We’re getting a lot of enquiries from members and prospective members looking for info on the Clubs plans for the year ahead. Here’s is an outline of what SAUK is planning for 2008 season:

Saturday Cycling
The SAUK Saturday ride remains an institution, 8am Roehampton Gate in Richmond Park . Generally there’s the normal ride out to Surrey Hills / Windsor direction +/-80 round trip, conversational pace. As well as this, quite a few members are training for mid year Ironman races so soon there will be longer and slightly harder rides too. Also, for the big-dog cyclist out there, Marco will generally take out a long hard ride as well. New riders normally do laps in the Park. These laps are often mentored by a more experienced member who is looking to do a lighter session.

Sunday Running
These will still rotate between Richmond Park , Putney river runs and Wimbledon Common runs, keep an eye on the website for details. The runs generally cater for most abilities. Howard Houlston has also offered to give advice/training to those planning on doing a marathon / half marathon. This will also be pretty good pre-season base training for triathlons.

Swimming
We are trying to secure a new swimming session during the week. At the moment we have some great prospects. A notice will be circulated once this has been finalised.

In the summer months, SAUK usually has a strong presence at the open-water swim sessions at Heron Lake, albeit at the same time as the Sunday runs, often the swimmers will plan a post swim run – keep an eye on the Forum for details.

Track Sessions
We have been talking to Merton Council about the use of the Wimbledon Park Athletics Track for a mid week track session. Ideal for increasing speed, fitness and strength. We plan to start these sessions early to mid Feb most likely on Wednesday evenings. We’ll circulate details closer to the time. Initially members will need to pay the athletics track entry fee but if the sessions become popular enough, the Council has said we can take out exclusive use of the track for these sessions.

For those members wishing to do an 8k time trial instead of a track session, we are looking to work out a route starting and finishing at the track. Runners will be able to leave bags etc at the track. Watch this space.

Development
Some of the more experienced members have offered to give advice / coaching sessions to those new-to-triathlon or lesser-experienced members. This will be done on an ad-hoc basis and notice will be posted on the forum as and when they happen.

Pre-Season Training Camp
SAUK has had a tradition of a work-hard-play-hard pre-season long weekend getaway. We are looking at options at the moment for the 2008 version of this. Spain and Italy are topping the list at the moment, we’ll circulate details once it’s been finalised. If anyone has been on a great training camp feel free to offer suggestions to info@sauktri.org

General and Social
As usual we’ll still have a strong presence at the key races such as Eton, Windsor and London and in keeping with an SAUK party tradition, the mid-season and end of season parties will no doubt be something to look forward to.

Any queries or suggestions can be forwarded to the committee, contact details are on the website or use this one info@sauktri.org

Good luck and success to everyone for the 2008 season.

The Committee