Yokoahama WTS





Leading into Yokohama, I was training down in Canberra apart of a sleep high/sleep low carbohydrate study based out of the Australian Institute of Sport. It gave me an interesting insight into my daily nutrition and how to fuel pre/post session. More than anything I realised how mentally ingrained certain habits are e.g. fuelling post session.  Although we were a part of this study, we incorporated normal training and specific Yokohama sessions. Being based out of Canberra, I am very grateful for the use of the world class facilities and the amazing training grounds Canberra has to offer. It is the best place I have trained and I look forward to going back hopefully in the future to make the most of it. With a month in Canberra, I gained consistency in our weekly training which gave me a great indicator of my form and the opportunity to go into Yokohama with a positive mentality looking towards the race.










My last time in Yokohama was in 2013 which felt like yesterday when I landed into the land of the rising sun. Unfortunately, the sun decided not to rise for us on race day and the rain started to pour down. I know a lot of people lose sight of processes when the heavens decide to open up and I know that myself when I crashed here in 2013 on slippery white lines. I decided to stay out of the water for warm up and keep warm. Most people lined up to the right on the pontoon and I followed the trend. I always know when the pace is on, when we are in single file but to be honest, I actually couldn’t see a thing because my goggles fogged up. I dove back in for the 2nd lap and found myself sitting on Flora Duffy feet for the rest of the swim. I exited the water in 6th position and the only thought going through my head was “that’s your race right there”.  




After you jump on your bike, those first few km’s are the critical moments to get on or get left in no man’s land. I didn’t have my feet in my shoes for ages but I got on good wheels and found myself in a small chase group behind the two leaders. The roads were wet and Yokohama is known for its love of zebra crossings on every corner. I was constantly reciting the basics in my head of pressure on your outside foot, break going into corner; not around and looking through the corner. Our group was constantly changing throughout the ride with people hitting in the deck on the same corner on the new part of the course. I was lucky that I found myself in a good position every time to have enough time to react and get around the chaos. I was actually so happy to finish the 9 lap course upright and I felt like I had this weight lifted off my shoulders.




In Canberra, we did three performance trials where we did a specific ergo session and a run off the bike on the track. Although this session was by far the hardest, it was perfect stimulation for the race ahead and I enjoyed pushing myself. I knew we had a pretty decent time gap to the big group behind us but this never means the race is over. I wanted to run strong and keep my form under fatigue. The girls went out fast but I kept to myself and wanted to do my best work in the back end of my race. I lost of one of my gels in the race so I didn’t know if my nutrition was going to affect me. I kept ticking away and by the third lap I had caught three girls in front of me. The u turn on the run course was a good chance to see where people were. After just hitting my final lap, I got over taken by three girls from the group behind us but with not much running to go, I knew I had it in me to have a solid end result. I kept pushing all the way to the line for a sprint finish for 10th place. It’s been a long time coming but I am excited to put the hard work on show and have a consistent race. This definitely makes me hungry for more and I am looking forward to the races to come.


Photo Credit- Etienne Van Rensburg

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