Santa Has Left the North Pole!

You may have noticed Christmas is coming. You may also have wondered what training you can do over the festive season to compensate for the expected over-indulgence. Well, we've confirmed that we can train our regular hours (except the extra 1/2 hour on Mondays), i.e.

Sunday 27th December 8:00 - 9:00 am

Monday 28th December 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Wednesday 30th December 7:00 - 8:00 pm

Sunday 3rd January 8:00 - 9:00 am

Monday 5th January 7:00 - 8:00 pm

We hope you all enjoy Christmas and wish you a very Happy New Year.

Tony Shacklock

for the Committee

And from the swimmers...........

A huge thanks to our very hard working committee for the endless, long, and often unheralded work done behind the scenes.

 

Message From Club Committee

Dear members

Following our committee meeting on Sunday, we'd like to point out…

Sometimes the numbers in each lane are quite unbalanced, crowded in some but empty in others. It's usually better for everyone if people move between lanes to even out the numbers. If your normal lane is crowded (8 or more) and you're one of the followers in the lane, consider moving to a slower lane. If you take the lead and aim to come in on a fast time you should still get a good work-out. If you're one of the faster swimmers, consider moving to a faster lane and try to keep up with them.

Just a reminder that annual subscriptions are due. Thanks to those who've already paid. Payments can be made to the club bank account:

Account: ASB 12-3089-0087168-02

Please clearly reference your family name so we can identify your payment.

Alternatively, a cheque or cash can be given to John or Sally.

We still have lots of our especially good South City swim caps. John will happily let you have one for $5.00.

Thanks

Tony Shacklock

for the committee

Update on the Last Post

Who's done their Christmas shopping? Me, that's who. Hah!!! I even have the Christmas tree up when I thought I wouldn't bother. I got the grandkids to do it though. I knew I'd find a use for the little blighters. Don't start screaming at me something about slave labour, I gave them some water and stale bread for their trouble.

Race night results out. There was a good turnout and it seems as if some members quite like having a go at the 200 anything with a few swimmers saving their energy for this event only. Out of 16 swimmers there were 7 new records set which are good odds.

Swimmer of the Month went to Diane Lane. Diane did a fantabulous job of training herself up to do the Russell to Paihia Ocean Swim race. She trained up to get not just stronger and fitter but the all important faster. Come race day she put in a mighty effort and completed the swim in a time that was rather staggering. Roll on Harbour Capital Classic.

The wooden spoon was also passed on. This was for another episode that occurred at the North Island Champs. Most of us wanted a little nap before getting ready for the evenings dine and dance, including Avy. Avy set her alarm clock for her nap; only she set it for next week!

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