For those of you keen to do a bit of open water swimming this summer, you are almost spoiled for choice.

With venues for training soon to start opening up for the season and with the rapid growth in the sport there are plenty of open water races too. There are races to suit everyone with distances from 1⁄2 a mile to the marathon 10k and in a variety of water conditions from lakes, reservoirs, rivers and the sea.

The open water magazine H2Open is sponsoring a national ranking swim series, for those who wish to participate you complete 3 out of seven races and they will

then rank you against all the other competitors. For more details see:

http://www.h2openmagazine.com/national-ranking-series-2012/2012-open-water-swimming-national-ranking-series.html

Eastern Region Events

For those looking for something more local there are a number of events happening in the Eastern region;

• Bedford Box End Swim series 4 mass start open water swims in May/June/July/August choose from distances of 750m – 5k http://www.galeforce-events.com/swimming-events/
• Bedford River Festival Swim, 21st July 800m dash up and down the Gt Ouse wimfest Series Lakeside, Essex, 750m – 10k May/July/ September: http://www.swimfortri.com
• British Gas Great East Swim , Alton Water, Ipswich, Suffolk June 16th 0.5 – 2 miles greatswim.org.This event also has a team entry in which four people of can all swim a mile and their times will count to a team score. Brian Hayes has already entered the mile if anyone else is interested in joining him as part of a team please let him know. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
• Norwich River swim 1mile 8th July http://www.activeoutdoorsport.co.uk
• Anglian Water Great Grafham swim, Grafham Waters, Cambridgeshire July 22nd 750m –3.8k http://www.nicetri.co.uk
• Sea Palling Reef Swim, Sea Palling Norfolk, August 5th, 1 mile
• Fritton Lake Swim, Suffolk, September 9th 3km – 5km http://www.activesoutdoor.co.uk

For more info on events further afield look here: http://www.h2openmagazine.com/categoryevents/1/Page-1.html

For anyone interested in the longer distance although the Dart 10k has managed to fill up all 800 places in just a couple of weeks, there are 10k races at Windsor (see http://www.f3events.co.uk)  and a new race on the Jubilee weekend at The Jubilee River starting at Maidenhead for more info see http:www.mysportingtimes.com

Training Venues

• Jesus Green Lido, Cambridge opens on May 12th http://www.everyoneactive.com/
• Redricks Lake, Sawbridgeworth opens on first weekend in April: http://www.facebook.com/redrickslakes
• Gosfield Lake, Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings opens on Easter Sunday (8 April) http://www.gosfieldlake.co.uk/traithlon.html
• Histon Lake, Cambridge, Friday evenings, starting May
• River Cam open all year round!

Come on and dip your toe in the water.

Swimming is held at the Lord Butler Leisure Centre in Saffron Walden.

There are two sessions per week, 20:30 - 22:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays.

On Mondays WaldenTRI has five coached lanes which cater for beginners to seasoned competitors. There are always two BTF qualified coaches on poolside. This high ratio of coaches to swimmers allows for a considerable amount of communication between coach and athlete.

On Wednesday one or two coaches will repeat the session from Monday utilising half the pool. Again, come along whatever your current ability.

Sessions have been prepared in advance following a progressive plan and structure. This means that sessions are tailored to the various training periods of the triathlon season (broadly winter base to summer competition)

In order to get the most out of your session please bring a watch or get used to using the pool clock for timings. Other equipment is provided.

Swimming - Monday and Wednesday

20:30-22:00
Session starts promptly, so please arrive for 20:15 then payment and notices can be dealt with first.