Back to French Culture

I arrived in France a week ago via Dubai and 2 days with my sister. It's nice to travel to my other home in the south of France. I always look forward to seeing Laurent's family and I love seeing how happy they all are when we arrive.
Settling into the French lifestyle is always always a task. Starting the day later, therefore finishing training later and eating rarely before 8pm. As Laurent says an early dinnertime is AT 8pm. The climate is the first thing I notice, nice weather all day and the temperature is not much cooler at night. It doesn't take long for me to settle though. And then I always find a new wardrobe which I'd left behind and forgot about from the year before. We have a friend living with us who is a boulanger (baker), that equals fresh made croissants, sandwiches and baguettes everyday - bonus! It's nice to be back. Not many training hours so far, building into it slowly is so important with jet lag and a long season ahead.
First club race is early this year, in Nice this weekend.

Bronze in Sydney World Champs Series

The 2011 season is underway and in Sydney I put in a big effort the last time up the Macquarie Street hill to run my way to the bronze medal. A lot of things went right in the race, including a great start on the swim which put me in a perfect position out of trouble and I stayed in the front pack for the 40km bike. There was an unfortunate incident where a group of girls came crashing down just out the corner of my eye, the crashing of the bikes noise gave the worse feeling. Most of the girls got back up and luckily no one was injured badly. The run was really hard because it was very erratic at the front. I always stayed up the front where the pace was on then off then back on, all over the place really. And adding the downhill then uphill into the mix, it really took a toll on my legs. It's a nice start to the season to finish on the podium. Now it's a long flight to France and the European summer!

March in Wanaka

Hi,
Wanaka, which is 5hrs drive South of Christchurch, has been my training base since the 21st of February, 1 day before the terrible earthquake hit my home city. I trained at altitude at Snowfarm for 3 weeks with a Tri NZ camp. Then came down to compete in the Oceania Championships in Wellington. I punctured, so what else can I say, my race was over. I changed the wheel but entered the run almost 3minutes behind with the 2nd bunch. Ashleigh Gentle ran a 33.47 split and blitz her way up to 3rd behind Vicky Holland GBR and Vendula Frintova CZE. I ran 35.51 and finished in 7th. I felt a lot better than I did in Takapuna 3 weeks before. Now, with 2 races done I have some final preparations back down south in Wanaka for a month until Sydney. Laurent has been reading the Arthur Lydiard book and he calls this the last part of the conditioning phase. The training down here is quiet. It's a small town, which is only busy during events and holiday seasons. The scenery is like looking at a postcard.
I spent a nice weekend with Mum, she flew down for a relaxing holiday as Dad was over in Melbourne to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix. I am thankful to have Laurent and James Elvery here, living and training together. The weekend training alone just wasn't the same when they were away in Mooloolaba competing in the World Cup.