Build Week #1: Draw the Bow

A new block begins: a little tension, a little patience, and a lot of showing up.

In This Edition

From The Coach’s Corner: Draw the Bow

Welcome to Build Week #1, team.

Just like that, one training cycle is behind us. Recovery Week has done its job, hopefully your legs are feeling a little fresher, your motivation has returned, and we are ready to begin another three-week block together.

Last cycle we spoke about laying bricks. Every swim. Every ride. Every run. Another brick in the wall.

This time, let us try something different. Imagine you are holding a bow and arrow. Before an arrow can travel forwards, it first has to be pulled backwards. The greater the tension, the greater the potential.

That is exactly how a good training cycle works. Build Week #1 is where we begin drawing the bow.

The work starts to accumulate again. The early alarms return. The routine settles back in. Nothing dramatic. Nothing heroic. Just the quiet discipline of getting back into the rhythm.

Build Week #2 will ask us to hold that tension. That is often the week where fatigue begins whispering in your ear, motivation wobbles a little and consistency becomes more important than enthusiasm.

Then comes Recovery Week, when the arrow is released. Not because we stop caring, but because the body finally gets the space to absorb the work and turn it into fitness.

So this week, do not rush the process. Show up. Start the block well. Keep the easy easy. Respect the harder work. Draw the bow properly.

📚 Feature Read: Club Training Or Solo Training?

This week’s feature article looks at a question plenty of athletes quietly ask at some point: am I better off training with a club, training solo, or trying to make the best bits of both work together?

The useful answer is not really “club good, solo bad” or the other way around. Some athletes love the freedom of doing their own long rides, moving sessions around work and family, and keeping easy days genuinely easy. Others get more out of squad structure, coached swim feedback, safer group riding, harder run sessions and the accountability that comes from knowing someone will notice when they disappear for three weeks.

The article walks through the pros and cons of both approaches, then lands where most successful age-group athletes eventually land: a smart mix. Key coached sessions help with feedback, safety, skill and consistency. Easier aerobic work can still be done solo when life demands flexibility. The trick is being honest about which environment makes you train consistently, safely and with purpose.

It is a good read for anyone who has been trying to do everything alone, anyone who is wondering why squad sessions feel different, and anyone who needs a reminder that training is not just about ticking boxes. It is about putting yourself in the environment that helps you become the athlete you are trying to be.

There is also a listen option on the article page, so if reading is not happening this week, pop the audio on while walking, commuting or pretending the laundry is active recovery.

🏃 ASICS Gold Coast Marathon Festival: Squad Results

A huge well done to everyone who headed north for the ASICS Gold Coast Marathon Festival across Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July. Fast course, big crowds, warmer weather, and a proper mid-winter carrot for anyone who needed a reason to keep the run legs honest.

We had Tri Alliance athletes across multiple events, which is exactly what we love to see. Some were chasing times, some were building race confidence, some were testing the legs, and some were simply getting themselves onto another start line. All of it counts.

Special mention to Andy Wood-Rich, who took on the Fixx Nutrition Gold Coast Double in 08:56:50. That is the half marathon and marathon across the same weekend: 63.3km of racing, recovery, fuelling, pacing and convincing the legs to report for duty again the next morning. That is a serious endurance effort and a very solid lesson in durability.

Well done to everyone who raced. If we have missed your result, send it through. We want the full squad picture, not just the names that happen to land in our lap first.

🚴 Tour de France: Lessons From The Big Show

The Tour de France is underway, and even if you only watch the highlights, it is hard not to get swept up in it. Three weeks, 21 stages, massive crowds, team tactics, heat, pressure, crashes, climbs, time gaps and riders backing up day after day after day.

After the opening team time trial, Jonas Vingegaard moved into yellow for Visma | Lease a Bike. Stage 2 then gave us a proper early storyline, with Isaac Del Toro taking the win for UAE Team Emirates XRG while Tadej Pogacar clawed back time and tightened the GC picture. It is early, but already the race is doing what the Tour does best: turning tiny moments into big consequences.

For us, the useful bit is not just the spectacle. It is the reminder that endurance sport is rarely won by one heroic effort. It is built through repeated days, smart pacing, teamwork, fuelling, patience and knowing when to spend energy and when to save it. Sound familiar?

Watch the way teams organise themselves, protect riders, communicate, respond to problems and keep moving when the plan changes. Then bring a little of that into your own training block. You do not need a yellow jersey to train with intent. Although if anyone turns up to MSAC in one, we will allow it.

🔥 Next Up: VIC Duathlon Race 2

The next Victorian Duathlon Series race is coming up on Sunday 19 July at Altona Beach. If you are looking for a winter race hit-out, this is a good one to consider: simple format, honest racing, and no need to negotiate with open-water temperatures. Run. Ride. Run. Done.

There are options across Sprint, Enticer, Dash and Kids races, so it is not only for the athletes chasing the pointy end. The Sprint distance is 5km / 18km / 5km, Enticer is 3km / 12km / 3km, Dash is 2km / 6km / 2km, with kids and para all-abilities options also included.

Race morning starts early, with registration and transition opening from 7:00am and the first race start from 8:00am. It is a useful race for anyone wanting a sharp winter effort, a transition practice day, or a low-fuss way to keep the competitive brain switched on through July.

✅ AusTriathlon Membership: Time To Renew

All AusTriathlon memberships rolled over on 1 July, so this is your reminder to check yours and get it sorted for the season ahead.

At Tri Alliance we sit under AusTriathlon as an affiliated club, and that affiliation is part of what allows us to run the sessions you turn up to: squad swims, ride sessions, run sets, open water, TriKids, camps and race-day activities. The expectation from AusTriathlon is that athletes training with affiliated clubs hold current membership.

The important bit: this is not only for athletes lining up at Ironman or chasing race starts every second weekend. Standard Membership is designed for the way most of our squad trains: consistent weekly sessions, the occasional event, and the coverage that sits behind both training and racing.

What we need you to do this week: check your membership status, renew if needed, and ask a coach if you are unsure which category suits you. We are not trying to turn this into a clipboard-and-whistle moment, but we do need to keep the club aligned with the framework we operate under.

📣 Tell Us What You Are Up To

We also want to keep doing a better job of sharing what our athletes are up to. Races entered, results earned, first events, comeback events, podiums, personal bests, “that was harder than expected” finishes, big training weekends, travel adventures with bikes involved – send them through.

The squad is bigger than what any one coach sees at one session. If you are racing, let us know. If you get a result, send it in. If you are heading off to an event and want a little cheer squad behind you, tell us before you go. We like celebrating the big moments, but we also like celebrating the small ones that show someone is still in the game, still building, still turning up.

Reply to this email or grab us at training. Bonus points if you include a photo that does not look like it was taken while falling over.

🗓️ The Week Ahead: Session Overview

🏹 Final Word: Put Some Tension In The String

Build Week #1 is not about forcing three weeks of fitness into seven days. It is about starting the block well, getting the routine back underneath you, and putting the first bit of useful tension into the string.

Do the simple things well this week. Get to the sessions you said you would get to. Keep the easy easy. Respect the harder work. Sort the admin, including AusTriathlon membership if yours needs renewing. And if you raced, entered something, or have a result we should know about, send it through.

Draw the bow properly now, and the next few weeks have somewhere useful to go.