Thursday, August 28, 2014

It's here! Our FREE 2015 Rottnest Channel Swim Program!



Dear Swimmers,

This year's 2015 Rottnest Channel Swim Program is now ready for your viewing pleasure here. The program starts on Monday 6th October 2014 and runs for a total of 20 weeks. The intention is that you'll spend the next 5 and a bit weeks "training to train, before training to race", essentially readying your body and schedule to knuckle-down as best as "life" allows for what is a small, but very doable window.

I've personally had a shocking run of trying to get back into it over the last few weeks and keep trying to tell myself that I've still got plenty of time, and the reality is you have - work out the kinks in your schedule, health, family / work / social life now to be able to roll as seamlessly into the start of the program as possible. You don't need to be training the house down already, but you do need to start getting some consistency to what you are doing within the next couple of weeks, so make that your priority.

Rottnest Channel Swim Program Webinar:

Last year I delivered a very well received webinar on successfully training up for marathon swimming events such as the Rottnest Channel swim and went through training specifics, nutrition plans, injury prevention etc. It's 75 minutes in length, but well worth a watch over a coffee and muffin, especially for those of you contemplating this for the first time - see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzwkyl_B0Dk

The Program:

You can now download our totally free 2015 Rottnest Channel Swim Program at the following link:


...it is only 2mb in size and is designed to be read on your computer as it contains links off to various other bits and pieces that will help you during your training.

Please take a good read through of the material for anyone doing (or thinking about doing) the event in a little over 5 months time. By all means circulate to friends, family, work colleagues etc - I simply ask that if you are planning on doing the event and seek to follow the program that you quickly email me to let me know if you're doing a Solo, Duo or Team and then I shall watch out for you!

A few notable points:

most of the early morning squads are already close to capacity and as such, if you're not already swimming in some of the sessions which feature in this program, please email me on swimsmooth@me.com to be kept informed if / when spaces become available. I can't guarantee to be able to get you in but will keep you posted.
a really good session to consider to start building up your endurance is the new Friday 9.30am 1.5hr endurance session which replicates the fully booked Wednesday 5.30am session - email me for a place.
we do have 4 places available in our Saturday 1pm session for the first 5 people to raise their hands for interest in these. 
given that the squads have been so busy, it may not be possible for those of you who sometimes do a double 5.30am to 7.30am session on a Tuesday and Friday to do this this season, however, three solutions: 1) swim in the 6.30am session and then continue on to 8.30am when the pool is much quieter (I'll still be on pool deck with a 1-2-1 which is good); 2) do the double at 6.30pm on a Tuesday evening, i.e. two separate sessions in a day - if you've never tried this it's actually very effective; 3) swim with me on a couple of the sessions listed in the Program to boost your volume at quieter times.
if you don't already have a copy of our new book and are planning to do quite a bit of swimming by yourself, I'd highly encourage you to order a copy as there are literally over 5,000 possible training session ideas in there that you'll be able to use to compliment the longer, more specific sessions that feature in this program.
I have added a little more detail than last year to the volume recommendation for Thursday 6am open water sessions at Claremont Jetty and also Sunday 7am Claremont Jetty sessions. These are not coached per se, but allow you to swim with a group of like-minded swimmers which is very motivating and encouraging.
for those of you either living out of town or whom cannot attend the squads due to work schedules or because they are full, stay tuned right around the start of the program for news of a new paid-for initiative that should allow you to follow the full detail of all the sessions that the squad will be doing. I will not be writing any personalised programs for the event this year, but as you will see with what we have coming up, you'll have more than enough specific info / ideas to work with - exciting!
the five long Sunday pool sessions are all brand-new and re-written from the 2013 & 2014 programs - I hope you enjoy!
we start on Monday 6th October and run for 20 weeks to Saturday 21st February 2015 (race day).

Cheers everyone, can't wait to get cracking!

Paul

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please add your comments here: