The start of a new season

I must make an effort to continue my blog because despite my 2011 worlds campaign being well and truly over, my career as a triathlete certainly is not... and all pro triathletes have blogs. So, I'll pretend to be one until I make it :)
It's been fairly well noted that I have had some setbacks since returning from America. I had two lazy weeks off after the race and then decided I would get back into training -well, swimming and riding since my hip was so injured and painful I couldn't run a step - so I didn't lose all of that hard earned fitness and could build on it for my next big race, the national long course championship at Falls Creek in February.
Of course you always feel terribly unfit when getting back into training but after a week and a half I was just starting to enjoy it again when I got knocked off my bike. One day in hospital and a couple more doing nothing at all, then gym only for about a week until I could start swimming again, and another few days until I got back on the bike.  Then it was back into unstructured training to just see how the body went along, and of course the fact that I didn't have any spare time to sit down and write a training program out (too much Christmas shopping to do! -oh and working 40hrs a week doesn't help either!)
December 11 was our first tri of the season at Beauty Point. It was a sprint distance race, 750m/20km/5km and because I couldn't run, I teamed up with "Dan the Man" Van der Vlist and entered the team category. We were called "Team Bike Crash" because his injuries from a bike crash prevented him from swimming and running.
I came out of the water with Melissa which I classed as a good swim for me, and then headed out onto the bike course into a stiff headwind. I still clocked about 35 minutes which is an improvement on last year's times (the BMC may have something to do with this) and an average of about 32km/h. Melissa, Kate, Hannah and I all rode within less than 30 seconds of each other. It was hard to watch the race draw to a conclusion without the power to be able to do anything about it though and I resolved: no more triathlons unless I can do the whole thing!

Of course Christmas is always the worst enemy of athletes, or at least ones with lots of family who like to cook, like me. It means time off training for travelling around various family members, lots of sitting around lazily, and far too much eating - especially bad foods!
I did get away with a couple of short rides and a short run on Christmas day though, and I have no one but myself to blame for eating too much Christmas pudding and chocolates.
It was back to work straight after Christmas and an attempt to quickly put together some training for the Bridport Olympic. The physio's advice was, don't even think about doing the Olympic distance due to my hip. However, always one to go against the best advice, I decided that as I managed to run for an hour a few days before the race, I would enter.
Lucky I did.
The Bridport water was beautiful although slightly choppy on the morning, which probably helped me come out of the water a little ahead of those who are good smooth water swimmers but find those kind of conditions a little daunting. After the first lap I was touching the feet of Paul Turner, which told me that either Tex was having a terrible day, or I was having a very good one. It was a bit of both, and Tex did pick up the pace when he saw me there, but I was stoked to come out with Steve Muir and just ahead of Roger Butorac.
Onto the bike and again a slight headwind on the way out but that made the return journey nice and fast. 1hr 9 minutes for the 40km - an average of 33.8km/h - and less than a minute behind Hannah, who wasn't going to run, so I had to be happy with that.
The run would be the test with very few k's in the legs beforehand. I could feel it - just heavy in the legs from being out of practice - but I still ran 43-something which was a nice surprise. It hurt though!
I was stoked to take my first Tassie win.

I had a huge training camp planned for the remainder of the week, while we would stay at Bridport with no work or distractions. But ironically I ended up spending three days completely motionless - the only thing I improved was my tan.
By the time real life resumed there was barely enough time to scrape together a few sessions to tide me through to the next race, especially considering all my old school friends decided to come to town for time out from their glamourous mainland lives, and socialised for a change.
Perhaps this relaxed, improvised start to 2012 training is doing something good for me, because I chalked up my second win of the season, first state series win and first triathlon State Championship on Sunday at Seven Mile Beach.
Now sprint distance is certainly not my forte and I went into it knowing that I would have to have the race of my life to beat Kate Pedley, so I was a bit nervous.
The start was late, the water was cold, but at least it was calm - never been taught how to swim in the surf! Also because there were so many people (many mainlanders seeking selection for the sprint worlds in NZ this year) we were impromtu-ely split into two waves - men and women. This worried me as I knew I wouldn't have any feet to draft off! Sure enough just after the first buoy I came into the lead which initially surprised me but was quite good fun.  I weaved my way through the tail-end males and managed to hit ALL of the buoys, which just proves how unco I am! Or that I have good aim?!
Unfortunately Hannah couldn't race so it was quite a novelty to come out of the water first. I passed Johnno in T1 (he was putting on his socks!) and hit the bike course with Dan Van der Vlist. Usually he speeds away from me but we played cat and mouse from a legal distance for the entire ride. There was a fair bit of drafting going on - partly due to the numbers on such a small course I suppose, but although it sucks, if you actually drop back like you're supposed to, it's not unavoidable. Anyway that aside, I came off the bike just ahead of Dan and decided I was going to have a lightning fast transition because I needed all the time I could get between me and Kate. But I was shaking so much it was hard to put my shoes on!
Once out on the run course I had to really try to calm my breathing down and try to settle into some kind of sustainable rhythym. At every turn I could see Kate running, much faster than me, catching me very quickly... but I thought about what Hannah had told me, if you believe you can win, you can.... and I did! I managed to hold Kate off, by maybe a minute or so, but it definitely took all of my resolve, and I did not relax until the finish chute. My lack of running really meant had to push myself harder than I thought possible, because I wanted to the win very badly. Not least because the prize was a $500 travel voucher which will come in handy for the worlds :) Because of that I really felt proud of myself at the end of the race.

I would like to thank mum, dad and Johnno for taking me down south and supporting me, my sponsors Cycle Torque, EFM and Harvey Griggs, Tri South for the race & Andrew Jones for the prize, everyone who competed and volunteered, Riverside swim squad for helping me with my swim, and Hannah for coming and cheering despite not being able to race.Your support means the world to me!

Latrobe sprint is next on the 26th of Jan. What a great start to 2012 - let's keep it going.