For those of you who can’t make it to our regular monthly meetings on the third Wednesday of each month, here’s the first of the planned recaps to bring you up to speed on all of the current events and happenings in the club you should be aware of. And frankly, we hope this helps even those of you who did attend as we do realize there’s a lot going on at any one time as we start to ramp up to spring and longer training days.
Featured Speaker/Topic – Jennifer Meyer, TriSmart Coaching 
Jennifer presented on “Maximizing your Swim Training”
Here’s a quick summary of the main points:
- For a triathlete, swimming should be about staying safe in the water (managing panic), not expending too much energy relative to the rest of your race, and staying with your competition.
- Learn to swim sufficiently before an open water swim/tri. Practice in open water if you are racing in open water. Mix up breathing patterns to simulate race conditions. All designed to manage panic. If you do panic, have a plan (what will you do? safety stroke)
- What’s holding back your swim training? It’s probably not your fitness. Too much slow swimming, race distance sets. Not enough focus on skill/technique. Dedicate time – aim for 2-3 times a week. Once a week is not enough. You are a swimmer – believe it!
- Structure of a swim workout. Remember that complexity is not a requirement – you’re a swimmer, but not a twice a day, 6 days a week swimmer.
- Warmup – Can be in or out of water, easy swimming, utilize different strokes, do at least 100 yd/m
- Drills – know why you’re doing them, still easy swimming (no sprinting), focused and purposeful, use your pool toys (paddles, fins, pool buoy), ex: drill 25, swim 25
- Transition – optional, used to move between drills and main set, helps to move from easy swimming to harder effort, but still not full effort yet, ex: 3×50 or 3×100 descending
- Main set – ex: 1000 can be 5×200, 10×100, 2×500, 20×25, 10×50, 1×1000, vary distance and effort and rest depending on goal for the workout, don’t ignore rest if you’re doing sprints at full effort for instance, monitor your pace/intensity
- After Main set – drills again (optional), cool down – easy swimming
- Example 2000 workout might look like this:
- W/U – 300
- Drills – 450 (9 drills x 50)
- Transition – 150 (3×50 descending)
- Main set – 1000 (10×100 on 2 minutes)
- Cool down – 100
Many thanks to Jennifer for an informative and easy to follow presentation.
Club Challenge
The roster of races were announced, although there may be a few more additions from the recently announced MuniTri series to the full challenge list. Rules of the club challenge remain the same from previous years. Visit the Club Challenge page for the list of races and all the details.
Volunteer Series
Volunteer series events were also announced. The full list of events and series rules are available on the Volunteer page. The next event up is the Honduran Street Party Run on March 26th. The club will again be manning a water station on the full marathon course for GO! St. Louis. The GO! water station will be added as a volunteer series event this year and will earn each volunteer 2 series points.
2016 Club Kits
Club kits will again be ordered through Louis Garneau. 2016 kits will look similar to the 2015 kits with the front incorporating a mirror image of the city skyline from the back of the tops. The club will again subsidize a portion of the cost for the tri tops. New for this year, local company TriFlare will produce one-piece kits for both men and women. Order windows are open right now. Louis Garneau’s was extended and will now close on March 8th. Additional dates were just announced for anyone needing to try on sizes this weekend, March 5-6. Visit this page for all the details.
Annual Club Donation – DASA (Disabled Athlete Sports Association)
DASA representative Meghan Gottlieb was on hand to receive the Tri Club’s annual donation and to present a short introduction and summary of who DASA supports and what it does for their athletes. If you thought your training and racing equipment was expensive, you might think differently after you hear what theirs cost. (Click on the photos to enlarge)
Find out more about St. Louis’ paralympic sport club and how you can help this unique organization by visiting their website.
Big Shark Bicycle Company Moving to Richmond Heights
They’re moving, not closing. Mike Weiss came by to speak about the pending move (scheduled for mid-April) from the Loop, where Big Shark was born, to a Richmond Heights location at the old Hi-Fi-Fo-Fum building at the intersection of Big Bend and Wise Avenue. Mike was excited about the new location that will include a larger parking area for customers (and staff) and will continue to be a good start and ending point for shop rides, which the newly-installed trolley tracks in the Loop unfortunately hindered. The Loop store will remain open for business all the way up until the move.
Mike also reminded members about the free bike fit that is an included benefit of your club membership. If it’s been a while since your last bike fit or you made a recent change to your equipment and you’d like someone to look at your existing fit, schedule your fit through the “At Your Service” page on Big Shark’s website. You can also use the same form if you need to schedule service on your bike and need it back by a specific date.
Whispering Hills Pool Closed for March
The pool will be closed starting February 29th for approximately one month for resurfacing work.
Coordinator Updates
Icy Iron
The second cycle wrapped up on Sunday, Feb. 28th. Dianna will present Cycle 2 special awards at our March Meeting and put a tidy bow on Icy Iron 2015-2016. How many miles did we log as a group? Any guesses?
Mentoring
Carrie, Ryan, and TJ are busy organizing upcoming clinics for you. Next up is a Clothing clinic on March 6th at Big River Running in U-City, a Nutrition clinic on March 13th at Big River South City, a strength training clinic on March 20th, and a Gear and Equipment clinic on April 3rd at Big River West County. For those who can’t make it to the clinics, but still have questions about the topics, visit their AMA‘s (Ask Mentoring Anything) and leave your question. Rumor has it, a second episode of the Garmin clinic is in the works. Stay tuned to the Mentoring page to see all of the upcoming mentoring events.
Clothing
Kilts! Not to be confused with kits. Yes, kilts are available to order until March 16th. All the details and pics of the kilts are here.
Social
February social was ice skating in Kirkwood Park. March social will be a post-race gathering at Bar Louie following the Honduran Street Party Run on the 26th.
Group Training
Midweek rides (Wednesdays from Kirkwood Park, Thursdays from Forest Park)will gradually resume after Daylight Savings kicks in. Rides may start earlier in the evening initially and stick to shorter routes to maximize available daylight.
Raffles
The lucky winners took home free race entries (New Town Tri, Cottleville Run for the Helmet, Honduran Street Party Run) and club gear. It pays to stick around to the end!
Next Meeting
March 16th at the Heights, doors open at 6:30pm, meeting gets underway at 7 pm. Dr. Lytle from Precision Health Group will be on hand as the featured speaker. April’s featured speaker will be Samantha Murphy of Evolve Coaching Systems
