Going back to my last post, I had just arrived back in Australia and was enjoying time with family and friends after a week or so off training while I was in Las Vegas. Since then, I got back into some routine to try and finish off the year well at Nepean Triathlon and the Noosa Triathlon.
Coming back from Vegas, I still had a few doubts if it was going to be 100% recovered so I could race come the end of October in the Nepean Triathlon. I was most certainly motivated to do the best I could to get my leg 100% right, symptom free. I reassured Craig that I would not continue training or pushing myself in any way if things started to go backwards again, I was not going to put myself in a position to go back to where I was while I was in Spain, it wasn’t pleasant. I didn’t want to jeopardise my preparation leading into 2014.
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| Back to beach days and cafe hunting with Mum |
Things started to improve; the little niggles started to go away and I was always making forward progression. I was seeing my regular Physio, Brit Caling at Gold Coast Physio and Health, and also started back in the gym with my strength and conditioning coach. I was fitted up properly to my new BMC Time Machine by John McMillan. I felt like I had done everything I could to ensure my injury kept improving without pushing anything too quickly. I started back running just every second or third day and when things got better, I would wait another run to be safe before pushing any boundaries at running. I was 100% symptom free and I booked my flights to Sydney!
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| Off the train to meet my brother. I rather enjoyed my journey over the bridge. |
My brother has been living in Sydney for nearly 2 years now, working in a private Physio practice. I stayed with him and his lovely girlfriend on Friday night before heading to Penrith. It worked in well and it was so great to catch up with him.
The Nepean Triathlon was putting up a significant amount of money this year thanks to some great sponsors, especially Gulf Western Oil. There weren’t many women on the start list but there were some great girls lining up. Straight line 1km swim, 2 laps of 15km to make up a 30km flat (and in parts very technical) ride and 10km flat 2 lap run.
I exited the water with the main group of girls, it was only Emma Moffatt who had broken away to lead out by about 30 seconds. I thought I was riding quite well but I wasn’t 100% sure, I have hardly ridden a time trial bike before, it’s a very different experience for me. Out of T1 I tried to push the pace straight away and I found myself dropping the other girls and catching Moffy within the first lap. My aim was to keep up that pace and just see how I could run, which was rather questionable anyway. I led the whole bike and think I held a strong pace, but I couldn’t drop Moffy, so she was right behind me as I entered T2. And then she was gone :-)
I was very happy to finish 2nd behind Moffy. I kept a reasonable distance to her in the first lap but once she got going on the 2nd lap, there was no way I was going to catch her. Thanks to a solid ride, I was able to think about Noosa the week after and try and save my legs a little on the 2nd lap. Nat Van Coeverden finished off a strong season to finish in 3rd.
Thanks to BMC and Echelon Sports for the great bike, it is such a pleasure to ride. I had the fastest set of wheels thanks to Zipp and loved riding a rear 808, I’ve never ridden anything deeper than their 404, so it felt very fast on that flat course! T
Thank you for having me Nepean Triathlon, it was a great event to be apart of. I hope to be back.
Noosa post coming soon
