It’s not about perfect. Its about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day that’s when transformation happens. That’s how change happens!

 

Arriving back from Noosa, I reset my mind into 27 days of hard work before 70.3 Western Sydney. I sat down with my computer with training peaks infront of me and put in everything I knew I had to do, to be best prepared for race day. Having already been on my TT for the last month, I didn’t have to change my training around too much. I was excited and motivated to dip my toes back into the long distance triathlon scene with it being something that I wish to pursue more regularly in the near future.

To break up the month of training, I headed to Hamilton Island for the first time as an ambassador for the triathlon and ocean swim. I decided not to taper as I wanted to go in fatigued under a week of training stress. It was definitely pain in paradise as I never expected the course to be so hilly. It’s such an iconic race with riding on the airport runaway a standout feature. The smaller race atmosphere makes it a great community event and I was happy to take the win. Next day, I backed up and won the 2km ocean swim. Thanks to Stephen Jackson for a great weekend and looking after us so well at the event and with other things to do on the island. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to go back next year!

Three weeks of hard training went by so fast! I was happy with how diligently I kept to my weekly training plan and I got under my belt 3 weeks of consistent training. I have perfect training grounds at home with a 30km stretch of road one way with one set of traffic lights, gravel trails to do my long tempo runs on and my awesome sponsor Aquafit gym where I swim and do my gym program. I train the best when I am happy and home is somewhere that does that.

More than ever this year, I don’t get that nervous, sick feeling before a race anymore.

Somehow I have worked out how to calm myself and stand on the start line with confidence. Another 4am start to the day, swim warm up at 5.40 and a start time of 6.18, I was ready to give my last race of the year a good crack. I lead out of the 1.9km swim with Annabel on my feet with a 2 min gap over the next two people. The course is fairly flat and fast and I knew what to expect having ridden it the previous week. I sat on the front for the first half of the first lap controlling the pace. A slower pro male overtook us both and that was the last time I saw both of them. I rode by myself for the rest of the 90km on the two lap course. I tried to just focus on myself and what I needed I do. If anything could change with 70.3 racing, I think women need a bigger time gap between them and the pro males. It means we are racing are our race and they can race theirs.

I came into T2 roughly 4 mins 20 down in 2nd place. I headed out into the unknown for the next 21km. The cloud cover started to rise and every step was getting hotter. My first 12km was exactly the way I wanted to run. My tempo runs have been progressing better than I ever thought and I knew I could run a good pace. By the middle 15km or so, I was trying to get as much ice as I could down my suit and I started to hit a little wall. I probably should have taken in another gel. I got passed into 3rd place and I just wanted to keep ticking away, because the race isnt over till its over. I ended up being 40 seconds down on 2nd place. I gave it everything I had and that’s all you can do when you line up on the start line.

Looking back on my second crack at a 70.3, I have learnt so much already about the training, nutrition and mental mindset you need to have to be successful at this distance. Sometimes I forget that someone like Annabel has a good 10 years more experience than me and it’s a exciting prospect to get stronger and smarter as I get older. Its been a great past two months of racing with a 2nd at Nepean, 2nd at Noosa, 1st Hamilton Island and a 3rd at Western Sydney 70.3. They do say practice makes perfect and my champagne spraying has definitely improved since Noosa! I knew what my goals were over the past two months and I put 100 percent intent into achieving them. Thank you to everyone that supported me this year, now its time to rest the body and mind before a big 2017!

Thank you to Witsup and Delly Carr for the photos!