, 100 Back and 100 IM or Free. Afterwards please stay for a mellowpuff (not too many though coz I don't like to miss out) and a laugh at the expense of whoever is being handed the wooden spoon. On that front, all I can say is the North Island champs presented many wooden spoon opportunities.

Good Times in Levin

Last weekend's North Island Champs would have to be considered one of the most successful Masters meets in recent times. 129 Swimmers descended on Levin and this would be the largest number of swimmers at a Masters event for quite some time.

South City showed up and had a couple of houses booked at the nearby holiday 'village' of Waitarere Beach; a 'safe swimming beach' though due to thechigh winds it didn't look much like safe swimming while we were there.

Friday night was a long one with a number of events including the 800/1500 Freestyle so it was nearly 10.30 pm before we left the pool. Levin Masters came up trumps again though, providing a variety of soups and buns for the hungry swimmers. Great idea Levin, very much appreciated.

An early start on Saturday morning had me wondering 'why?' but when we were rewarded with a 2 hour recovery period in the middle of the day it was all worthwhile. It was easier to contemplate being able to perform well in the afternoon after a decent rest.

The afternoon session culminated in a number of relays which were so well attended it required 3 heats to complete the mixed freestyle. Finishing up the meet was the all important Thomas Cup which is a 3 man, 3 woman freestyle relay. There was a nail biting finish between Levin and South City. Who won? More on that later.

The evening dine and dance was at the local Cozzie Club with a quite delightful 2 piece resident band who may have been a little confused about what decade it was. Everyone was having a good time but seemed pretty tired; swimming your heart out will do that to you. We lead a bit of a pansy night life really don't we? One day I might try staying up past 10 pm just to see what it is like.

How did we go, swimming wise? Very well indeed with some very fancy times being swum. I know of one of our swimmers who took 4 minutes off his 1500 freestyle time and another of our swimmers who did a PB in every event. Most swimmers swam at least one PB if not more. As for that very important club trophy, the Thomas Cup, yes, we just beat out the home team.

Thanks Levin for putting on a great meet, you can run this one again any time you like. 

You can find all the photos on our Flickr page. A big thanks to Tanya for the wonderful photos.
2015 NI Champs Photos

The whole squad

Thomas Cup team, minus Dan Feisst

Club Night Results, Swimmer Of The Month

There was a good turnout for October's race night and results have now been posted. There may have only been 3 new records recorded but times were very sharp indeed. This bodes well for the North Island Champs in Levin next weekend which we have 14 or 15 swimmers attending.  We even had a relay record go down, the first in goodness knows how long. Good job team

Swimmer of the Month went to Nicole Youman. Nicole went to the Taupo Masters Spring Fling carnival a couple of weeks back and covered herself all over with glory. This was Nicole's first pool meet and she had trained very hard indeed for it. Her times were excellent which just goes to prove that hard work pays off. Great work Nicole!

Race Night this Wednesday

Yep it's time to get your race face on. Come along at the usual time on Wednesday and it won't even cost you a bean. Races we have include:

25 Fly or Free
50 Breast or Free
50 Back
100 Free

If you work hard enough we will give you a Mellowpuff and a cup of juice to wash it down.

Race Night Results, New Swimmer of the Month

Race night results are up and they are good ones. We had 14 swimmers which is a great turnout for 400's night. Quel pazzo Italiano, Lapo Nustrini, just couldn't get enough 400's under his belt and swum 2 of them, one as IM and the other freestyle, still turning out a good time in his freestyle. Nutcase!

As for Mike H, if a 200m backstroke isn't hard enough, try doing a 400m. Clearly he and Lapo belong together.

Out of 14 swims there were 6 records - mighty effort.

Swimmer of the Month
Speaking of people ready for the loony bin - on to Swimmer of the Month. Last month saw one of our swimmers head to Samoa for the Samoa Swim Series. If you haven't done this yet, put it on your calendar and enjoy a nice warm holiday with a bit of swimming attached.

However, Rosie Sharman took it a step too far (my opinion only, mind) when she signed up for the 22 km Upolu to Savaii cross channel swim. There is no point between the 2 and the 2, I'm going to spell it out for you just to be sure - twenty two kilometres. Naturally, on the day conditions didn't play ball and she had to actually swim 26 km. Phew, I need a nap from just writing that.

Rosie, didn't someone tell you there was a F.E.R.R.Y? Soooo much easier than swimming.

Good on you, how many people can boast they have done something like that!

Rosie swimming to Savaii. Why? Because it's there.

Enjoying the ferry ride back. This is how most of us travel from island to island

Important Message from our President

Club Committee Update

Please note this important message from Dave concerning our club committee:

As many of you may know by now, Giles Walker has recently decided to step down from the SCM committee, after having been a member for close to a year and a half.

On behalf of the committee and wider membership, I would like to thank Giles very much for his many efforts during his time, especially the huge effort he put into the detailed planning & organisation for the Long Course National Champs recently jointly hosted by us and Manukau, and also his valuable insights and enthusiasm overall.  It's been a pleasure working with you Giles!

As we were already two members short of our maximum quota prior to Giles' leaving, we have been on the lookout for potential new committee members, as we are permitted to do under the club constitution.  After some negotiations & encouragement, we are pleased to welcome Christine Ferguson, Mike Harrison and Peter Lane as new committee members, effective immediately.  All three bring a wealth of knowledge & experience with them, and together with the current committee should provide a good ‘spread’ of member representation and views across the various pool lanes.  Welcome aboard all.

Dave Bradding

SCM President

A Whale of Fun at Langs Beach  

Andy Simpson can count himself to be one lucky dog! He was up at Langs Beach (near Mangawhai) when a whale came swimming in. What does a swimmer do? Get in and swim with it of course! Jealous much? I know I am. People pay huge money just to see these amazing creatures from helicopters and boats while Andy got up close and personal for free.

Here are some pics of his epic encounter.

Race Night Results

August's race night results and new records are now up. There were 7 new records set which was a great effort.

Even if you don't generally compete Race Night is a chance to see how fast you can go from the start blocks and best of all it is an opportunity to guage your progress. We also enjoy a bit of a chinwag and a mellowpuff (or a savoury if you are being healthy) afterwards.

There was no Swimmer of the Month due to the pool closure, however the Ladies 200-239 4 x 50 long course Freestyle relay that broke a record at the Nationals were presented with their certificates.

Message from Club Secretary

Message from Tony S, Club Secretary:

What's Happening With Our Training Programmes?

We're trialing a change to the way we do our training programmes.
From now until the North Island champs in October, Deryn will write programmes for Lanes 1 & 2 for Monday, Wednesday and Sunday, and John will write programmes for the other lanes for the whole week.
Deryn's programmes will be aimed at swimming performance, in the pool or open water racing, and John's will be the ones we've known & loved for years.

Why?

Within our club we have swimmers who enjoy regular fitness training and others who are more serious about their swimming performance, so the trial is to see if we can satisfy both needs.
Programmes for swimming performance are usually different from those for general fitness, although there is a lot in common. By allocating 2 lanes for performance programmes, it gives Deryn the opportunity to design a longer term training programme that targets specific goals.

Who can participate?

The trial is not limited to those who normally swim in Lanes 1 & 2, so if you're interested, talk to Deryn.
Conversely, if you normally swim in Lane 1 or 2 and prefer the Sunday and Wednesday programmes Lane 3 should offer a suitable programme.

What will happen after the trial?

During the trial the committee will seek feedback to gauge it's value and plan what happens afterwards. As this trial progresses we will be asking people for their thoughts, but please don't be shy and let any of the committee know your thoughts.

Tony Shacklock
Secretary