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I never do anything in halves and why would I just do one thing, when I could do a million?

 

2011, so far has been an exciting in my world of triathlon and beyond the world of swim, bike run.

 

Having spent most of January climbing the hills of the Snowy Mountains, and dodging the wild Queensland weather on the Gold Coast – I am learning that after a year of rapid improvement, it is now about being consistent & PATIENT and getting the little things right.

 

As a textbook example of a Gen Y kid I want everything yesterday – which is not necessarily a bad thing. I will use the euphemism of hungry and determined as opposed to impatient. But such “hunger” means I over-analyze everything and expect world domination after 18mths in the sport.

 

My first hit out – for 2011 was none other than 3^rd round of the Kurnell Olympics – amidst Sydney’s heat wave and preceeding a 48 degree day where I ran 26km and swam 3km! The heat got to me, and not so graciously collapsed with heat exhaustion. But the win out of that was I finished, despite having little recollection of the last 500m, still managed 4^th overall and your actions of yesterday effect today.

 

The first goal race for 2011 – Geelong, and I was excited to race despite the back and forth of triathlon? Duathlon? Cancelled? – With the wind still up, and coming at every direction – given that I am knee-high to a grasshopper, and not as strong on the bike as my other legs, I struggled and battled in the wind. But was happy with improvements and the training is paying off , clocking the fastest female run splu– and finishing 2^nd to Tils in the Opens.

 

I am now gearing up for Husski Sprint, Mooloolaba and Sydney races – along with Surf Lifesaving State & National Championships in the next month.  To make the year even all the more crazy I have commenced studying my Masters of Journalism which has always been something I have been so passionate about and I am excited that I am able to go back to university.

 

 

I am excited about my last race for the season – and sometimes I need to remind myself that 18mths ago I wasn’t swimming or riding and a 20min run 3 times a week was pretty much the extent of exercise. I am proud of what I achieved and excited about what lies ahead.

 

Oh, and I couldn’t think of an appropriate segue to plug my 3 new sponsors – but I am so excited to have teamed up with:

 

 Torq Nutrition – A sports nutrition company with products made from all natural sources and nothing artificial. I was so excited by their products that I was no longer eating all natural products daily and shoving artificial stuff in my mouth for training and racing. A massive thanks to Dean and his team for helping me out with the best products and believing in me.

 

Rival Swimwear & Running Bare – to have teamed up with these 2 brands is amazing. I now am donned in BRIGHT swimming, and running gear. So now not only can everyone hear me they can now spot me a mile away. To be associated with the Rival & Running Bare brands is very humbling that these brands believe in me and my goals.

 

The Running Company _ these guys are awesome. They throw you on a treadmill and put you in a million pairs of shoes to make sure you get the right pair. They make you feel like the Cindarella version of running J

I’d love to be continuing my blogs with stories about all the great training I’ve been doing or photos from the last great place I got to train but unfortunately that hasn’t been the case lately.  My training has been somewhat limited and interrupted lately due to an ongoing niggling injury that came about from nothing more than pushing just a little bit too hard during one session.

 

Since then I haven’t been able to ride or run because of a troublesome ITB that has resulted in some inflammation around the knee that has been causing pain.  I’ve become very well acquainted with both my physio’s and masseur’s massage tables to try and rectify the problem.  And I’ve also learnt than when someone is digging their fists or forearms into your leg or you hear the terms acupuncture, dry needling or cupping (the later leaving you with marks similar to what you would expect if you were abducted by aliens), by no means should you expect some enjoyable reprieve from the injury, in fact the pain around my knee seemed insignificant at times compared to some of my time on the table!  Unfortunately no amount of pain I endured seems to be fixing the problem and trust me, the pain I’ve felt while on those tables should be counting for something!  It got to the point where my right ITB was just as loose as the left but I was still getting pain.  The next and supposed to be final step was a cortisone injection in the knee to get rid of the swelling but one week on I am still experiencing pain almost immediately upon beginning to run.  I’ve just been to see a specialist and have been booked in for an MRI later this week that will hopefully shed some light on what is going on.

 

I’ve always been taught to look at the positive side of things and as hard as it is at times there have been positives in this whole experience.  It has given me a great opportunity to work on my swim.  But as I’m sure any triathlete or swimmer will tell you; once you’ve seen one black line you’ve seen them all, so the training stories I could tell you are somewhat limited and uninspiring to say the least!

 

Hopefully my next update will be within days and it will be coming somewhere from the running or riding trails and not another doctor or physio office…here’s hoping! 

My triathlon career is only a short one, and I don’t have tales of lots of travelling to races, or growing up watching international races, or even local races. My first taste of triathlon was watching Emma Snowsill winning the gold in Beijing, and my Dad saying, “I am surprised you haven’t done a triathlon.” Since then, there has been a desire to give it a go – I just didn’t realise I would love it as much as I do. I am only new to the sport, and given that my first race was less than a year ago, transition areas with a copious amount of bikes, and running with my shoes on still scares me (but just a little).

For the last 10 years, if anyone ever needed to find me I was “down the beach” loitering on the steps of the surf club, in the gym, or catching “party waves” but most commonly doing lap after lap of Bondi running on the soft sand. I have been heavily involved in the Surf Life Saving, and been in pursuit of an Australian Title for many years. After a disappointing 2009 season – I needed a change.




So I did my maths:

 SIOBHAN + SWIM – BIKE + RUN = TRIATHLON

Ok, so maths is not my strong point, and I didn’t have a bike. But I like a challenge – so in May last year I bought a bike, and learnt that why would I do one sport when I can do three sports? J

I found myself being coached by the mad professor – Spot Anderson and the team at Bondi Fit and he has helped me achieve some pretty amazing things in such a short amount of time.

At my first race at Noosa last year – I walked past the pros’ bikes and had the fleeting thought that maybe one day I would like to race as a pro. 2hrs 25 mins later I knew that I definitely want to race as a pro, and had so much work to do; as 2hrs 25 just was NOT going to cut it.

The past year has been nothing short of amazing. I raced my first ever triathlon, a number of podium finishes in my age group in a number of races, raced against professionals in the NSW Pro Tour Elimination in Husky, and left me wondering why I had waited until I was 22 to do a triathlon. The year even saw me get my first medal at the Surf Life Saving Australian Championships (and in this case silver felt like gold)

At the moment I am at home in Sydney, and getting back into training after a break. I am really enjoying the off season – with the longer rides, and runs and starting to build up a fair few kms in the pool. Even better – that Sydney doesn’t get too cold in winter so I can still jump in the surf for a session, although last week’s early morning swim saw me swim straight over the top of a 5ft shark – I believe my shrills of fear echoed from the point and could be heard up and down the east coast.

I love working hard, and seeing the results, I love people telling me I can’t do something, because I probably won’t stop until I do it – so I guess that with this being my first blog, I’ll be able to write about my journey in attempting to get my professional licence, and race as a professional triathlete.



Beyond the world of triathlons I love my morning coffee at my local café with my two best friends, I oddly like dressing up in fancy dress (even to training), love the sound of my own voice and more than anything else– I love coming home at the end of a REALLY long day to my crazy, but wonderful family.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated with things to come over the coming months. But at this stage all systems are GO for the City 2 Surf. I have one goal: My coach - Spot Anderson WILL NOT beat me by 1 second this year. I have every intention of making sure he gets CHICKED J

 

Hello Tribe Guys,

I am back from a weekend in the Alps !! I am the luckiest person to be part of such a great team in Dijon. Two of my team mates and another of their friends took me to Mont Blanc for the weekend. We got there on the Friday afternoon, settled in and got ready for our big Saturday planned. We started on Saturday from Passy and straight away were heading up hill to Megeve. We then descended into Flumet, where we started our climb up col des Aravis and down to la Clusas. We then headed around to la Clausaz and le Grand Bornand. From here it was up col de la Colombiere. This was my favorite of the four climbs, also my favorite to descend. I was amazed at how quickly I picked up speed, and it was a very fast and fun descent. From here it was a nice ride around to Cluses and back into Passy for a stop for some R&R; food, sun-bake and swim in the lake.  After this it was a climb back to where we were staying at les Contamines. All up for the day was 120kms.

Sunday we started with the descent from les Contamines down to St Gervais les Bains, around to Passy and climb into Servos around to les Houches and into Chamonix. As I rolled in and took a good look around me, I just rolled to a stop. I had to fight back tears of emotion; it was so amazing and beautiful. By far the most amazing place I have ever seen, the pictures I have do not show its true beauty in effect, and for every picture I took, there was ten thousand I missed!!!  We had lunch here and returned via the same route. I even managed to fill my water bottle with fresh melted Alp snow for the return journey.  When we got home after the 90kms we ended up in one of the water falls and the water was very cold, put we all had a great time. It was then into a rather slow transition into a 30 min run.

It doesn’t get better than this and I didn’t want to leave. I could have easily stayed for months. There is so much to do and see and so many places to go; we didn’t even scratch the surface.

We were very lucky with the weather, as it was perfect until the time we jumped into the car for the drive home. This was when the heavens opened up and poured with ran, and I was feeling very sad to be leaving.

So this week will be an easy one, as I will be heading to Chalain for an Olympic distance race. I will keep you up to date with the results.

Yvette 

Hey everybody and welcome to what I hope is the first of many blogs to come in the future!  I thought the most obviousplace to start my entry into the world of blogging would be to introduce myself and what I do.  My name is Nicholas Hull and I’m 22 and live in Brisbane, Queensland.  I’ve been competing in triathlons for about 8 years now and throughout this period of time I have finished my high school studies, been to university and completed a bachelor degree in applied science but perhaps most importantly; I have experienced some of the most significant highs and lows that this great sport of triathlon has to offer. 

Like many I can still remember where I was when Emma Snowsill won gold at the Olympics, when both Emma and Brad Kahledfeldt won gold at the Commonwealth Games, watching Craig Walton dominate the Noosa Triathlon year after year and Australia’s continued success at World Championship level.  During this time as an athlete I have survived what I thought was the most ridiculous training session I could ever have imagined, only to have it trumped by another session.  I have performed well enough to be able to step up onto the podium in local, state and national level races, with the most memorable being my 2^nd place finish at the 2010 National Olympic Distance Triathlon Championships in Canberra.  I have had the privilege of representing my country at both triathlon and duathlon with my most significant result being a 4^th place at the 2009 ITU Age Group Triathlon World Championships on the Gold Coast, Australia.  Unfortunately, like many I have also had my fair share of injuries, that at the time can be so frustrating but in the long run they only ever make us stronger.  I’ve seen some remarkable sights, not only around Australia but also around the world, while racing in New Zealand, Singapore and Canada.  I’ve had the opportunity to race against some of the best age group athletes in the world and more recently some of the greatest elite triathletes in the world as I myself continue to climb up the ranks in the sport.  But perhaps most importantly of all, this sport has introduced me to some remarkable and special people whom I am absolutely positive will remain lifelong friends.

This is just a snapshot of what I have already accomplished throughout the time that I have been involved in triathlons.  My future blogs will hopefully include many more stories of my experiences, be it people who I have the pleasure of meeting, where I am lucky enough to travel, what races I am racing and of course how they go and any other interesting stories, triathlon and non-triathlon related. 

I hope you have not only enjoyed reading my first ever blog but will continue to follow them with interest!

Nic

By Yvette Fisher 

Hi Triathlete Tribe,

A little bit about me, I started cycling after a career of ice skating, at the age of 14. I was attending Narrabeen Sports High School, in Sydney but they didn’t have a sports program for cycling, so I joined the triathlon program. Attending just the local, Warringah Triathlon Club races.

I sort of did what ever I wanted, and trained when I felt like it, but never got really serious about the whole thing. In 2001 I made the world’s team and traveled to Edmonton Canada getting 20^th place in the 18-19 age group. Still, I didn’t train very hard and made the team again for 2002 in Cancun Mexico.  So I decided about this time to get more serious and put in the required time to get a better result.  I trained very hard, with Barry Golding, but on the day of the race, my nutritional skills let me down, and I crashed in the run, having to walk for the first time ever. Still, I managed to improve my result from the previous year with 16^th in the 20-24 age. After this race I was plagued with injury, but had the worlds fever, and still attended Queenstown New Zealand in 2003, again getting 16^th place in the 20-24 age. After this I spent many hours in the pool, with Narell Simpson, as I went from injury to injury. (If anyone needs advice on an injury, think I’m as good as a doctor in the field now).

As I have no sponsors 2004 was a quiet year of getting myself sorted, working hard and saving up again. Roll on 2005 with my coach Ian, and I was ready to try again at Hawaii, only to be struck down, yet again 2 months before the race. I ended up having reconstruction surgery on my knee. I hoped that this would be the end of problems for me.

I didn’t train much and had all but given up by 2007, when life took me to Canberra and I started training with the Tridents Triathlon Club and coach Ben Gathercole. This was the saviour I was looking for and resurrected triathlon in me. The 07-08 season went well and I had much work to do to get fit again. 08-09 was devastating with the loss of my parents and again fall in fitness due to this.  I still managed to get a spot in the Gold Coast world’s team for 2009.  Unfortunately the race didn’t go to plan with a flat tire on the bike, then a very disappointing run. Coming home with 11^th place, in the 25-29 age.

Pushing on, the 09-10 season went fantastic. I was back on track and getting my fitness again. I won the Canberra Half Iron Man, first female age grouper home,  got 2^nd in the National titles (3^rd female home, and now qualified for a pro license) and placed 2^nd to Barbara Riveros in the NSW pro elimination race at Huskission.

I started preparation to get away from full time work and go race in France from May to September with the Dijon Club in division 2.

So here I am in Dijon France!!! Learning a new language and eating plenty of bread and cheese.  I had only been here a week and again my knee has let me down. After 2005 I thought it was fine and slowly stopped all the exercises that should be done daily!!! Well, proven wrong I am!! and I’m sure that I’m not the only athlete that loves the tri training, but incredibly lazy when it come to the phyiso exercises and stretching. So let this be a lesson to all of you, the physio exercises are the most important part, and be careful if you think it’s all ok.

I still managed to get 24^th in the first Division 2 race. Only one week after the injury, I was happy to finish the race, but that is not the result nor the times I was looking for.  It’s been 3 weeks now since the injury, which was a big stack down a mountain in a running race, and I am on the mend. I raced a sprint in Autun, placing first and qualifying for a super sprint in the afternoon, again placing first.

So as you can see, I’ve never had a great run of things, but I like to think I’m strong and determined. My plan from here is to race worlds in Budapest and return to Aussie and race pro from there in Olympic and sprint distances (may be a few half IM for fun). I am hoping once home that I can wind down the work front and keep training full time, but this all depends on the bank balance (I’m sure you can all relate).

 I definitely want to do an IM and hope I will be able to get to Hawaii IM in a few more years, when I step up to the long distances.

And remember to always do your exercises!!

Stay tuned for more up dates. Train hard, train safe!!

Yvette