For those of us who attend Swim Fit classes at 8.15 on a Monday evening at Balerno High School, details for 2009 are now available and commence on the 12th January.

If you fancy these sessions you need to sign up for these in advance - forms at Balerno High School.

Our regular winter Turbo Training Sessions take place on Tuesday's, 7:30 - 8:30pm at Leyden Farm.

Due to the popularity of these sessions we have a system in place to guarantee that those who come along do actually get to use one of the turbo's. The club has 11 turbo trainers, so we keep a list of who has committed to come for the majority of sessions between now and Christmas.

If you would like to see if any places are available, please e-mail bike@pentlandtriathletes.co.uk. The turbo sessions cost of £2 per session.

Lastly, Leyden Farm is on Leyden Lane, which is the next right hand turn after the road to Kirknewton (off the Lang Wang). The venue itself is a nice, warm room, just next to the farm house, which is the first house on the right hand side of the farm lane.

The club AGM was held in November, amongst the discussion points, it was agreed to spread the responsibilities of running the club across a greater number of people as follows.

Contact e-mail addresses for these people will be available on the web site shortly.

Events planned for 2009 include; a repeat of the Do a Duathlon, to be held in April, and an Open Water Triathlon in June.

Other events worth noting are; the Caledonia Etape - this is a fantastic 81 mile cycle event on closed roads starting and finishing in Pitlochry, the London Triathlon, Edinburgh half and full marathon, plus many more.

You may or may not be aware that one of our members - Caroline Dunn - is fully qualified both as a Swedish Massage Therapist and a Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist.

Caroline is currently setting herself up as a full time massage therapist, and as an introductory feature is offering club members a discount. Pentland Triathletes will be charged just £20 - usual hourly rate £25. Gift vouchers are also available at £20 an hour for members to purchase, for family and friends. Caroline works out of her home in Livingston, or can bring her couch to your house.

It would be great to support one of our members - an extremely accomplished massage therapist, and I would recommend her to anyone. Give her a call: Mobile 07739644126 or e-mail caroline.dunn1@sky.com

For those of you who haven't bought tickets yet, the club are having a Ceilidh on the 17th January at Balerno Bowling Club from 19:00 till midnight. Harmeny are organising the event. It should be a good night. The evening consists of; a quiz, ceilidh, disco, food, and presentations.

Tickets for sale - Norma, Frank or Verity - £10.

The other forthcoming event that is really popular and a great challenge for the winter is the Edinburgh New Years Day Triathlon. Distances are: 400 metre swim (in the Commonwealth pool), 11 mile cycle (three times round Arthurs Seat), and a 3.5 mile run (once round Arthurs seat). Kick off is at 10.00 am on the 1st, which gives you plenty of time to rehydrate after the night before!!

Entries for the NYD Tri are now full, and there is a waiting list. Would be great to have a good club turnout; possible party afterwards... watch this space.

If you are not competing, then a proven hangover cure is to head down to the Commonwealth pool on the 1st to cheer on fellow Pentland Triathletes who are taking part.

With regard to our usual training sessions, the final session of the year are as follows.

Harmeny Running sessions will continue as normal across the seasonal period, with an additional 10 am run on Boxing Day lead by Iain Morrice.

There have been a few requests for road bike training - if you are interested please e-mail bike@pentlandtriathletes.co.uk.

Frank Tooley sent in this report from British Sprint Triathlon Championships, Strathclyde Park, Sunday 24th August 2008

Third time lucky! After competing in horrendous conditions in Tranent and Gullane earlier this year, it was a delight to take part in dry, warm conditions. The commentator described the transition area as 'bike porn'. I noticed on the cycle, as they lapped me, that the purchase of a Cervelo is correlated strongly with thigh circumference. Whether acquisition of a bike with a solid back wheel gives you legs like pistons or you can't justifying buying one until you look like that remains to be investigated. Great organisation and facilities for the 300 competitors including lots of famous names with multiple waves starting from 8 am till 10 am. I could have gone much faster than 1'21", as still a novice at pacing myself, comprising 15 min (inc T1) 750 m swim in the loch, 43 min (inc T2) cycle of four 5 km laps on closed loch perimeter road and 23 min 5k along the loch side.

Alex Gordon took part in the London Triathlon again, with an excellent result of 12th lady in her age group for the Olympic distance. The Olympic distance comprises a 1500 metre open water swim, 38K bike ride, and 9.8K run. Alex's times were 28:15 for the swim, 1:15 for the cycle and 48:11 for the run, with a total time of 2:37:26. Congratulations to Alex for a superb result, and who returned home committed to improving on these times in 2009, which no doubt she will.

Here is Alex's take on the event:

I made my annual pilgrimage to the London Triathlon yet again (4th time), and completed my first Olympic Distance Tri in 2:37. There's something about the atmosphere and vast scale of competing in London that gives me the 'colly wobbles' just thinking about it! It really is quite awesome and hugely inspiring! Imagine a transition the size of an aeroplane hanger, with 10,000 bikes lined up. And, imagine a pool the size of a landing strip (a tarmac one, ladies), with water so murky you can't see your hand in front of you! Last but not least, the run is not only completely flat, but the crowd support is so loud you can't help but run fast! So, you get the picture, it's a great event - I smile the whole way round, I enjoy every minute of the race, and low and behold, I get a good a good time! Who's coming next year?

We also had 3 representatives at the Stirling Triathlon; Katherine, Ulla and Mairi, with an excellent 7th position from Katherine. This report was sent in by Katherine / Mairi who clearly demonstrate the threesomes total dedication to the trivial matter of competition before the real business of lunch begins.

After an early morning battle to get the bikes on the rack - three members of Pentland Triathletes (Ulla, Katherine & Mairi) headed north to Stirling on a beautiful clear morning in June. The conversation on the way there centred on whether we should just go shopping without the kids, but despite that we all put our best arms, wheels and feet forward and completed the Novice length triathlon in relatively respectable times - Katherine finishing fast enough to be in time to welcome home first Ulla and then Mairi. With a pleasant feeling of virtuosity we headed to Bridge of Allan for a delicious lunch at Clive Ramsay's - what a way to round off a great morning. As we headed back to Balerno (and the rain) we mentally put the date in the diary for next year! If anyone fancies joining us perhaps we should book the table for lunch now?!

Our informal Open Water swims at Threipmuir will resume on Friday 15th August (7:00-8:00pm), and will continue on a "let's see who's around" basis until the water gets too cold!

Our usual coached Sat Swims at BHS will re-start on Saturday 23rd August (7:30-8:30am). With our lottery funding we have purchased a box-load of specialist swimming equipment, and now that Sarah has gained her Level II Triathlon Coaching Certificate these sessions are both fun and challenging!

On Saturday 30th August (7:30am start), we are hosting a 'Try-a-Tri', which is another great opportunity to see what triathlon is all about.

Please see the events page for full details.

Please check with Balerno High School directly to confirm start date of adult swim-fit on a Monday evening (8:15-9:15pm), which will coincide with HAC Monday evening Running Session (7:00-8:00pm at BHS).

If you are looking for a training focus, why not check out the Wan Dae event held in the Pentlands on 20th September. It takes between 5 to 8 hours to complete, and you can do it as an individual competitor or in a team of up to 4 people, and involves mountain biking, kayaking and running. Check out Scottish Adventure Racing for more details.

The Y-Front race took place at the end of May thanks to a lot of work from Lesley Barr, and many of you turned up to help support/marshal on the day. Whilst it is emphasised that this is a fun event, there is a lot of testosterone involved and some of the boys go hell for leather.

The winner this year was Dave Dourley who completed the off road 8.9 mile course in 35 minutes.

This event is held to raise money for Prostate cancer, (still counting income for this year), and it is great that our club can actively get involved in this worthwhile event and enjoy the occasion as well.

The Rigg Race (6 mile road race around Balerno which involves running up hill for the first 2 miles) was also a great success, and two of our members did extremely well. Caroline Dunn was first local lady and Wendy Beardmore was second local lady - so well done to you two.

Five club members did the Etape Caledonia in May, which is an 81 mile closed road cycle race. It is an absolutely stunning route, and a good time was had by all, with talk of booking up for 2009 already.

Check out the Etape Caledonia web site and book early for this beautiful and challenging bike ride.

For those of you who possess/can borrow/steal a wet suit, open water swimming sessions are provisionally booked at Threipmuir Reservoir from 7pm. So far this will take place on the 13th and 20th June, but more dates will be added on a rolling forward basis.

With regard to the Tuesday evening bike sessions which are timetabled for 7:15 from Balerno High School car park. This training slot hasn't been hugely successful, so by way of reminder please go along and meet up with anyone who is there.

It is a self lead group, so the more that turn up the more sociable and challenging it will be.

The last Saturday swimming session is 21st June, and as soon as the start date for autumn is confirmed this will be e-mailed to members. An alternative to Saturday mornings is to meet at Drumbrae pool on a Monday evening. A few members make this a regular meet at around 8pm, and are always very positive about the pool and its facilities. (Self lead session at Drumbrae).

Frank braved the East Lothian countryside bombarded with snow and hail showers by strong 25 mph northerly winds on Sat 22nd March.

750m pool swim, 5/lane (13'24"), T1 took 1'30" as 2 layers, thick socks and a balaclava required, 20 km bike course over unforgiving long hills with strong headwind (40'23", T2 1'06", 5 km run of 2 laps around a housing estate (23'26").

It was an abysmal day to say the least but well marshalled and organised. Much unpleasantness in the pool as the redcap in my lane wouldn't pull over when toe-tapped but the bruises will fade.

Unfortunately we have had to miss a few Saturday morning swims due to pool closures, as the school continue with their refurbishment work. Thank you for your patience, and we hope that we are back to our regular term time schedule now. The pool is closed for the Easter holidays, and reopens on Saturday 12th April.

For all those club members who haven't dared dip their toes in the water on a Saturday morning at 7.30am, do come along it is a really good session. Our coach Sarah works us hard, but everyone's varying ability is taken into consideration. If swimming isn't your strong point Sarah will help you achieve your potential (£3 per session for members).

On the subject of Sarah Pryde (Pentland Triathletes coach), she is now working towards her Level 2 Triathlon Coach qualification, and will be leading some linked cycle and running training sessions before the end of April. We will keep you posted as to dates for these sessions.

Throughout the winter months we have been enjoying turbo sessions at Harlaw Farm at 7.30pm on a Tuesday evening (cost £1). With the lighter evenings approaching, this will now transfer to an outdoor training session starting at 7.15pm from Balerno High School car park from 8th April.

If you are in possession of one of the clubs turbo trainers and/or heart rate monitor, we are taking stock of our assets, and would appreciate it if these were returned to Catherine Barr at Harlaw Farm as soon as possible.

In future, to ensure every club member has the opportunity to take advantage of our kit we are going to limit the loan of equipment to a 4 week time period at a time.

Don't forget that on Monday evenings, speed work training (of the running variety) takes place. Meet at Balerno High School car park at 7.15pm and vary your training with some speed work. We are back at the school by 8.10 for those of us who swim at 8.15pm.

It is a really good idea to add in some quality fartlek/speed work to your running training.

These sessions will stop over Easter, and restart on the 7th April.

The club is organising a fun event on Saturday 26th April, a 'Do a Du'. See our Events page for details.

We've added some Swim Club Guidelines to help us all get the most out of the Saturday swim sessions.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope the Christmas/New Year break 'ticked all the boxes' you wanted it to.

It is good to have the routine of our training schedule back again after the holiday, and to look forward to achieving the goals we set ourselves in 2008. We've updated the Training Timetable page with the latest information.

Anyway, here's the online version of the new quarterly club newsletter.

Some events that are currently being advertised for this year that may be of interest to those of us wishing to focus on some competition are as follows:

Other events that may be of interest that some club members are attending:

We are organising two events for us all to take part in, and are designed to be inclusive to non club members. We want you to encourage your friends and family to come along who may be interested in trying out our sport and joining in, or just try and understand what makes us get out of bed and put swimming togs on and/or lycra on, on cold wet mornings.

These events are for fun, and are not competitive, so no one need be scared of having a go (any offers to help marshal much appreciated).