The following newsletter went out to all registered 226 Tri 2017 competitors today
Cotswold226 newsletter
Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all well and settling into this year’s training plans nicely ?
We’re possible too far into the January to say happy new year, but I’ll say it anyway as this its our first 226 mail of 2017, so happy new year to you all 🙂
In this email, I’ll cover the following :
- Familiarisation day
- Training Plan
- Lake Swimming
- Race Numbers
- Race Information
- Anything you want to see at the race
- 226Wknd Entries
Familiarisation day – 28th May 2017
On 28th May we’ll be holding our free of charge Course Familiarisation day down at the lake.
This is basically a day for yourselves as competitors, and friends and family if they wish, to come down to the lake and have a guided lap of the Swim, Bike and Run courses.
It’s a great chance for you all to come down and see the courses away from race weekend in a more relaxed environment, and a nice chance to meet the team to ask questions and meet other competitors too.
The emphasis on the day is leisurely paced, so it’s suitable for absolutely all athletes and the pace is very gentle so that no one gets left behind (We tend to average around 13-15mph on the bike and 9-11min miles on the run with lots of regrouping stops)
The morning starts off with a guided lap of the Swim Course by our resident Swim Coach Jason Tait from South West Swim at 08:30, who’ll be there to also field any questions people might have about open water Swimming as well as taking everyone around the lap. This is done in sections and everyone has a chance to catch up. We’ll provide the water safety cover too, so there’ll be kayakers incase anyone needs them.
After the swim, we’ll meet up at 10am, before heading out on the bike. Like the Swim, we’ll have a few regrouping stops to point out where the Aid stations are etc. We’ll also have a coffee stop in Sherston, which is around the half way mark
Once everyone’s back in from the bike, we’ll have a 20-30min break to answer any questions and for everyone to get changed before heading out for a lap of the run course.
On race day, the Swim will be 2 laps, the Bike is 2 laps and the run course is 5, but we’ll only cover a single lap of each on the familiarisation day just to get a taste of the event itself (so 1.2m Swim, 56mile Bike and 5.2 Mile run)
It’s always a nice fun day, and from our side, it’s a great chance to meet some of the new competitors outside of the craziness of race weekend when everyone invariably has their race faces on.
The Bike, and run are completely free of charge (other than a couple of quid in your pocket for the coffee stop), but if you wanted to swim too, the lake guys will ask for £5 day membership that you can pay on the gate. Parking is free all day there for everyone regardless of whether you’re swimming or not, so you could always hang around and see what else is in the area once you’re done Swimming, Cycling and Running
Within the next couple of months, we’ll send out a link to an online booking form to get signed up. It sounds very formal, but in reality, it’s just so we can get a handle of numbers and keep direct communication with those that we know are coming, and like I said above, friends and family are welcome to come along too
Training Pack
It’s come to our attention that possibly a dozen of you or so did not get the automated mail with the 226 Specific training plan link on it, and I’m sorry for that. You can find our training plan in a PDF format from our resident coach here – 226 training Plan
If you need any clarification on anything within the plan, please just ask myself or Justin, who’s details are on the plan. We’re here to help
Lake Swimming
In my mind, you’d have to be an absolute nutter to want to swim in the lake this time of year, but people regularly do, and the Cotswold OW swimming group are down there most days swimming, some without wetsuits, even when they have to break the ice to get in !
Waterland Outdoor Pursuits (lake32), where we hold our races, have all year round swimming, so if you wanted to come down and swim in the lake we race in, you can join up for the year as a member and swim everyday before 10am and a couple of evenings (it’s a boating lake outside those times) or they have a day membership of £5 payable on the gate.
The lake is pretty shallow, so the temperature does warm up from the current icy conditions pretty quickly, so if you’re interested, please visit http://www.ukwatersports.co.uk/triathlon_training.htm for more info
Race Numbers
Around 5 weeks out from the race, when all the entries are in and online entry is closed, we’ll be sending out an email to all competitors asking them if they want to choose a specific race number. I’ve had a few requests for these already, but please can I ask that you all wait until this email comes out, as specific numbers are on a first come first served basis, and it’s not fair on everyone else to start dishing them out just yet
Race Info
Over the next couple of months, we’ll finalise the race info pack for you all, which will contain absolutely everything you could possibly need to know about the race and race weekend plans – it’s a long read, but the info in there is important, so I’d ask that you do all take the time to print it off and read through it. I, personally, do my best reading on the toilet, so there’s a great example of where you can keep your copy for best absorbing 🙂
In the meantime, please see last year’s race pack, which is largely an identical race to this years with the exception of two minor things – 1) The finish will be next to the lake as per our middle distance races rather than in the adjacent field, and 2) The run course will have a slight tweak to take the dog leg section out, which only accounts for around 400m of the lap
You can find a link to last year’s race pack PDF for your info here – Race Info Pack 2016
Anything you want to see at the race
This is a race for you guys, the competitors, so if there’s anything you like us to provide that perhaps we haven’t in previous years, or things you think would make a big difference to your day, now is the time to ask or suggest.
We’re early enough in the planning stages to still be able to add things in, so please just ask or suggest if you think there’s anything at all that would make your day better, or the day of your supporters better.
226Wknd Entries
On the same weekend as the 226 tri itself, we are running our 226Wknd Events, which are a Saturday pm 1.9/3.8km Swim, and then a Sunday 90/180km Tri Rules Sportive with brick. The Sunday session is run on the course at the same time as the 226Tri itself, and shares the same aid stations, support team and drafting rules. The 226 Tri and 226Wknd competitors are differentiated by red or black race numbers, but in every other form are identical.
If you have friends or family down for the weekend that fancy a bit of training or a challenge, the 226 Weekend is now open for entries.
Also, the 226 tri still has slots left too if you know of anyone else that fancies going long this year.
Entries for all events are open at www.113events.com
That’s about it from me for now. We’ll keep the emails coming out as more info is available
We’re here to help, so if there’s anything we can do to help, or you need from us, please just ask
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci, Will and Higgsy from the 226 team
graeme@113events.com
@cotswold226
facebook.com/cotswold226
#Cotswold226