Natalie Van Coevorden- Australian Triathlete

Photo credit- Fotorunners After a 17 hour straight flight home from Dallas, it was great to have two feet on solid ground back on home soil. Most of all, I missed my beautiful dog. This year was a good developing year coming back from surgery last year and I learnt a lot about getting back on the WTS circuit every race. The dynamics of the race changed, tactics came into play for Olympic points and people generally got stronger. Chicago World championships didn’t end up the way that I worked hard for in training as an Olympic distance turned into a sprint. It wasn’t the ending that I wanted for the ITU year with a 7 th place at under 23 world championships but it makes me even more determined to work hard in building up strength in the off season for a big year next year. I am happy to be back at NSWIS gym working with my same strength and conditioning coach from last year, working on fundamentals for my weaknesses.  ...

  "As an athlete and you can ask any top athlete, if you start doubting yourself, you have already lost the race" Usain Bolt Sitting on the plane home from Stockholm, I read that quote above in an article about Bolt winning the 100m final by 0.01 seconds. When you put yourself on the start line, hundredths of thoughts run through your head and doubt is one of them. Have I done enough? But this session didn’t go well? What if I take this corner too fast? The list goes on.. I thought doubt and nerves would be playing on my mind because of being sick in hospital a few weeks ago. I remember getting the email confirming my start for Stockholm when I was in a hospital bed and from that moment on, I was determined to get myself in working order. Surprisingly, I was the most relaxed I have ever been standing on a WTS start line. I had a clear focus and didn’t put pressure on myself for things I thought I missed out on. I knew what I had to do to put myself in t...

Sometimes life throws things at you. No reason to explain it but asks you to deal with it the best way humanly possible. How are you going to get over this bump in the road?  Leading into Hamburg I was feeling unwell and took it pretty easy. I had three days where I felt revitalised and thought maybe I would be going into WTS Hamburg feeling refreshed.   Unfortunately, my body felt otherwise. Two days before the race, I was throwing up and the thought of food made me feel even sicker.   I lined up on Saturday afternoon, put my game face on and wanted to do the best race I could under the circumstances. I dove into the water and my body felt so weak. Coming out of the water 40 seconds back, doesn’t reflect at all how I have been swimming over the past few weeks. My arms had nothing to give and neither did my legs when I wanted to accelerate out of the saddle. I hate to DNF but on Saturday, my body had nothing to give and at the world stage, you cannot be off your game b...

                                 Photo by Etienne Van Rensburg From parking your car and nearly missing that pole with your rear view mirror to missing out on that sprint finish by 0.01 seconds, life is a game of inches.   I have learnt over the past month the importance of that inch. The knowledge of every small detail is like a passport you can take anywhere in the world. Just like baking a cake, if you don’t follow the recipe and take a short cut, the likelihood of the cake turning out is a hit and miss. After my first race in Europe, London WTS, I had some solid weeks of training building up some consistency, confidence and warming (literally) back into Vitoria Gasteiz.   Summer has arrived for us or otherwise known as a “heatwave “ for the Europeans. You get into a routine of what you do on each day every week and like they say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It is always nice bei...

London- reminds me alittle bit of home! After arriving in Vitoria Gasteiz a week ago, it gave me a chance to settle back in and get some quality sessions in post travel. This year for me has been the hardest to say goodbye to home and fit back into Vitoria after spending a year at home last year after my surgery. After the Gold Coast, I started second guessing myself a lot about my place in the sport. Having a good month worth of training in Wollongong and a few small races to get some confidence back into my training and racing has helped me a lot. Pre race was good to see bits and pieces of London like Buckingham Palace and ride on the course in Hyde park where we got stopped by a horses practicing for the Queen’s birthday long weekend. Last time I was in London was for World Championships in 2013. I was pretty disappointed with my result, so I was excited to come back and give it a crack. Race day started late in the afternoon on Sunday and I find myself getting antsy about ...

I am looking at my third year in Auckland as a mixed bag of lollies. You like some lollies you get and some lollies you leave behind everytime. I was looking forward to racing Auckland this year and I have always loved this course but somewhere in the back of my mind, it was a big daunting experience. WTS racing is different racing altogether and it was my first WTS back since August 2013. Every opportunity is one to learn from and build on especially in my comeback year. We always have perfect preparation in Wollongong to meet and exceed the demands of competition and trust me some sessions were not pretty. The swim was 2 laps of 750m non wetsuit swim. I didn’t have my usual spark, and got caught up in the fighting and didn’t get clear water till the first buoy. We stayed in the same group for both laps of the swim and exited the water just over 30 seconds back off the front group of girls.  Jumping on my bike, I saw who was around me and knew we had some strong cycli...

My fourth year back in Mooloolaba, it never disappoints with warm water, great views and sunshine. Leading into Mooloolaba World Cup, we had a perfect training race in Wollongong the week before to sharpen up with. It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly been a year since I had a hip arthroscopy already. I couldn’t be anymore grateful that I had a pretty easy but long recovery to get back on the circuit. photo credit- eyes wide open Photo credit- Taylor C With the big surf, they had to move the start of the race to where the surf was smaller down the beach. Warming up, I was getting tossed, turned, flipped, a mouthful of saltwater and actually alittle scared of the waves. Walking back to line up, all I was thinking was, we do this every week in Wollongong. If I am scared, everyone else is just as scared as me, if not even more scared which I had to use to my advantage. I knew I needed to have fast start into the water, get over the breakers and get into a rhythm...

Wollongong OTU Race There is nothing more exciting than not having to pack up your bike up to go to a race. Wollongong has been my second home for the past four years and I couldn’t ask for a closer race to home with a 10 minute ride to race start. It didn’t even feel like I had to race. Being a local race, it was great to have so much local support from family and friends out on the course cheering us on. After Kinloch, I wasn’t happy at all with any part of the processes of that race so it was back to training and back to building up confidence in me, on what I knew I could do best. I looked at Wollongong as a good training race leading into Mooloolaba and Auckland WTS, as I missed Devonport and a week or two of solid running with groin tightness. We have been training pretty hard over the past few weeks and the Saturday before the race was honestly a good physical and mental break to relax before the race. It felt like another training day being surrounded by the othe...

Wollongong. The place I call home for 6 of the 7 days of the week. Living 1km from the beach at my home in Wollongong with the John and Christine O’Connell, I couldn’t ask for a better environment to be around on a day to day basis. Nothing beats jumping into 25 degree water to end the day to relax after a hard days training.  Or jumping out on the surf board with John and attempting to catch a few waves!   A big thank you to them for letting me in their family home for the next few months. My favourite is Saturday mornings when I get spoiled rotten with pancakes when I walk in the door from a hard ride. I have been clocking up the km’s on the bike with the wizards girls and sometimes you even get a free mud bath to come with a long ride. People pay big bucks to get what we got off wheel sucking when it rains. ;) This ride is also one of my favourite and hardest rides of the week which is a 100km loop that involves QOM, some pace line efforts and mad m...