Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown, NZ

Welcome to 2012. I would like to thank everyone that has supported Fit&Abel and helped share in my passion of swimming over the last 12 months. May we spend more time in the water in 2012, may the sun shine brighter, may we swim further, faster and have a lot more fun doing it. Is that all too much to ask? The next 12 months will tell.

For those of you who have followed Fit&Abel you will be aware I am currently based in New Zealand. It is 26 degrees as I write this and I have just spent the afternoon swimming with clients on lake Pegasus. It is fair to say I am happy with my current location. For Southern Hemisphere residents you will be gearing up for the numerous Triathlons, open water swims and Ironmen events over the next few months.  Two great swim events to help you prepare for other events this summer: Don’t go past the 4km swim event run by David at www.surfnturf.co.nz  on 5 Feb at Pegasus Lake. Then on 19^th Feb is the La Grande Open water swim in Akaroa www.oceanswim.co.nz . This is part of the State NZ Ocean Swim series, a great swim in a beautiful location. The NZ Ocean Swim series is the premier open swim series in NZ, don’t miss it.

For Northern Hemisphere based followers Fit&Abel will return to London from April in time for a gorgeous spring. Now is the time you should be finding a quality indoor pool and focussing on refining your technique and building up the fitness as you build toward your swimming goals of 2012. Whether you are preparing for a SwimTrek adventure swim holiday, an Ironman, an open water swim race or the London Triathlon Fit&Abel will have advice and support to help you. Details and bookings for May 2012 onward will be listed on fitandabel.com from March.

Need I point out 2012 is Olympic year! London will be host to Triathlon, Open water swimming and some amazing pool swimming. The Brownlee brothers have been top dogs in Triathlon in 2011, I will also be watching New Zealands Andrea Hewitt closely, she had a great 2011. Kerianne Payne , the current world champion will be looking for an Olympic Gold in the womans 10km. In the pool… we have an enormous amount of talent from all over the globe, it will be Phelps last swim meet, Ian Thorpe currently on the comeback trail will he be there? Two famous Olympic gold medal winning USA female swimmers in Janet Evans and Dara Torres both in their 40’s looking to make the American Olympic team.  Sun Yang the Chinese swimmer who smashed Grant Hacketts  long standing 1500M Freestyle world record, what will he bring to the Olympic games?

For those who follow twitter apart from @Fitandabel here are two really informative twitter accounts to follow; @swimmerscircle does a great job blogging and updating elite pool performances. @openwatersource does the same for open water swimming.

So much swimming news, what a great start to 2012. What are you waiting for? Get swimming!