Hi Everyone
Last week of January coming now already, the days are slowly getting longer again, we’ve got this 2021!
Great work from the Club members racing on Wednesday and dominating the top of the leaderboard in virtual Yorkshire in Watopia against local rivals Leighton Buzzard and Swindon in our latest SLOB race – apart from the odd wifi and bluetooth dropout there’s much fewer mechanicals (and wrong turns!) than our usual winter duathlons. Less travel too, rumour has it that the next race on 10 February is set to go international with a visit to NYC!
Coming up tomorrow morning we have the next winter vBaRTT – 20km virtual bike followed by 5k run off the bike on your local course. Record your times and check your position in the leaderboard and track your progress over the season.
There do seem to be some signs of progress as vaccinations are now progressing well, and it’s been great talking to fellow Club members working in the healthcare sector and who’ve now had their Covid jabs. (And on a personal note, my Mum!)
Having said that, it’s obviously a question of months, not weeks, before restrictions ease. Rest assured the Club and Coaches are working in the background to plan for a return to sessions when that is safe. In particular we are laying the ground for open water swimming sessions and paying any up front costs now (licences, water testing arrangements, lifeguard certificates maintenance etc) so that none of this holds us up once the water is warm enough. Based on last year, this seems the activity we will be able to run with the most certainty in 2021, and we know how much club members appreciate the sessions at Dorchester SC, and so it seems a good decision to invest modest amounts now at risk to ensure this is all going to be good go.
Speaking of which, thanks everyone again for your trust and renewal ££ – we are now up to almost 100 members which is brilliant and well ahead of expectations for this point in the year. The reserves of membership fees paid in advance gives us the ability in cashflow terms to make firm bookings with confidence, and that there is going to be demand for sessions we book and the coaching team arrange volunteers for.
Thanks also to those of you who wrote with suggestions for how we can best express our thanks to our Club members who are NHS and other key worker members. The committee will certainly consider these as we try to recognise the extraordinary sacrifices made by some of our Club members in our communities.
Have a great week everyone, stay active and stay safe!
Training Calendar
See the official calendar for full info and sign up links. Sign up is now compulsory for all sessions please, although there’s no limits capacity constraints for the numbers.
Saturday 23 January: Winter vBaRTT 9:00
Sunday 24 January: Virtual rides 9:00
Monday 25 January: Static bike from home 19:30
Tuesday 26 January: Online yoga for triathletes 18:45
Thursday 28 January: Online Strength & Conditioning 19:00
Friday 29 January: Turbo from home 18:45
Happy training!
Any questions, as ever just ping me.
Nick Wenban-Smith – chair@oxfordtri.co.uk