Ashleigh Gentle: Training and Travel

I've finally made it to Aix le Bains, France. I love living in Australia and also love the fact that I'm able to travel to such beautiful places in Europe, but that doesn't mean I have to like the long haul journey. After getting off the 8 hour plane trip from Brisbane to Singapore, I'm always dreading the next 13 hour sit to London. Getting straight off the plane my muscles feel like they halve in length, which made for a pretty painful massage yesterday! Aix le Bains has been the training base for AIS triathletes for about a decade now and is in a beautiful place right near the Swiss border, only a 50 minute drive from Geneva. Although I haven't seen much of the mountains yet, it's just been low cloud cover and some rain so far!

It's been a bit over 4 weeks since San Diego and I definitely made the right decision to come back to Australia after the race. In my home environment with coach Craig and Moffy, I had a really satisfying block of training. I am heading to Banyoles World Cup this weekend and I'm excited to race again, although not really sure what to expect. I have been doing more aerobic, strength work recently but it's a long season and I achieved a couple of little goals during this time, which has given me some confidence. I plan on doing four races here in Europe before I head to America to relax with Josh, although I'll be doing all the relaxing, focus for him is Hy Vee in September. When I was in transit I was very pleased to read that Josh had placed second in Klagenfurt 5150, hard work and persistance does pay off people! Also very happy for Daniela Ryf who took out the womens race and Liz Blatchford in second. I was lucky enough to do a fair amount of training with these ladies on the Gold Coast and its nice to see that their talents could convert over to the non-drafting scene. I'll keep the blog and twitter updated with my training and travels during my overseas stint so you can follow me as you wish.