IMPORTANT NOTES

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Dennis Tan

The Presidential Platform

Hello team! 

The 2020-21 season is officially finished. We had a very successful wind up and AGM, thank you to everybody who attended. It was also fantastic to attend the TWA Annual Awards with some of our club members being recognised for their efforts. It is awesome to see each training session becoming more and more popular with so many new and old faces showing up. This wonderful club we have is thanks to each one of you, the energy you bring to each training session and all the activities we do. I have no doubt that in the 2021/22 season we will continue to see this good vibe growing and evolving.

Here are the latest updates: 

• Gym memberships - We have gym memberships available for club members. $160 AUD for a whole year is such a bargain that you definitely don't want to miss out on this. Please email me if you are interested in grabbing one. 

• The AGM. Thank you Phil and Amanda for hosting us at their home on Saturday 22 May. Click here to download the minutes and here to read the president's report. 

• Thank you Oggi and Jonney. We had a couple of successful weeks with Jonney and Oggi leading the running sessions while Steve was having a well-deserved break. Thank you guys for the great running sessions. 

• Tuesday cycling at Kings Park. We are changing to Kings Park, however still meet at UWA at 5.30am to head in there together.

• Triathlon Australia Memberships. Triathlon Australia has transitioned to a new membership system, Go Membership. This means that your membership has not been automatically renewed as in previous years. Make sure to renew your membership to continue enjoying all its benefits. More information here. 

I'm looking forward to another successful season. Let's layer up and keep the good training going!

Gaby Villa 
UWA Triathlon Club President

Sports nutrition tip - Brought to you by  

Can nutrition improve your sleep? 

Obtaining a healthy sleep is important for both physical and mental health, improving productivity and overall quality of life. Lack of sleep can have significant effects on performance as well as negatively affect mood, cognition, pain perception, immunity and inflammation. While research is emerging and somewhat inconclusive, several practical recommendations regarding nutrition and sleep are suggested.

Practices that improve sleep:

• High glycaemic index foods consumed more than 1 hour before bedtime
• Diets high in carbohydrate 
• Diets high in protein
• Small doses of tryptophan
• Melatonin

Practices that disturb sleep: 

• Diets high in fat
• Caloric restriction
• Deficiencies in iron, zinc and magnesium

Other good sleep hygiene practices include: Optimise your sleep schedule, follow a night routine and keep it consistent, unplug from electronics 30-60 min before bedtime and cut down on caffeine in the afternoon and evening. 

Do you have any nutrition questions... Send them through! gaby@intenseatfit.com 

Follow @Intenseatfit for more triathlon nutrition advice 

2021/22 Memberships are open

Thank you to all of our members and community for your feedback over the past few years. We are so pleased to be able to diversify our national membership offerings after hearing what you had to say. Some of the changes include:

• New membership categories with varying levels of cover to better suit your individual triathlon lifestyle
• A new way for coaches, technical officials and professional athletes to add their status to their membership
• A new membership portal that is easier to use

Have a read at Triathlon Australia's website, and sign up for season 2021/22 today!

2022 Busselton Festival of Triathlon

We are excited to announce that the 2022 Busselton Festival of Triathlon is scheduled to take place from Friday 29 April - Sunday 1 May 2022.

The 2021 event recently held was the last IRONMAN 70.3 Busselton event for Triathlon WA. We would like to thank IRONMAN for our partnership over the last 10 plus years.

The State Long Course Championships will still continue to form the marquee event of the Busselton Festival of Triathlon in future years, and we will provide more details about the event, entries opening and supporting events in the weeks to come.

Once again, on behalf of TWA, we thank IRONMAN and all the participants who have taken part in this iconic WA event.

All about... Tommaso Puccini!

1.   Tell us about yourself?

 I’m a 17 year old high school student, I’m planning to study Medicine at either UWA or Curtin next year. In my free time, I’m an avid movie watcher, and I consider myself somewhat of a video game expert. 

2.    How did you start in triathlon and when did you join the club? 

I started in triathlon in 2017 and have been with UWA since the beginning. I decided to switch from swimming as I’d always been good at running and wasn’t swimming very well at the time.

3.    What do you enjoy most about the sport? 

The friendships I’ve made with like minded people, both through competition and with everyone in the club. These are people I feel I can genuinely relate to, and who understand and appreciate my goals and way of life. It’s very special.

4.    Favourite leg and why?
Definitely the run, it’s my strongest leg and I feel like so much of the race is decided in the run, it’s definitely the most exciting part of a race.

5.    Best triathlon tip?

Make a checklist before a race for all your gear! I can’t count how many times I’ve rocked up to a race and realised i’ve forgotten something; I’ve even forgotten my triathlon suit on one occasion

6. What’s your next goal? 

To place top 5 at the 16-19 national series final in Devonport 2022!

2020/21 Club Races

All now completed! Keep an eye out for our 2021/22 Club Races once the new season calendar is announced. 

Triathlon Western Australia Annual Awards

Triathlon WA Annual Awards were held on Sunday 30th May at Public House in Perth. Congratulations to our successful club members. 

• Male Triathlete of the Year - 1st Jonney Sammut, 2nd Nick Thompson
• Female Triathlete of the Year - 1st Felicity Sheedy-Ryan
• Female Triathlete of the Year 12-13 years - 1st Rebecca Puccini
• Female Triathlete of the Year 35-39 years - 2nd Alexandra Meek 
• Long Course Championships 
  • Male Open - 2nd Nick Thompson, 3rd Jonney Sammut 
  • Female Open - 1st Felicity Sheedy-Ryan 
  • Female 35-39 - 1st Alexandra Meek 
  • Male 25-29 - 3rd Hamish Delorenzo

Latest race reports

Another year, another Busselton Festival of Triathlon!  by Daniel Sly
 

After an injury related hiatus last October, I was excited to get back and test myself in my 5th Busso Half Ironman.  Alex and I had a solid block of training in the lead up, enjoying both the running and riding sessions with Steve chasing us around Nedlands and the Hills on the scooter!  Everything had gone reasonably well in the lead up, with one of our more consistent blocks of running in particular, given which, we were both eyeing off the possibility of 70.3 PBs.  

In the weeks leading up, Alex was monitoring the weather, which was forecast to be cooperative, then less so, then awful, before finally settling on pretty bloody promising for a good race.  Taper and carb load time came and went, with the usual mix of not feeling as spritely as hoped, and the consumption of a metric shitload of bread, pasta and rice.  My watch bullied me in the last week, consistently telling me I was "Unproductive", or "Detraining".  Oh well, I'll console myself with another Clif bar.  

Come race day, everything looked pretty good.  We hitched a ride into Busso with our Airbnb host and setup the bikes before heading to the club tent for some pre-race chatter.  A little too relaxed, I ended up needing to have a fairly rushed warm-up before getting into the starting corrals towards the back of my wave.  This proved not bad for my confidence, as I spent the swim consistently catching and passing other orange caps.  My swimming has been going really well this season and I felt pretty strong.  I know others found it a bit choppy but I thought all in all it was pretty good.  Coming out of the swim I had a peek at my watch and saw ~30 minutes.  Happy chappy!

Onto the bike.  I had a slightly slowish transition, but was soon out and into a comfortable rhythm, whilst wondering how long it would be before all the quicker cyclists would gobble me up.  Mentally, I'd prepared for a mild head wind out, and then mild tail wind home on each lap, and through lap 1, this was all good - I'd kept a reasonable, consistent pace that felt maintainable.  Through the first half of lap two, I kept pushing, whilst looking forward to turning and getting blown back to transition.  I struggled to keep my power up and by half way back, it became apparent that the wind had turned early, and it ended up being a fair old grind back into Busselton.  The bike leg was about 2:26, which was a little slower than I'd hoped, but in the ball park of where I expected.  I think the bike is my biggest opportunity for further progress, with both physiological and technological improvements possible - disc wheel here we come.

Hitting the run it was great to see a bunch of UWA friends and family shouting support - even if I wasn't quite as convinced that I was looking strong as they purported!  Steve shortly after provided a welcome reminder that I was onto the run 3 hours from the gun, and that I just needed to focus on pushing a solid but not suicidal pace.  Nick and Jonney came by me not long after on their way to the podium - it was awesome to see them smash it out of the park on their first crack.  In the meantime I continued on my merry way and through 2 laps was pretty happy - I was fading surely, but only very slowly to this point.  Halfway through lap 3, the fade was beginning to accelerate and I began to regret having accidentally thrown away my last full gel, rather than my rubbish.  However, with 3kms to go it was time to just get my head down and battle through.  As with everyone, I found it slightly rude that 21.1km came and went on my watch with the best part of a kilometer to go, but even with the extra distance it was still comfortably my best run in a 70.3 with about 1:36.

Overall, I was super happy to have executed the race in line with my expectations.  My goal had been to go under 4:40, with the thought that sub 4:30 would be a slight possibility if I had a great day.  Without the slightly long run, I would have given the latter a nudge which I feel was a good reflection of my current fitness.  My 4:36ish was a solid 10 minutes quicker than my previous PB, so an excellent outcome.  Once done, I focussed on drinking as much iced coffee and coke as humanly possible, and catching up with all the other UWAers as they rolled into the finish.  

I was very proud to see Alex run herself onto the podium in her age group with a PB as well - great reward for her efforts!  Training (especially early morning) is extra hard work for her as she has to get me moving as well!  

An excellent day was capped off with dinner and a few brews at Shelter Brewing - definitely recommended!  Congratulations to all other UWA members and friends who raced.  It was great to see everyone out there, and training in the months leading up.  Massive thanks to everyone else from the club spectating, cheering and keeping us motivated.  

Photo credit - Rebecca Pucchini

New Alberto Puccini - Run Alberto Run Oggi Zurzolo - Expect the unexpected Jonney Sammut & Nick Thompson - Manama Jeff Older Hamish Delorenzo - Busselton 70.3 Alberto Puccini - Bunbury Olympic Distance Tony Smith - Great Southern Ultra Challenge Gaby Villa - 70.3 Los Cabos 2019 Alison Smith - ITU Lausanne 2019 Justin Ghosh - 70.3 Philippines Rahul Jegatheva - Aquathlon Nationals All race reports

Tony Smith

Have your own race report to share? See the website for some instructions on how to send it through.

HELPFUL PLACES TO FIND INFORMATION

** See official UWATC Facebook page for most up to date information

** See swimming Facebook page for swimming specific info

** See the UWATC website for training and payment information and season calendar

** See Facegroup group 'Who wants to go (for a swim/ride/run)' for uncoached/informal group sessions

** See UWATC Strava group to check what training everyone is up to

** Any queries/feedback, message via the official Facebook page or email committee@uwatriathlonclub.com.au