MSC Latest News - December 2006

The season is flying by with Christmas only a matter of weeks away. Many athletes have raced solidly for three months or more already and the second half of December is always a good time to back off the intensity and resort back to some aerobic base training over those last few weeks of the year. Enjoy the down time from your training schedule's and refocus for the second half of the season.

Remember the 5 P's - Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance so think about the upcoming events and ways to be your best in the first part of the new year. Don't forget to include family and loved ones in on your goals and plans for 2007 Merry Xmas and safe new year Nick

MSC Squad results

Northern Territory Master Championships
21-29 October

Three of the MSC squad raced at these masters games. Jan and Bardie making a big trip up from Noosa and Local MSC squad member Adrienne. They blitzed their respective events and as you will see from results below took home a great haul across the board well done girls!

Adrienne Willing 30-34 female

Swimming - Gold in 50m free, 100m free, 200m free, 50m fly. Silver in 400m free

5km X-Country run - Gold

Cycling Crit - Silver

Triathlon - Gold
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Jan Croft 60-64 female

Swimming - Gold in 800m free and 50m fly, Silver in 200m IM, 400m free, Bronze in 200m free

Cycling Road Race - Gold

Triathlon - Gold
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Bardie Gruber 55-59 female

Duathlon - Silver

Triathlon - Gold
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TWC Long Course Canberra
19th November
(4/120/30)

Allan Moustoukas - 7.41.08 for 10th in male 45-49
Vanessa Williams - 8.23.22 for 11th in female 30-34
Peter Brown - 9.29.49 - male 50-54

Ironman Western Australia
3rd December

David Chick - 9.32
Peter Seldon - 12.45
Emma Griffiths - 14.09 - first IM

Bribie Island Race two
3rd December

Tom Mewing 1.30.19
Jason Smith 1.30.34
Jess Fleming 1.33.18 - 1st in 30-34
Nicola Gregory 1.33.23 - 2nd in 30-34
David Coulter 1.41.55 - 3rd in 60-64
Annie Jennings 1.55.30 - 3rd in 50-54
Catherine Spiteri 1.55.30

Upcoming Shepparton Half Ironman
10th December
Justin Hunter

Allez Sport Athlete of the month

Our MSC / Allez Sport Athlete of the month award has been awarded to Nicola Gregory. Nicola recently raced for the first time in the National Series event at Nowra finishing 3rd in the female 30-34. A great start for the season and some points on the board now to work towards the ambition of qualifying for the World Champs. Well done Nicola, you are on your way!. Nicola wins a $50 voucher courtesy of David Chick from Allez Sport in Mooloolaba.

Ten things to work on in the water

As technical as the sport of swimming can be, it is tough to narrow down the answer to the often-asked question, "what should I concentrate on?" or what should the swim stroke look like. Here is a general "top ten" list of steps to improving your swim for a triathlon. These aren't necessarily in any order, but should go a long way in helping you achieve your goals, whether you are a beginner or trying to go pro.

1. Hand Entry. Slice your hand into the water right about at your goggle line, and drive it forward. Many swimmers attempt to get as much "air time" as possible by reaching the hand out before entering into the water, but it is actually more efficient to go through the water with your hand as you
rotate from one side to the other.

2. Head Position. Keep looking straight down when swimming freestyle. It's important to keep your head down with only a small part of the back of your head out of the water. Also, as you rotate through the water, try not to move your head with the rest of your body rotation.

3. Pull. In freestyle, your hands should pull all the way back past your hips. The last part of the stroke before recovery (arms coming out of the water) should be an acceleration behind you, and not up out of the water.

4. Kick. Try minimizing your kick as you train for swimming. Most people will kick extra hard to make up for lack of balance in the water. Minimizing your kick will allow you to improve your balance, as well as conserve energy.

5. Training Intensity. The best way to measure your training intensity is to count your heart rate immediately after each swim. You can estimate your heart rate by counting your pulse rate for six seconds immediately after
each swim. Add a zero to this count, and you will have your approximate exercise heart rate per minute.

6. Master's Swimming. Move to a slower lane to work on stroke improvement. If you belong to a masters team, don't feel that you always need to keep up with your lane mates at every workout. Masters teams typically have many
people with many different swimming goals. It's important to do your own thing! Remember that technique comes before all else and if this means swallowing a little pride to make improvements, just think of how much faster you will be for this in the long run.

7. Habit: Keep your arm from crossing over. One of the most common bad habits I see in swimmers is the arm crossing over to the opposite side on the pull. Breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing over, breathing on your left side results in your right arm crossing. Often times this happens when one goes to breath, but sometimes it's caused just from over-rotating. To avoid this, make sure your head isn't moving with the rest of your body, and try to pull more in a straight line (still bending the elbow) and ending the pull on the same side you started (i.e. right hand slices into the water, pulls back and hand ends up near right hip).

8. Keep the Feel. If swimming is your toughest sport, it is important to "keep the feel" for the water, and get in the water at least 3 days a week. This way, your body maintains its kinesthetic awareness of being balanced in
water.

9. Work Those Lungs. Mix in some hypoxic training sets into your workouts. For example, do a set of 4x100's breathing every 3-5-7-9 strokes by 25, with 15 seconds rest in between each 100. Your lungs will thank you for it towards the end of the swim part of your race!

10. Work Your Weakness. In the sport of triathlon, most coaches agree that you should spend the most time working on your weakest of the three sports. For many this will be swimming! Within swimming, the same concept applies.
Spend the most time working on the weakest part of your stroke. If balancing on your side is an issue, do some kicking drills on your side. If moving your head is a problem, focus on head position most of the time. Whatever it is, you will gain the most by spending your pool time improving