December Monthly Report

“So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you it can't be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself and those around you, there are no limits. “

 

These inspirational words come courtesy of Michael Phelps and going into 2013 will help me to form my goals and focus on the year ahead.

 

December was spent at Falls Creek. We were lucky to have Bobby McGee, an American running coach, to help us with drills and techniques that can be used in our everyday training environment.  Falls Creek is a perfect opportunity to work on comments from Bobby and to concentrate on what I need to do to improve performance. This year we did something different with Bobby - a group mental skills session. Is it worth it? What are you afraid of? Can you deal? How well can you execute? This got me thinking about the things I do best as well as things I can improve on. 2013, a new year, is an excellent opportunity to start fresh.


 
 
 
Falls has the best vending machine catering for our essential needs. Time up there goes so quick and before I knew it, we were packing up ready to go home. I don’t like mentioning the weather but when its 40 degrees in Brisbane, it was funny to think we would have a few inches of snow. It was my white Christmas that we will never have here in Australia. To end our pretend Christmas and time at Falls for 2012, we organized a family Christmas dinner with silly hats, Bon Bon jokes, an overdose on ham and secret Santa presents. It was a nice way to end. I would like to thank Berta for keeping me intact  during our stay in Falls with massages to complete my daily training.
 
 
Probably not the best birthday present, but a seven hour drive home from Falls Creek was in order. I was excited to get home and spend time with my family. I walked in the door to this stunning cake and a few presents. I am finally out of my terrible teens. I suppose I should be grateful I even got my 20th, as the 21st of December was meant to be the end of the world but hey we are all still alive yeah?

 

 

 


Christmas was only a few days later and it felt like I was having my third Christmas within a few days. Like an excited child, I was wide awake two hours before the rest of my family, just waiting to hear movement upstairs. The rain didn’t dim spirits and I had a wonderful day with my family. With all my new technology - my kindle, new laptop and my Iphone 5, I had plenty of time to become a technology genius and try and work out these 21st century gadgets(joking). Thanks to HUUB for the new skinsuit, wetsuit and visors- the Australian post courier felt like Santa. Christmas is always over quick but with my house filled with a giant Christmas tree, Christmas decorations everywhere and Christmas lights out the front, the festive season is more than just one day.

 

It is now 2013 and I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas with family and friends and enjoyed their time off work to share in once in a life time memories. The fireworks always finish the year with a bang and the Sydney ones put on a show!! My brother has helped me put together a review for 2012, summing up what the year brought with a short video via this link
 

 

So what’s in store for 2013? I don’t know but I have 365 days to work it out : )

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WTS Season!

Image
          ITU season overall Driving home from our caving experience in December 2017 with my previous psychologist Jason Patchell, we spoke about what I wanted to achieve this year and how I was going to do it. One of the main things he asked me was what I wanted to set as an overall series goal for the WTS series. After placing 21 st last year, I said a top 15 would be a good progression forward. He looked at me said " what about a top 10? " I tossed it back and forward in my mind wandering if It was a possibility. We finished that conversation with why not make it a challenge and how I was going to get there with other key processes throughout the season. One of my key themes for the year was having confidence in the whole picture. Starting my WTS season with a podium in Abu Dhabi really set the tone for the year and was a big driving force for my confidence and my ability to compete against the best girls in the world. That race was...
Read more

Two weekends. Two races. Two second places

Image
October is a month I really look forward to with two consecutive weekends of hard racing at home in Australia! I was feeling good leading up to Nepean and Noosa. I had a month of consistent sessions and I could see improvement every week especially in my running speed. This time of year I can train when I want and you certainly appreciate the skill involved in coaching when you are under your own guidance. I put old fashioned pen to paper to detail my training weeks and then set about ticking off each session. The morning of the Nepean was absolutely freezing. I had gloves, tights and headwear on just to keep warm and I was still shaking. It was a wetsuit swim for the first time in the 6 years that I have competed and I was glad of the added protection. The women’s field was pretty small and I lead out with five of us exiting the water together. I was a little disappointed with the swim based on how well I have been swimming but the cold was definitely a factor. In the fi...
Read more

WTS Abu Dhabi 2018 - my first WTS podium

Image
With Abu Dhabi on the horizon, I had 4 weeks of consistent training in our Woll ongong base with the knowledge of the demands that the race in Abu Dhabi would have. Building on training and confidence each week was a great starting base for the season. Doing some new sessions in our training environment in this year has lit a new spark giving me confidence back in areas that I had lost. On 16 th February I raced in Devonport Oceania Champs where I placed second after a full week of training. It was great to put processes in place under fatigue and get a full race under my belt. Race day threw everyone off guard with rain starting to fall and a colder air temperature. Abu Dhabi gets about three days of rain a year and racing on the F1 track was going to make critical moments even trickier. Before I even got to the race site, I was covered in sand, water and muck off the roads. I knew that having a good pre-race plan...
Read more