Natalie Van Coevorden- Australian Triathlete

I have described the last 12 days as a “working holiday“ to many. It might sound funny and I know you can’t be, but I felt jet lagged from New Zealand with my body so out of whack with the time zone changes. Although Queensland doesn’t allow a holiday sleep in with a 5.30am sunrise, we headed to Mooloolaba with a job to do after Wellington. From Wellington to Mooloolaba, it was important to recover and I had an easier week working into the weekend. We all enjoyed the down time and a few short sharp sessions to get the body back into race gear. The night before the race, instead of the normal pizza and pasta, we went with what Erin Densham did last year to win Mooloolaba, with pre race Thai. I think I will be having thai more often now ;).       USM events and ITU made the decision earlier in the week to change the swim to the canal rather than the ocean due to dangerous surf conditions. The decision didn’t ...

  Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, the first draft of this report is clocking up some frequent flyer points. Hopefully, it is an enjoyable read for the next customers reading the Qantas magazine who want to know “What you should do in Newcastle” and obviously, how I went during this race.   Often known as the place that is windy, wet, cold and hilly, Wellington lived up to its reputation on race day. When the sun rose on Friday morning, after getting in quite late Thursday night, it was a nice surprise to wake up to a beautiful autumn day. Wollongong earlier in the week had not seen the word “taper” and I enjoyed 3 full days of hard but meaningful training towards the weekend race. Friday was a bit of a hit and miss with how I felt and having a banana smoothie before our pre-race run probably was not the best idea. I am sure the girls agree!   A perfect start time of 10:30am, we woke up to what We...

  “Twists and Turns” This is the title of the Matthew Mitcham autobiography - a truly inspiring story that was compelling reading. He was a transitional athlete that moved from gymnastics and was picked up by an AIS coach mucking around at his local pool. He has moved past adversity and come out the other end with an Olympic Gold medal. “People kept remarking on how they were surprised that a gold medal and fame hadn′t changed me. I always responded, "Why would I change? Being me is the easiest person to be." He isn’t just a pretty face! Within my own life, although I don’t dive, fly or fall with style, I have my own twists and turns; not from 10m platform hitting the water at 60km an hour, thank goodness! Realistically, I twist :   rotation with every stroke in swimming ( I might be a bad example if you have ever watched me swim ;) ), daily exercises from Alex Price or the occasion dance move boogieing around ...

    I have finally come out of hiding for 2013. With a few months of base training under the belt, t raining has been going relatively well but I know I am no where near full race fitness. A late arrival on Thursday night to the White House. Yes, the White House- looks alittle bit like it. It is a 110 year old two storey weatherboard mansion. It is always nice to stay in places like this as it feels like a homely place to stay before a race. I even got to have a nice bath, as my blonde moments for the trip started as I thought there was no hot water in the shower.. I just had it on the cold tap :/ My third year back in Devonport and not much has changed. The normal pre race on Friday and finally it was time to race my first race of 2013.   A lot of people were going on about the choppy swim conditions with the extremely strong wind. To what I swam in at North Wollongong a few days ago, the waves looked t...

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 ...

“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 e...

November Monthly Report Currently sitting in the Alpine region of Victoria, 1600m above sea level, I am spending the next month in Falls Creek. I love coming up here to start the new season as the mountain air is amazing. Some snow predicted for next week so we will get an early white Christmas.   Most of November, I was able to relax and catch up with the little things I needed to do including baking a cheesecake. I was one happy chef to say the least- it was gone out of the fridge within a few days!   Getting back into the swing of things was hard and I can admit 100m of running down the road and I wanted to stop. Most days, my exercise was walking up and down the 20 stairs in my house. This month we gradually started to ease back into training focussing mostly on our aerobic capacity and strength conditioning work. Alex Price our physiotherapist in Wollongong has helped me out with new exercises after refle...