• News
  • News Archive
  • RSS Feeds
• Mailing List Digest

Triathlon training Winter 2017 into Spring / Summer 2018

Triathlon training Winter 2017 into Spring / Summer 2018

The following news and email outlines the training racing options for multisport over the Winter 2017 into Spring and Summer 2018.

Following feedback from athletes this year, we have reviewed the squad system that has been in place for the last 7 years and decided to make some changes. In an effort to get more Serpies involved in training and racing for the club we are opening up the sessions to the whole club. There will be no need for sign up to the squad, to participate you just need to be a Serpentine club member.

Training Options

Swimming options are:

Monday: 8.30pm to 9.30pm at Seymour. Costs £40 per 3 months. The next block starts December 4^th and is open for sign up now via the link below.

http://www.entrycentral.com/event/103251

Monday: 7pm to 8.30pm at London Bridge. There is a waiting list in operation for this session as currently the lanes are full. Cost is £90 per 3 months. Note this is more expensive as we pay for external coaches for this session. Sign up to the waiting list via the Serpie website the link below.

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/training_swim_distance.html

Thursday: 8.00pm to 9.00pm at St Pancras. Cost is £2 per week up to the last session of the year 14^th December. After Xmas for 12 weeks we'll be running a specific course for technique improvement. This will run to the end of March and will cost £50. We ask that you sign up for the whole course. From April this will revert to a weekly sign up £5 per week. Sign up via the Serpie website link below.

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/training_swim_distance4.html

Cycling options are:

Wednesday: Serpie Spin at Seymour 6.15pm. £2 per session payable at the session. There is no need to book or sign up in advance. It's a turn up and pay session.

Sunday: long weekly endurance rides which take place throughout the year. Rotating start locations, the rides leave from Richmond Park for Surrey Hills, Greenwich for Kent and Hackney Town Hall for Essex. Rides are approx 100km. Currently there is one group per week,however if demand increases and more people attend, more groups will be formed aligning to different pace groups.

I know there is demand for a shorter ride option of around 50km. However, to make this happen we do need volunteers to lead these rides. In order to facilitate these rides the club has bought a Garmin which is currently pre loaded with some Serpie routes. Any route can be uploaded and followed too. I currently have a volunteer to lead the Surrey 50km option but need a volunteer for Kent and Essex. Please step forward if interested otherwise these rides will not happen.

Run training options are:

Tuesday: Paddington track. Pace running to increase speed suitable to all triathletes. Starts at 7pm.

Wednesday: Club runs leaving Seymour at 6.45pm or run after spin for a brick session.

Saturday: Hill training for strength at either Greenwich or Hampstead or the monthly handicap race.

Other training opportunities:

Cross Country racing other winter period from now until the end February. This is great for building strength over the Winter. We predominantly focus on the Met League matches and regularly get up to 100 runners for Serpentine at each race, with the overall women's races having 250+ runners and the men's race having over 500+ runners. These matches are a big part of the Winter calendar. More details here:

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/racing_xc.html

Lanzarote training camp in March. This is a great way to get a good dose of training with buddies and meet new training buddies in the sun. There are 2 coached swim sessions per day, 2 led bike sessions per day and 2 coached run sessions per day plus socials, so plenty of sessions to choose from to meet your goals. Booking is now open with limited spaces, so get in there before it's too late. More details here:

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/training_lanzarote.html

Training planning sessions Wednesday's at Seymour from mid to late January.

Transition sessions. Often called the 4^th discipline. We'll be running a series of sessions in April / May to help speed up your transitions.

Open water swimming. Once the water warms up in May we'll be offering a series of coached open water sessions at Shepperton Lake in Surrey.

Further details of all these additional sessions will be posted on the Serpie website as news stories as well as email and Facebook posts. If you want to make sure you receive info on these sessions make sure you are signed up to receive the 'other training and racing' emails via Serpiebase.

With regards to the cost of the above, the only additional payment is for swimming and cycle spin at Seymour. All other sessions are included in your Serpie membership.

Racing options

In addition to training, we hope that many of you will want to race for the club too. Below are the key races the club is focusing on in 2018.

London League event series

A series of 13 races in London and the South East. We compete against other London clubs for the right to be called the London League champions. There are 4 competitions:

• men's

• women's

• mixed (3 women / 3 men)

• mob match for club with the most participants

It doesn't matter how fast you are, you can still compete and score to help the club win one of the competitions above.

Full race list is on the London League page and on the TE website link below.

https://www.britishtriathlon.org/london/london-leagues/senior-series

Club championship races

There are 5 official club championship races as well as a virtual race throughout the year for the long distance championship. The list of 2018 race is below.

2018 Races

https://www.serpentine.org.uk/pages/race_clubchamps_tri.html

Some London League and 2018 club championship races are now open for entries and these are listed below.

29th April Kingfisher Aquathlon. London League race. www.kingfishertriathletes.co.uk/kingfisher-aquathlon.html

13th May Dragonslayer. London League and club champs duathlon race. Https://www.veloparkduathlon.com

15th July Thorpe Park Olympic. London League and club champs Olympic race http://www.triproject.co.uk

8th September The Vitruvian. Club champs middle distance race http://www.pacesetterevents.com/vitruvian-triathlon.php

National Triathlon Relays Nottingham August Bank Holiday weekend

Teams of 4 compete in an event I can only describe as the most fun you will ever have doing triathlon. The club pays the team entry fee and everyone is encouraged to stay over post racing to celebrate the day. Distances are relatively short too, 500m swim / 20km bike and 5km run.

Further details of how you can sign up will be published closer to the time.

Finally I've set up a club WhatsApp group for triathlon chat. If you would like to be added please drop me an email with your name and phone number to the email address below.

If you have any questions about any of the above, triathlon training or racing please do not hesitate to contact me at triathlon@serpentine.org.uk

Alex Elferink

Head Coach Serpentine Tri 

Submitted: 23 November 2017

Back