Good Evening Oxford Tri Family.
I hope that you have had a great week, it was lovely to see some of you at the quiz last night and I hope that you all had a great time. Its been lovely to have some more sun this week and I don’t know about you but the shorts have been unpacked for the year.
A big welcome to a number of members who have joined over the past week, we are so excited that you have joined us! Please do make sure to introduce yourself to members and coaches at any upcoming sessions. We are a friendly bunch.
I am looking forward to joining you all tomorrow morning for our first OWS of the year at Queensford Lake. A quick reminder that it is compulsory to have a tow float and brightly coloured swim cap in order to take part in these sessions.
Finally, a encouragement to join a number of us who are already volunteering at the Blenheim triathlon as the open water entrance and exit team. It looks set to be a great weekend and it would be amazing to give back to the sport alongside members of the club. More details below.
God Bless
Craig
Queensford OWS
A few things you should know before you attend one of our OWS sessions:
- OWS sessions are for club members only – for safety reasons, prospective members cannot attend.
- You should (as a minimum) be confident swimming at least 400m non-stop
- If you are new to OWS or lack confidence, please let the Safety Officers on the day know and they will buddy you up with a more experienced swimmer
- Tow floats and brightly coloured swim caps are mandatory, wet suits are optional (although advised)
- This is an uncoached session
- Sign-up is required
You can sign up for tomorrow here – https://www.oxfordtri.uk/sessions/open-water-swimming-4-2023-05-06/
Our OWS sessions take place at Queenford Lake. There is plenty of parking there.
We require 1 Safety Officer per session – if these are not in place then the session cannot go ahead. You can volunteer to be a Safety Officer by signing up via the Calendar (as with sign-up for our other sessions). If those attending OWS sessions regularly volunteer twice in the season, and those who swim occasionally volunteer once, then we will have enough cover. For this weekend Liam and Grace have kindly volunteered to get us started, we will need cover though for Wednesday so do be thinking if you can help out.
Being the Safety Officer isn’t as stressful as it sounds and there is more information about the role on our website found here.
Blenheim Triathlon Volunteering
Thanks to those who have signed up to volunteer at Blenheim Triathlon which takes place over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of June. We are asking you our club family to consider if you would be willing to volunteer at some point over the weekend. The organisers have asked if we would be willing to help at both the swim entry and exit over the course of the weekends racing. We will also have a stall which will give us the chance to recruit some new members.
If you feel like you would be able to give back to not just the club but wider sport of triathlon, please follow the link below to sign up, friends and family are also welcome. All expenses relating to travel will be covered and the club will benefit from having a number of free entries to next years event which will be offered first to those that help this year.
Volunteer Sign Up Link – volunteersignup.org/JPREE
Open Water Familiarisation and Drills
To kick off our open water swim season we are going to be running a three week familiarisation and drills sessions which will be open to non-members along with current members (our regular open water swims will remain during these dates). This will take place on the 13th, 20thand 27th of May. To make this happen we will need a number of people to volunteer to help as safety covers for the lake and then also a few to be part of the coached group as to assist coaches who will be delivering the sessions.
The sessions will focus on the following aspects:
- Acclimatisation
- Sighting and Navigation
- Swimming in a group
- Deep water starts
- Buoy Turns
- Mass Starts
- And much more
Sessions will be free for Oxford Tri Members however spaces will be limited. It will be £15 per session or £35 to sign up for all three for those who are not currently part of the club.
Entries for non-members can be found here and are now open. We will be opening entries for members very shortly (I know I said this last week…).
All Three Session (13th, 20th, 27th of May 2023) – https://www.oxfordtri.uk/product/open-water-familiarisation-and-skills-all-3-sessions-13th-27th-may-2023/
13th of May 2023 – https://www.oxfordtri.uk/product/open-water-familiarisation-and-skills-13th-may-2023/
20th of May 2023 – https://www.oxfordtri.uk/product/open-water-familiarisation-and-skills-20th-may-2023/
27th of May 2023 – https://www.oxfordtri.uk/product/open-water-familiarisation-and-skills-27th-may-2023/
Please do be thinking if you can volunteer or perhaps if you know someone who would love to come along and take part.
Training Calendar
See the official calendar for full info and sign up links.
Saturday 6th May: Social OWS – Queensford Lake @ 08:00
Tuesday 9th May: Member Lead Social Run – Headington Hill @ 19:00
Tuesday 9th May: Coached Swim – Thame @ 20:00
Wednesday 10th May: Social OWS – Queensford Lake @ 19:00
Wednesday 10th May: Coached Swim – Radley Pool @ 19:30
Thursday 11th May: Track Horspath Athletic Grounds @ 19:00
Friday 12th May: Strength and Conditioning at Home @ 07:15
Friday 12th May: Coached Swim Lanes Kidlington Pool @ 19:00