Weekly Update 7 May 2021

Hi Everyone

I was really looking forward to some open water swimming tomorrow morning, but the lake temperature has stubbornly stayed at 12.5 degrees this week with all the cool weather and rain, which is a bit at my limit even with a wetsuit on. However really great to see 12 hardy souls signed up – still space for 15 more! We’re taking a closer look at the sport’s governing body rules and our own safety and risk assessments to see whether we’ll allow non wet suit swims too, so watch this space.

There’s a lot of sessions taking place next week with even more the week to follow now that we can get back into the pools with old favourite sessions at Radley and Blackbird Leys coming back on stream. A lot of effort goes into organising these sessions, most of which are volunteer led and coached. So a couple of quick and easy requests from me please. Firstly to try out the sessions you’ve never been to before; there’s so much benefit from yoga, strength & conditioning and HIITs sessions to improve your all round flexibility, strength those all-important core muscles and prevent injury. Secondly to be fair as the pool sessions open up as there are not too many spaces compared to the total number of Club members, due to current restrictions on venues and opening hours combined with social distancing rules.

For those with the need to get the competitive juices going there is the next event in our series of virtual races next Friday with a virtual duathlon competition with our friendly local rivals Swindon and Leighton Buzzard tri clubs – it’s all about participation and having fun and so even if you’re not (yet) at race weight or fitness it’s a great way to put a bit of an edge into a session plus get that essential brick training in too.

At the May committee meeting this week we did discuss whether we should expand the Sunday member-led rides to more than six riders, since in theory at least we could go up to 15 or even higher. For the time being we’re sticking to the rule of six, but we’ll keep that under review. If there are lots of riders wishing to go out on club rides as the weather continues to get warmer then we’ll review that of course but in the mean time there’s no reason why Club members can’t form informal social groups to follow the same routes a few minutes apart if official ride slots all fill up. We’ll continue to review this in light of demand, Covid numbers and official advice and best practices.

Also starting next week we’re very pleased to launch our Oxford Tri training bingo to raise funds for our local heroes in the Oxford Hospitals Charity. Thanks very much Jon for organising!

Welcome (and welcome back!) to all our new members this week!

Don’t forget to check our updated Covid guidance here.

Finally, have a great weekend, train hard and stay safe everyone!

Any questions, as ever just ping me.

Nick Wenban-Smith – chair@oxfordtri.co.uk


Training Calendar

See the official calendar for full info and sign up links. Sign up is now compulsory for all sessions please.

Saturday 8 May: Open Water Swimming @ Dorchester Sailing Club 07:45

Sunday 9 May: Sunday Club Rides 9:00, 9:15 and 10:30 (10:30 not yet on the sign up but it will be!)

Monday 10 May: Static Bike 18:30

Tuesday 11 May: Flex and HIITS 07:15

Tuesday 11 May: Yoga for Triathletes 18:30

Wednesday 12 May: Flex and HIITS 18:00

Thursday 13 May: Strength & Conditioning 19:00

Thursday 13 May: Track 19:00

Friday 14 May: Turbo from home 18:45

Friday 14 May: SLOB duathlon virtual race!

Saturday 15 May: Open Water Swim @ Dorchester Lake 07:45

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