ITU Oceania Championships Devonport, Tasmania

The swim was a beach start on the shores of Devonport. My start was reasonable, although a group of really strong swimmers to my left got out ahead of me. Early on I was able to swim across the gap managing to position myself in the top 6 after the first 300 metres. James Sears set a solid tempo at the front of the pack, which forced the lead group into a single file line. I was able to relax into my stroke once I could see that I was in a comfortable position near the front. I exited the water in 4th, right on the leader’s feet.

Australia’s plan for the race was to make sure all of our top athletes were in the lead pack off the bike, giving Australia the best opportunity to take the win. Consequently we had to immediately assess how we were going to approach the ride. We quickly realized that Australia were in a dominate position. Not only did the front pack include really strong Australian riders, but also some of New Zealand’s top athletes including Gemmell and Scissons were not present. Along with Atkinson, Sear, Amberger, Hickey and Box, we were maintaining a solid pace to keep ourselves away from the chase pack which included the 2 most dangerous NZ athletes. Nevertheless our efforts weren’t enough; with some incredibly strong riding from behind they were able to catch us before the halfway point on the ride. After the 2 packs came together the pace dropped with everyone’s attention turning to conserving as much energy as possible to ensure a quick run. Driving the pack was Jack Hickey, controlling the group he ensured a trouble free ride for Australian athletes sitting in behind. Coming into transition I followed the very experienced Courtney Atkinson and Kris Gemmell, knowing they would come off the bike at the front of the group. I had a few little problems getting to my spot and putting my shoes on which cost me a couple of valuable seconds coming out of transition.

Atkinson and Gemmell went out hard on the run, as did I, managing to tuck in behind Brendan Sexton’s shoulder coming out of transition. I felt stretched running with Sexton for the first 400 metres as we tried to bridge across to the lead two, and after 500 metres I had to drop off to ensure I didn’t completely blow myself to pieces. In the first few steps of the run I had committed and backed myself to go for the win, and although I wasn’t able to keep up with the lead 3, my initial intensity allowed a buffer between me and the chasing athletes. I didn’t want my early efforts on the

run to go to waste so I set my own tempo, making sure the guys behind didn’t bridge across. With the top 3 only 20 – 30 metres ahead during the first lap, I could see that Sexton was the stronger athlete, with the other two struggling to keep up. This kept my motivation high, knowing that if they spent too much energy trying to stay with Sexton I might be able to catch them later on. This did eventually happen, after the first of 4 laps, New Zealand’s Kris Gemmell couldn’t keep up with Sexton. I lifted my rating and started to close the 50 metre gap to around 25. It wasn’t enough though, as he must’ve got a second as he started to extend his lead again. At this point Brendan had pulled away, with Gemmell now running with Atkinson, followed by me, around 20 seconds behind and then about 20 seconds back to the next guy. At the 6 kilometre mark Atkinson looked like he had blown up and it didn’t take long before I had bridged the gap and then moved straight passed. With 2.5km left in the run I had moved into 3rd spot, with Gemmell 25 seconds ahead and Brendan another 30 seconds ahead of him!

I had crossed the line 3rd to finish on the podium two years in a row at the Oceania Championships. I was extremely happy with my result. Moreover I was satisfied that I could prove my form over the Olympic distance as opposed to the Sprint distance events I had raced in this season. I have managed to set up a good foundation to work off for the rest of the season and I can have confidence going forward that I can be up with the world’s best elite men. My next race will be the World Championship Series Race 1 on the Sydney Harbour with the highest quality field where everyone will be out to make a statement as countries finalise their Olympic Games’ selections.

The first race of the season is almost a guaranteed way of gauging how effective your training has been over the off-season. For me, this was back to back sprint triathlons with each having their own importance for the year ahead.

Kinloch in New Zealand would be a chance to gain early season ITU points and to ensure a start in future races. A small gap in swim groups meant 2 main bunches were formed where i was placed in the second group. Those strong enough to bridge the gap on the hilly and technical course were able to do so by the end of the second lap.

Unfortunately, i became tangled in a crash which left me with a small gap to make up. The accelerations and cornering in the lead up to crashing had me hurting which meant i was not able to regroup with second bunch.

Into T2 and i was deflated racing for 20th position and out of contention to gain points or prize money. Slightly frustrating but deserved after not being in the money bunch from the swim.

From NZ to Geelong and a high quality field meant the Australian Sprint Championships as well as premium continental cup status. From the gun, the swim pack remained tight with the odd super-fish shooting off the front. Into transition and a group of 50 athletes all eager to get towards the front had some well known bikers pushing the pace and stringing the field out on a very technical course.

The main groups came together as one long line of athletes before yet another acceleration snapped the bunch. This was a critical point during the bike where it was important to move up the front….. i did not. I was unable to get comfortable and recover from the initial pace and cornering that i fell back (again!). Disappointed with my tactics and ability to show myself at the front meant running from mid pack.

Although it is easy to overanalyse races like the last 2 weeks, it simply meant going back to training and tweaking some smaller issues that i felt were crucial in a sprint race. I was able to place myself in a position to contend these races but had higher expectations.

Both races were great to contest with testing courses and big crowds. The next event will be the Oceania Championships in Devonport, Tasmania. Devonport will be the standard olympic distance and is rumoured to be an unofficial olympic selection race for 2012.

I am also on the lookout for a new coach and new direction this year which means exciting times to come. Thankfully i have Mizuno Australia and The Bike Shed supporting me again this year.

Thanks,

Nick Kastelein

Where has January gone? From celebrating the New Year to celebrating us as Australians, it has flown past. For most of it, I enjoyed my time in altitude. Lacking the presence of oxygen, this did not faze us. We trained hard and co mpleted long days pushing ourselves with everything we had, with the aqueduct of freezing cold water being our reward. We were lucky enough to have a few visitors including AIS dietician Greg Cox, Pete Kerry our massage therapist and comedian and Lisa who took some great shots of us in action. Felt a little overwhelmed with a photographer popping out of the bush! We learnt about healthy cooking, food we should be introducing into diet and important foods necess ary to enhance and maintain performance.

NSWIS testing arose again to see how we were all travelling after our altitude camp and I was happy to see changes in my aerobic capacity heart rate and VO2 max. A few days ago we had a presentation done by Kell and Kristie on self confidence and social media. Both these have given me a new insight and help me reflect on myself and change of things I do in my training and skills that I can incorporate. 

Australia Day Aquathon, my 4th year in competing, I had gotten a 4th, 3rd and a 2nd.. a win would be nice. Feeling good after coming down from altitude I wanted to make the most of it. Getting a good swim start and continuing this I got a 30 second lead over the other girls in the swim and wanted to keep that for the rest of the race. I told myself never to look back, keep on your toes, pop and to continue to think what Bobby had told me to work on. Holding my lead, I was happy to get the win for the day and now train hard for NZ. 

This month as a group at NSWIS, we have been speaking about being 75% athlete and 25% person. For example, we can all run a 400m race but the first 300m is our physical fitness, that last 100m is the person who finds that confidence, persistence and positive self talk to push themselves to the end. This has definitely got myself thinking about my mental skills and I am happy to be in such a supportive environment at NSWIS, with my coach, my parents and my training partners. 

I watched a video this month by Jan Frodeno. He gave me a good insight into what I see triathlon as. Triathlon gives us an identity- something that we love doing day in day out. It gives us an honest measure in life that we go against ourselves and others with the day being either being brutally honest or brutally wonderful. It gives us great feelings of the strengths and weakness of ourselves but overall we do this sport because we enjoy it. I am happy to say my training is going well and I hope that the next few races I can develop and learn as an athlete moving up into under 23 for 2012. 

Monthly Report-December

Falls Creek never lets me down in the unexpected adventures and experiences of training and everyday life. I was hoping my legs would survive and get me through what ended up being a 135km week of running. I was pleased and satisfied with sessions I got through and was happy that the other girls were there to help me through them. We were luckily enough to get a run in with Steve Moneghetti, a famous Australian long distance runner who definitely showed us who was boss when he dropped us running up a hill.  Bobby McGee also made a visit to us, going through the essential drills for triathlon and one on one session with him. I got some great feedback from him, allowing me to implement it into my daily training environment. The girls and I have been in the kitchen cooking together every night and successfully made 14 dinners together without killing each other. 

Coming back home for my birthday and Christmas for a little downtime was short lived with a 5km TT on the track and a 16km max aerobic run. I wasn’t expecting too much from track and did not feel that great on the day but was happy with the overall result after such big weeks before hand. The 16km run I felt much better and more comfortable trying to think about what Bobby had been telling me about running more on my toes and letting my shoulders drop. I want to thank Shane Barrie for helping my get through the last couple of kms when I swear my legs were yelling at me to stop running.

A new experience to end the year was riding on the velodrome in Wollongong on track bikes- bikes that have no brakes and pretty much scary in general. By the end of our 3 sessions, I enjoyed it thoroughly, learning new skills and important concepts that are necessary for that kind of training. It is actually an intense workout, with Jamie constantly reminding us of the intense natural of French Grand Prix. I even decided that I was talented enough on the rollers to try and get on the backwards- not my smartest moment. I always received my new bike this month, thank you to Spearmans Cycles and Giant Bikes for the 2012 TCR. It has been riding beautifully on the long rides that we have been doing over the time we have been home.

Triathlon NSW has been apart of my development in the triathlon world and we were luckily enough to be involved in a few sessions with them. Riding and swimming with them was a great experience as I saw their strengths and weakness. I loved the swimming set on Monday as it was the first time in ages I have been pushed in a race pace swim set. I even got one of the boys to say I was swimming too fast…looks like I beat him to the first buoy in a race. 

It is now a new year. A time for new experiences, new expectations, new dreams and new resolutions, mostly to stay upright on my bike but to also see what I can achieve this year. I am currently back up in Falls Creek now till the 24th of January before heading back down for Australia Day Aquathon at Wollongong Harbour.

It’s been a great first half of the Triathlon season for me.  Although I haven’t done many triathlons I feel things are right on track for an even better 2nd half of the season.  My season started off on October 31st with a win at the Sri Chimnoy sprint race in Canberra in a time of 58:21.  I followed up with another win in the first TACT race of the season a week later, which included a pool swim as opposed to swimming in Lake Burley Griffin.  Both races were low key but good to come out on top.

On December 16th I headed off to Queensland with the ACT Junior Squad for the first ITU event of the season at Runaway Bay. The event included 3 swim races, a Lemans style crit race, running races over 1k, an aquathon, and 3 short triathlons.  I’ve never done any ITU races so wasn’t sure what to expect but I knew that I was in good shape as I had set some running PB’s and had been racing well in local crit races leading up to the event. 

The first event on Day 1 at Runaway was a 50m, 100m, and 200m swim races with a short rest in between.  Times were added up over the three races to declare a winner.  I swam PB’s in all three but only managed 36th out of 64.  In the crit race I was able to place 1st in my heat of 32 but unfortunately final places were based on time and even though I won my overall place was only 20th. About 2 hours later we had a 1k heat followed by a final if you placed in the top 3 in your heat.  I treated my heat like a final as I really wanted to see what I could do.  I was able to win my heat in a time of 2:37 which was the fastest qualifying time.  In the final I ran well but didn’t have it in the end but still placed 11th overall out of the field of 64.  To say the least after the first day I was pretty exhausted.  

Day 2 saw me place 20th overall in the Aquathon which was a 400m swim/2k run, 14th in the Super sprint 300/6k/2k, and 11th in the Ultra Sprint 200/4k/1200m. These races were fast and furious and unfortunately swimming in the pool I found myself doing a lot of chasing but I was very happy with the day. With all the races if you placed in the top 16 you received points at the end of the day I was placed 18th overall.

Day 3 I raced in the B final and had a really good race as my running saved me.  I lost my cycling shoe coming into transition and lost several seconds and with the races so short I was worried but today’s race had the longest run at 2.4k on the track and I proceeded to run down about 9 guys in front of me and recorded the 4th fastest run split on the day and finished 2nd overall in the B final.  

I was invited to attend the Triathlon Australia Development Camp that was held for 3 days after the racing and it was great learning from some of the best coaches in Australia.  They were all very helpful and I learned a lot.  It was also great getting to know some of the guys that I will be competing against in the future.

The next race is coming to Canberra at the end of January.   

Showtime has ceased for the year, and since my last blog post in August I have been super busy with training, racing, camps and countless high-stress time-trials.  I have to say I’ve (almost) loved every second of it.  Since it would take more than a novel to properly write about each section of my life for the last 6 months, I’ll neatly wrap it (with a bow) into a concise timeline of how it all went down. 

August: 

Cane to Coral Fun Run – The race was a 15km fun run in which I finished 3rd in a time of 57:04 minutes.  I had a great race, battling with Brisbane marathon runner Helen Stanton and a local athlete Anna McMurtrie for 13 kilometres.  It came down to a sprint over the last 2km with Helen taking the win, Anna in 2nd, and yours truly rounding out the podium.

Botanic to Bridge Fun Run – An 8km fun run which started at the bottom of an 18% hill climb (why wouldn’t you be keen to enter?!).  Once again I had a great dual with Helen Stanton.  I lead the first 4km before Helen made her move on another small incline through the centre of town.  Helen had too much of a gap on me coming into the downhill finish, but I was happy with 2nd in a time of 28:42 minutes.   

September & October: 

Triathlon Queensland Selection Time Trials – Two selection time trials were held incorporating a 1000m swim time trial in the pool and a 5000m track run time trial.  I had a good selection trial in both September and October making the 2012 Triathlon Queensland Talent & Emerging Talent Squad.  I was especially happy with my first 1000m swim trial doing 12:53 minutes which was a big improvement from last season.  Below is a photo of the first lap of the 5000m track run at the second selection trial (I’m the little one in the black shoes, tucked in neatly, trying to conserve some energy in the ‘2pm in the afternoon’ heat).   

Noosa Triathlon – I had a fantastic time heading back to my home town to race my first non-drafting professional race.  I had a solid race finishing as the 10th Elite Female in a 2:10:51minutes, and was happy to get some TV time coming out of the water with girls like Emma Jackson and Kate McIllroy.  \

November: 

Queensland Triathlon Series Race 2 – I headed to the flat and fast Robina Parkway for the second race of the very popular Queensland Triathlon Series over the 400m/15km/4km distance. Racing in the Open Female division, I was well positioned out of T1 in 3rd, but lost some ground over the 15km cycle leg to enter and exit T2 in 4th position behind Holly Grice, Danielle DeFrancesco, and Brittany Forster.  I was on the hunt, and by the 1km mark I had caught and passed both Dani and Britt, with Holly not too far in front.  As we moved into the 3rd kilometre I passed Holly on a small incline and didn’t look back, keeping both my leg cadence and arm turn-over super high till the finish.  I crossed the line in 1st, happy with my overall race, but particularly with my 14:27 minute run split.  However, my excitement was short-lived, as 30 minutes after I had finished the race (and had even given the post-race interview), I was informed that I had been disqualified for a drafting infringement (not happy at all).  After an intense hour’s debate with officials, the decision remained the same, so I accepted the DQ (no point in arguing a case if the outcome was going to remain the same).  Below is a photo of me pre-disqualification.  At least I still got to take the tape, hahaha.  

Triathlon Queensland Talent & Emerging Talent Squad Camp – I headed back down to the Gold Coast the weekend after the Robina race to take part in our first camp for the 2011/2012 Season.  We were based at the Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre for a 2 day camp with Head Coaches Kim Beckinsale and Brian Harrington.  The first day of training was pretty full on, with the majority of our time spent on the cycling track, in the 50m pool, and up at Paradise Point to finish off the first day with some intense swim/runs.  The purpose of the camp was a focus on speed, and by the end of the first day we were smashed, sunburnt and ready for a little down-time.  Luckily a few of us managed to find the sneaky ice-bath & spa combo back at the super centre, and spent our free time bonding with large chunks of ice (hahaha, Dani!)  

The second day saw us wake early for a tempo run and some specific running drills, before hitting the brekkie bench to fuel us for the remainder of the camp.  We finished off at around mid-day Sunday, but not before splashing and dashing around the sports super centre in an assortment of mini-triathlon’s at MAX intensity.  Red-faced and sweat-covered, I was happy to have a little kip in the glorious 18-degree air-con on the way home.

December: 

National Talent Academy Selection Time Trials – I made the trip down to Brisbane on the 1st day of the month to compete in a 5000m track run time trial (yes, another one!) in order to better my time of 18:31 minutes set at the Triathlon Queensland Trials in September/October.  Taking part in these trials is a good measure of potential in a certain discipline, as well as an opportunity to track improvement in each discipline.  Normally this would be accompanied by a 1000m pool swim time trial, but since I had already surpassed the 13:02 minute mark to be eligible for selection into the National Talent Academy twice in both September and October, I decided instead to nominate my best time for the swim, and focus instead on improving my run time.   The day was dismal to say the least with a massive storm sweeping through Brisbane about an hour before we started.  Brisbane also decided to turn-on the air-conditioning and fans all at once, and by the time we started our time trial it was damp, pouring rain and freezing.  To my surprise, and delight, I ran my best ever time finishing in a 17:47 minutes.  It felt fantastic to finally be able to just flick a switch and get a 44 second personal best time out of it   The run time to make for the NTA still stands at 17:01 minutes, but two more time trials are coming up in January and February 2012, so we’ll see what a few more weeks of hard training will do.

Queensland Triathlon Series Race 3 – My final stop on the 2011 calendar was Raby Bay in Brisbane over a 750m swim, 20km cycle, and 5km run.  Once again I found myself quite well positioned in the swim leg, exiting the water alongside Madison Allen, Brittany Forster, and Gillian Backhouse.  Only problem was that the four of us were already 50 seconds down on the brilliant open water swimmer that is Danielle DeFrancesco.  Onto the cycle leg Dani held her position in 1st with a strong cycling performance, with Gillian riding into 2nd, and me entering T2 in 3rd position.  I heard the commentator call ‘1:50 minutes down on the leader.’  Tough task at hand, but most definitely not impossible.  I went hard from the start onto the run, and found the lovely zone between stinging and comfortable that I have become well acquainted with over the last year.  Sadly, it was only a 5km, and although I put a rather large dint into the leaders for a short run, I ran out of road, and crossed the line in 3rd.  I finished only 12 seconds behind Gillian in 2nd, and 45 seconds behind Dani, who took her first ever triathlon win. (Well done Dani)   I was very satisfied with my race, especially my run time off the bike (17:58 minutes).  Raby Bay was a fantastic way to finish the year, and I picked up a little prize money as well.  Below are the race results of the Top 6 Female and Male finishers. 

OPEN FEMALE SWIM CYCLE RUN OVERALL   

1. Danielle DeFrancesco 8:05 34:37 18:53 1:01:37   

2. Gillian Backhouse 8:54 34:28 18:46 1:02:10   

3. Chloe Turner 8:57 35:24 17:58 1:02:22   

4. Kym Jaenke 9:31 35:06 18:51 1:03:29   

5. Annelise Jefferies   10:11 36:21 18:01 1:04:34   

6. Brittany Forster 8:52 35:40 20:38 1:05:12  

OPEN MALE SWIM CYCLE RUN OVERALL   

1. Ben Shaw 8:21 30:55 16:20 55:38   

2. Nicholas Hull 8:27 31:27 15:52 55:47   

3. Kenji Nener 8:25 31:53 15:58 56:18   

4. Bryce McMaster 8:23 31:56 16:23 56:43   

5. Dylan Holdsworth 8:56 32:30 16:45 58:13   

6. Braden Ludlow 8:54 32:28 17:05 58:29  

To wrap it up I would like to say a big Thankyou to my fantastic sponsors…

As well as…

Jason Crowther (Head Triathlon Coach – Atlas Multisports Coaching)

Colin Robson (Head Swimming Coach – Cotton Tree Aquatic Centre)

Carla Doyle (Head Sports Massage Therapist – First Place Massage)

Mum & Dad - #1 Supporters

CT. Signing off for 2011. xoxo

 I wrote this straight after Canberra 70.3:

Maybe I shouldn’t be writing this straight away but I’m sitting in my hotel room, waiting for my mate to come back from the first race I haven’t finished.  So I really have nothing better to do! 

My training had been solid the past 5 weeks with my new start in NSW. I have been loving the training, the coach and the other athletes. So I was feeling great heading down to Canberra, aside from the normal taper week sluggishness, which is always to be expected. Arrived late Friday night and after a great night’s sleep, had an hour ride on the Saturday morning and was done for the day. Registered, racked my bike, attended briefing then smashed an amazing pizza and Mcflurry and hit the sack. A terrible night’s sleep but after a good one on Friday I wasn’t tired getting up this morning, just raring to go! 

The forecast was for rain but when we were setting up in transition it looked like the perfect conditions. Off for a longish warm up jog my legs were feeling great. Cutting it fine as I seem to be doing a lot lately, I got down to what I thought was the swim start to find out it was another 200m swim back towards transition and I had 5mins to start time!! Whoops!!!! Made it there with 2minutes to spare!  I wanted to stick with Nicole Ward and Michelle Wu in the swim. Lisa would be out in front with the men no doubt but I came out in front of Michelle at Yeppoon. Unfortunately I lost their feet before the first buoy and was swimming solo the rest of the way. Still only 1min down and could see them running to their bikes as I ran up to transition- that’s okay!!! A bit of friendly banter with my Canberra roomie though…. Was nice to chick a pro male!!! Sorry Adsy, had to add it in ;-) 

Out on the bike and I was flying! I haven’t felt that good in the bike leg since probably my first 70.3 back in 2009!!!! Today was going to be the day! I felt it yesterday and it was turning out that way. My goal for the bike leg was to catch Michelle, because Lisa would probably hold her lead off the bike but Wu had potential to run her down for the win. And soon I was ticking them off- I had a feeling I was in about 7th position. The rain was coming down hard at that stage- so much for the good weather! By about 10/15km I’d caught and passed Nicole and another girl and could see another up ahead. By about the 40km mark I’d collected her too. Great 3rd place!! Down the sharp/ technical decent and I felt a little wobble but I was going pretty gun hoe and the roads were slippery. After the downhill was a short sharp pinch which I got out of my saddle for and the wobble got worse- FLAT- are you kidding me????? AGAIN????? Yup, sure enough my front tyre was losing pressure. Off the bike and tried the pit stop which lasted about 100m, off again to change the tyre, back on the bike for 10km and then wobble, wobble, flat again. All over red rover! Outta all my tools, pit stop, gas. Game over. 

So there’s nothing like 3 flats in 3/6 races since August. And no- it’s not the wheels and tyres, thanks everyone for suggesting the obvious! The first two races with flats were on tubular wheels and so I went back to clinchers (because I KNOW I can change them!) and they were great for the 3 races in the USA, however today they weren’t able to withstand the rubbish that had been washed onto the road from the rainy weather. 

I have nothing else to really say about it all. Congrats to Lisa for holding off Michelle for the win and to Nicole for 3rd place. X-tri: wonderful event as always. I just want to be able to do one of them properly one day! Maybe Singapore in 2012? 

So wrapping up a very disappointing 2011. I want to put it behind me and forget it ever happened really. Things that I have learnt: 
-          Yes I’m still a hard arsed angry b***h: still finishing two of the races where I had flats (Yeppoon and Japan 70.3) 
-          I am having a crack and it’s not easy. Being a pro athlete is not at all glamorous when you are not quite up there (YET!). Sponsorship is NOT that 
            easy to acquire and hearing ‘No’ 50 times a week is a little soul destroying and you question your chosen path. I am pretty much broke right now 
            and scrapping through life, but that’s ok (I think!). 
-          I am learning to takes risks- I have left one life behind and all I know, moved interstate to a new place where I knew no-one to start something 
            completely new and different (but am now questioning why I didn’t do it at the start of the year!) 
-          That I am blessed to have a mother that is my biggest fan and supporter out there. 
-          To have a few sponsors that are taking a chance on someone who isn’t yet one of the big hitters; Mizuno Australia, Enervit, Compressport, Allez 
            Sport Mooloolaba and Cyclezone Mooloolaba. Your support makes life that little bit easier to handle at the tough times. 
-          That after today I am on the right track. I would love to have found out where my run legs were at and just how much of a dent I could have made 
            on the second half of the bike but that’s something I’ll have to wait to find out. 
-          And lastly: listen to your bodies! No-one knows it better than you! If your body is telling you owie, don’t do a session just because it’s written on 
            your program. Missing one session it’s going to make or break you. Better to miss one afternoon than a whole season! 
-          And things could always be worse: I’m attending the opening of Katie’s bench on Mooloolaba hill this Thursday. I still miss her terribly. 12 months 
            ago I bet she never expected NOT to be here. 

Merry Christmas to all. 

2012 can’t get here fast enough! 

Rachie signing out for 2011 xo

Getting back into the swing of things... was my body ready for it after the lazy days with some days the most exercise being the walk up and down the 20 steps of stairs in my house. I was ready and excited to find out. This month we gradually started to ease back into training focussing mostly just on our aerobic capacity and strength conditioning work.

Earlier this month, we had testing at NSWIS. This involved testing our VO2 max levels on the treadmill but more importantly analysing our running technique to be able to run faster and more efficient. This then helps us to incorporate strength and conditioning work into our everyday environment to get those magic golden glutes! We have a great team at the NSWIS that help us sort out not only our physical issues but also the mental and issues outside the triathlon world like university. I applied for a new degree for next year with distance education as this would allow me to finish a degree earlier and take it away with me overseas. 

As its time to start getting serious again,  I am currently in Falls Creek in altitude just over the border of NSW. It has been fairly fresh up here with it not reaching over 10 degrees yet. Falls Creek especially this camp is not over doing it as being at altitude means you have less oxygen to breathe whilst training. Every morning we have a routine of testing that we must complete to check if we are hydrated, our weight, oxygen levels, haemoglobin and our training diary. This place is like a home away from home. Although we are in isolation from the real world, it’s great to be running on the trails in the fresh air and in such a elite environment.  I enjoy getting out of our house and going to the gym everyday for our session as it is something different to what we usually do and a important component in our sport. The pool at Mt Beauty has been abit chilly so I have been wearing a speed suit for each warmth- it might even make me a tad quicker beating the newbie Grace in our 66m butterfly challenge.

It will be great to go home as 3 days after we do I turn the magic 19 years old and have Christmas to look forward to with the family. My room is also getting a renovation which I am excited about to see when I arrive home