April Monthly Report

“This is my office, I know what to do”. Speaking to Michael Lloyd, the AIS sports psychologist, gave me an excellent insight into the sometimes undiscovered aspects of the mental side of elite sport. We as athletes, sometimes overlook these or even over analyse them allowing them to become barriers or challenges that we should not need to face.  Training and racing both require mental skills that we may have already or need to develop to become better athletes- the sheer guts and determination to be win.

Racing my first Dextro World Triathlon Series race was exciting. I wouldn’t say that everything turned out perfectly but you have to start somewhere.  I have been working hard on my swim, trying to “chick” the boys especially in harder sessions and basically understanding “real world” pace. Sydney’s swim gave me a good idea of how the best of the best swim. Coming out near the front was important and integrating the skills that we had been practicing in transition to get onto the front bunch.  I learnt a lot in that ride about positioning and the effects that it takes. Sitting there near the back wasn’t ideal with all the tight corners and 180 degree u turns. I need to become more confident in riding up the front to avoid bad wheels. As the two bunches joined just abit before half way, it came down to a runners race with about 50 girls in the main pack. With all these extra efforts coming out of the corners, I think this had a negative effect on my run. Training had been going well- seeing little improvements in time, lactate build up and heart rate variability.  Coming in 39^th, I had the attitude on the start line of I have got nothing to lose and that is how it finished. Hopefully it’s the start of many more to come!

Before leaving for overseas, I got a SRM put on my bike. A SRM measures power, cadence, speed, heart rate, temperature and allows intervals.  A handy device for sessions and races to show watts produced e.g. hill reps. It can also be used to show difference in sessions depending on the heat outside, looking out heart rate and watts and how it affects you.

On the 24^th of April, it was time to say good bye to Australia for 153 days. Heading to America, it least it felt like we only lost a few hours with now being basically a day behind Australia. With abit more than a few hours travel time, we arrived in Florida to friendly faces of John and the kids Lachlan and Joel, who own AAA Tri Camp. We are lucky to have them as they provide us with a home away from home environment. This year we are lucky to be swimming closer at NTC ( National Training Centre) which is an outdoor 50m pool. Not sure if the water is so clear or we were extremely jet lagged as on the first day we kept missing the wall. We welcomed back the 16km undulating, no where to hide from the sun dirt trail and Mt Sugarloaf for Huatulco race stimulation. I have been with Ryan Bailie, another NSWIS athlete and Drew Box from QAS in Florida who have provided me with plenty of laughs or should I say ganging up on the girl!

I am currently sitting in Huatulco, looking over the views of the ocean and sitting in perfect conditions that the air conditioning provides. Huatulco is a hard, hot and challenging course that took a lot out of me last year. I race at 8am tomorrow morning, just as the sun is starting to come through the clouds and finishing in the soaring heat. With training in Florida, we have been adapting to the heat but it still hits you hard. Fingers crossed for a good race. J