Coached Sessions

Our swim coaches have many years combined experience with the club and are widely valued by club members. They provide swimming workouts to improve stroke efficiency, endurance and fitness. The coaches are on-hand to provide individual tips on swim technique. We currently have two coached swim sessions on offer per week:

Cally Pool

Holloway School

Session Details

These are all held outside of public hours so we have the pool to ourselves.

The sessions cater for a broad range of abilities with the pool divided into 5 or 6 graded lanes and the training tailored to suit each, though it is assumed that participants have basic swimming ability and are able to swim at least 400m continuous freestyle.  The Wednesday evening session in particular focuses more on technique. Be sure to bring along your goggles, caps, hand paddles and if you have them, fins. The swimming pool provide kindly provide us with pull buoys and floats.

These sessions are charged as a supplement to the club membership fees, starting from about £40 per month for basic swim-only membership with Better, which also gives you unlimited access to most Better pools in London pool (there are some exclusions). This can be upgraded to include use of gyms and classes throughout the entire Better Network.

Bikes may be stored in the lobby (Cally sessions) or change rooms (Holloway school). However, removing all loose components and locking up is still recommended.  Locking your bike outside isn’t advisable (though many have no choice).

Contact the Swimming Coordinator should you have any specific questions about these sessions.

Open Water Swimming

While there are no open water sessions organised by the club, members participate in open water events throughout the year. This ranges from trips to Hampstead Heath and London Fields lidos right through to 5km swims in the Mediterranean waters of Marseille. Keep an eye on the club Team group for details!

There are a number of local Open Water venues available round the capital. We’ve compiled a list of locations below, including links to their websites to let you book onto a session.

• West Reservoir
  • Open 7 days a week
  • No induction required
  • Download Better App to book
  • Swim slots are 50 minutes long, and scheduled every 10 minutes (e.g. 9:00am, 9:10am, 9:20am, …)
  • Slots open up at 10pm, one week in advance
• Denham lake
• Merchant Taylor’s School
  • Open weekday evenings and weekend mornings
• London Royal Docks
  • Open weekday mornings and evenings, and weekend mornings
• Stubbers Lake
• Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre
• Redricks (via Facebook)

Regular Weekly Sessions

The club is not currently looking at resuming public cycling sessions. In the interim, members are training online on Zwift and RGT.

Team GC Zwift

There are a number of Virtual Training sessions being run as part of Team Giant Camden. This includes 3 FTP-crushing Zwift meet-ups and one team time trial each week. For details and set-up instructions, join the Team GC Zwift Facebook group.

RIAK Online

Riak turbo studio has gone online for lockdown, offering dozens of coached turbo sessions each week – perfect for dialing in to specific growth areas. Access to all of these sessions is only £15 per month and the RGT software is free.

Seasonal Sessions

Winter Ride Schedule

Each winter we have a series of monthly winter rides. The aim is to get a decent bunch out for a fun group ride, typically of around 50-60 miles. The rides are designed for all abilities and will be ridden at the pace of the slowest rider. There will be different options available to cover a variety of distances too. Some of this may involve taking a train or coming back by train but the rides will be plotted to accommodate this. These are a great opportunity for you all to meet other club members and they will all involve a coffee stop too.

Ride leaders will make a decision based on the weather forecast the night before that it will be suitable weather for a ride the following morning so do keep an eye on Teams on the Saturday evening. If the weather is sub-zero it is likely that the ride will be cancelled and definitely will be if the roads are wet. Check Teams for the meeting point for each ride as location is likely to change depending on the direction of the ride. The updated schedule for 2021/202 is coming soon!

Ad Hoc Rides

Each weekend there are always several groups of riders heading out to train in the surrounding counties. The distances, routes, start times, and meeting points vary on a weekly basis, often with two or more groups of different levels or distances riding out from different places at different times. Such rides are discussed on Teams during the preceding week.

Regular Weekly Sessions

Tuesday: Hill Runs on Hampstead Heath

Thursday: Track Session with Terry Collins

Seasonal Sessions

During the year the club takes part in several races (road and trail) around London and in the south of England, including trail runs and cross-country races in the winter. For the 2021/2022 winter season club members are racing in the London Cross Country Championships and the Sunday Cross Country League. Dates for races are below, with transport to each race organised on the e-group.

Date	Event	Venue
15/10/2023	Sunday Cross Country League Round 1	Cheshunt
29/10/2023	Sunday Cross Country League Round 2	Cassiobury Park, Watford
5/11/2023	Sunday Cross Country League Round 3	Trent Park
17/12/2023	Sunday Cross Country League Round 4	Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage
18/02/2024	Sunday Cross Country League Round 5	Royston Heath
TBC	London XC Championships	Hampstead Heath