Hello Gators, We may be approaching a long winter, but that’s not going to slow us down. We have lots planned to get you through the next few months starting with next Wednesday’s members meeting (7pm-8:30pm) and continuing with our “Building a Training Plan” seminar led by Danny Friend on Saturday, December 20, 7:15am-8:30am. And since the Gator Fitness Challenge has been a good success, we’re going to have GFC #2 starting in January… Watch for an invite to sign up coming soon!!! Also, we will not have many weekend accomplishments to promote for the remainder of the year, so we’d like your input on your major endurance sports accomplishment for the year… Could be anything from a first time finish of a triathlon to your longest distance race ever completed to a PR to completing a bucket list race to getting through the year healthy to a major training breakthrough or anything else that your proud of… Reply back with your accomplishment and we’ll publish them in our end of year newsletter on December 31. We look forward to hearing from you! Finally, a final reminder to complete the 2015 Gators Race Planning Survey... Results will be shared at next week’s meeting, so if you’d like to be included and have not yet responded, please reply today!... https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XXGMR3V This week's topics include...Accomplishments... At the beach in December!!! And what did you accomplish this year?Mark Your Calendars... Members Meeting (Wed, 12/17), Training Plan Seminar (Sat, 12/20), and RefigaGator Open Water Swim (Thurs, 1/1)!!About a Gator... IRONMAN in Training!!Master Your Swimming… Interested in checking out our Gators Masters Swim Team in competition??? Or, better yet, competing with them?!?!Recommended Website… You’ll go down in history!!! Accomplishments: Nothing like the beach in December (and remember to reply with your #1 2014 accomplishment for publication on December 31)… Rehobeth Beach Marathon (Rehobeth Beach, DE): Maureen Pinkerton not only completed the event, but also set a new marathon PR by something like 40 minutes!... Wow!... Way to go, Maureen!Key West Triathlon (Key West, FL):Olympic Distance: Dave Marine set the pace with one of the fastest swims in the event. Dave also finished in the top 40% of his age group and the top 30% overall despite increasing the degree of difficulty by completing the 10K run in socks (I can’t wait to get the rest of the story!)… That’s quite a feet, Dave, way to toe!Sprint Distance: Despite running only a 5K, both Gregg Heimer and Jeff Spillane chose to go the easier route as they actually wore shoes…Gregg Heimer had an outstanding race finishing in the top 40% of his age group as well as the top 20% overall… Awesome, Gregg!Jeff Spillane might have been completing his first triathlon and also had a great race finishing in the top 40% overall… Nice effort, Jeff! Mark Your Calendars: Weekly Workouts: Remaining workouts for this week include...Saturday, 12/13, 7:15am-9:30am: Tri Club with Don M7:15am-7:45am: Swim7:45am-9:00am: Bike trainers on the Y indoor pool deck… If anyone that missed our recent Lactate Threshold Heart Rate Test on the bike would like to complete it during this session, please let me know when you arrive.9:05am-9:25am: Run9:25am-9:30am: Stretch Upcoming Events:Wednesday, December 17, 7pm-8:30pm: Member's Meeting, Spring-Valley YMCA, Corporate Conference RoomSaturday, December 20, 7:15am-8:30am: Seminar – “Building a Training Plan” (presented by Danny Friend)Thursday, January 1: 2nd Annual RefrigaGator OWS... More coming later on this for any brave/nutty souls that are interested! About A Gator – Adrienne Foster: Yo Adrienne!… This week meet Adrienne as she discusses her rocky start with swimming as well as other details about her first year as a triathlete! Master Your Swimming: Our Masters Swim Team’s race season is underway and includes a meet this Sunday, December 14 at Ursinus College. If you have some time, you might want to stop by that morning and check them out… If you think they are fast at the Y, you haven’t seen anything yet. Also, they are competing in a meet in Phoenixville on January 18 and have invited us to participate if anyone is interested. Distances range from 25 meters to 500 or 1,000 meters. Swim speed isn’t an issue as seedings are done based on your expected swim time (down to around 2:00/100). It’s a good opportunity to challenge yourself! Let me know if you are interested and I’ll get you in touch with Gary Sangmeister, the Gators Masters Swim leader. Recommended Website: If you are not already aware of it, Athlinks (www.athlinks.com) is a pretty cool website that logs results for thousands if not millions of race participants automatically. It includes races of all shapes and sizes including triathlons, running races, etc. You can sign up for a free account and then “claim” all of your races. It keeps track of your PR for various race lengths and even allows you to compare yourself to other similar athletes. Check it out! Go Gators! Don M