This week marks the beginning of Build Week 1.  If you’re not really sure what that means, we work off a 3-week periodization in our programs (2 weeks on, 1 week recovery).  It’s always good to know where you are in this cycle, so that you can incorporate the appropriate intensity and manage the work load.  It’s probably also a good time to remind ourselves of the training zones.  There’s a reason your programs have a T# assigned to each activity, so it’s important you follow this.  There’s no point training too hard during a set when you should be recovering, or going too easy and not seeing any gains.  And heaven forbid you fall into the ever-elusive trap of just training in the grey zone!  You know the one……loads of time put in, loads of kms pushed out, just keep ticking along…….but hey? Where’s my results?!?!?  You need the peaks and troughs for adaptation to occur.  So don’t dismiss this, don’t skip over the training zones article below.  Read it.  Understanding it.  And ask questions!  This week also sees the changeover in Training Phases.  During the month of July, we continue through our endurance-based training, continuing to concentrate on technique, whilst now also building strength. Time Trials continue during this month and are there to assist us (and you!) to monitor your training progress and improvements. Ollie will be going over this at our Team Meeting this week, so we hope to see as many of you there as possible.  We’ll be meeting at 6pm for the run session, which will be held along our familiar Elwood Foreshore and then head upstairs at Elwood Sailing Club for our meeting at 7:15pm.  I will be putting an order in for some pizzas to arrive at 7pm, so if you’d like a quick bite after running, be sure to RSVP in the FB event so I know how many to order!  We’ll be asking for a $5 contribution if you’d like to be part of snacks, otherwise, feel free to bring something easy you can eat during the meeting.  On that, it’d be great if you could come along having thought about your goals for the season.  When we break into smaller groups, you’ll have a chance to work with like-minded athletes to nut-out a plan for your season (whilst gaining valuable peer input), so having done some prep work will go a long way to you being able to put pen to paper.  You don’t have to have all the answers – just an idea of what you’d like to achieve.  We’ll help with the rest!  And to inspire you even more, we have a fantastic athlete panel to share their insights, we’ll give you some goal-setting strategies and then match you up with the best coach to support your plan.  Sound fun?  Then make sure you’re there! 

This edition also includes two fantastic pieces from our recently qualified Kona athletes!!!  Nath’s race report gives you incredible insight into……everything! (When you see it you’ll know what I mean!).  But basically beginning to end, he shares his journey of IM Cairns and achieving his goal.  Gaz has taken some time to pen Ironmania III (you HAVE to go back and read the first two at some point), this time focusing on what it takes just to get yourself out the door!  We all know how hard that first step is, and it’s great to hear (read) it from someone else.  We’re all in the same boat, afterall!

Grumble of the week….(this is NOT a thing and I promise it will NOT become a thing….but it just happened again this week!)….comes from our Steph-bassador!  Make sure you read her blog to see why Steph is no longer smiling :) And if you’re wondering (or slightly impressed!!!), why this NL came out a day early this week (~high-five to my efficiency~), it’s really because the return of DOUBLE DAYS starts tomorrow and we didn’t want you to miss out on the reminder!  Get yourself along to APL tomorrow morning, I hear it’s going to be a balmy 4c……perfect weather for running!  Especially all the Run Melb crew….get it done!

Oh…and the best for last!  Guess where we are riding this weekend?!?!?!?  I really want to make you scroll down to find out…..but it’s pretty exciting…….I want to share…….ah nup…..see below for details.  But as it will be my birthday ride, I expect to see lots of happy faces out there….oh and cake….lots and lots of cake!

Enough ramblings…..Read On my pretties…..R E A D    O N :)