January Monthly Report


For 13 years of schooling, I came home every day to the question of “what did you do today?” “Nothing” was generally my answer as I went to the cupboard for afternoon tea. Now15 years later, I still get asked the same question, nothing has changed but my answer. Now I answer - I ran, swum, rode or spent a few hours catching up on sleep. I now describe my life as working nearly 365 days. Standing in front of three junior girls, on a development camp run by Jamie Turner and Kieran Barry, I got the chance to reminisce on where we have come from, why we choose what we did, the investment we have put in and what it requires to be good.  All of us 4 girls came to the same final conclusion that what we do is NOT a sacrifice – it is commitment of our time to strive for success, memories, goals, achievements, and unfortunately failures. The friends, travel and the positives I get out of it make my life an unbelievable dream that I could not have imagined even in year 12 at school when I was studying for my HSC.

 

Six years ago, I competed in my first Australia day Aquathon – it was a fun, competitive day out. It’s always an excellently run event, being the biggest Aquathon in Australia. This year it was the biggest event so far with a massive 2000 + field competing on the coastal edge of Wollongong with an international line up - good enough for some ITU points to be up for grabs( I wish ). Over the last 3 years, I have been lucky enough to come down from altitude and race. This year  the Aquathon challenged my base miles coming down off a massive run block.  You are either going to have off days or amazing days and this is one of my off ones. With no change of gear I felt quiet flat. It’s only the start to the year and I am looking forward to bigger races to come. As you can see from the last 4 years, I haven’t changed much , I still love my heel strike and my nice summer glow.


Riding all of December on my Giant fixie, I had a love/hate relationship with it. I wanted more gears but I enjoyed riding on it as it improved my skill base as you have no choice but to pedal around corners that you would normally stop pedalling on. We started the month with bike fits from Aaron Lean who is part of Cadence Performance Cycling. After a lengthy 3 hours of getting my new Giant bike set up, we found out that the frame wasn’t for me. In one way, it was disappointing as I still have not ridden up the hill in Falls Creek after 3 years. Coming back to home this disappointment went away pretty quick as I honestly missed my old school fixie. After our stay up the mountain, I had a new Giant bike waiting for me at Spearmans Cycles in Wollongong. Thanks to Jamie, Jo Hall and Ryan Lennox for organising my bike and getting me back on a Giant TCR Advanced. I can already tell it’s been a few months since have rode some km’s on the bike as my hands are showing impressive blisters on my palms.  I look forward to getting my fitness and bike confidence back after a long break and pushing some bike watts around the hills of Wollongong.

 
The weather gods have been playing some weird games as of late. From heatwaves to freezing cold, we have had it all. In Falls Creek we had an early leave from altitude due to the threat of bush fires. It was better to be safe than sorry and thanks to Jamie for organising us so quickly with accommodation - we packed up and moved when things became a bit dicey. In Wollongong, some wild weather along the coast line has been hitting us with wild winds and massive surf. With the beach being closed on a lot of days, I have been using the rock pools in my HUUB wetsuit for a pretty choppy swim. This week I felt like I was being blown away but as I am still here it must not have been too bad  ;)

 

 

 


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  1. Barefoot Pat18 August 2014 at 09:30

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