When my coach told me a few months ago that this winter would be physically and mentally challenging, I didn't really know what to expect. I knew it would be far from a walk in the park and just living away from home is hard enough at times. I have never trained this much or this hard before and as a result, never eaten so much or slept so well!
Lately most of my training has been focused on my swimming. As most people who know me will admit, I'm not the quickest fish in the ocean, however this little fish is slowly finding some speed. I’m currently swimming 40+ km per week and late last week I managed to punch out a 500m personal best after I'd already swum 9.5km that day, so I'm happy on how my swimming is improving.
Even with the increased swimming load, my bike has far from slacked off. I’m still riding about 10hrs per week and I have a new best friend; hills. As with any friendship, we have the odd disagreement, but we are usually friends again at the end of a session.
My running is just in a maintenance mode so I’m only running about twice a week. This certainly doesn’t mean that it has dropped off at all, but it’s quality over quantity at the moment. Just yesterday I ran 9.15min for a 3km time trial.
I am enjoying living in Canberra, it's certainly a lot different to back home in Forster. The lifestyle here is almost the complete opposite. I miss the coast life from back home but I'll always still be a coast boy. The city lifestyle takes some adapting and unfortunately in Canberra I also have to fight with the single degree max temperatures and the fact that the closest beach is a good 2hr drive. However I've made some good friends here in Canberra, they keep my days busy and my addiction for coffee and sushi growing.
So what is coming up for me? Well I shall continue to swim up and down the black line until my arms fall off, I will be coming into Duathlon season soon and first triathlon race looks to be in September at Woolgoolga. Apart from that, I'll continue training hard in search for a big result at World Champs at Auckland in Late October.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Stay posted for more updates to come.
