Feels like i haven't raced for ages! Well it has been almost 6 weeks. I really underestimated how much 3 half ironmans in 4 weeks would take out of me. After Miami I had a full 10days off, which i think for me is the first time I haven't done a little run or swim during my off-season since 2007! To be honest, I didn't feel like being active at all. However, in saying that, the 10days off consisted of being in Miami for a day after the race (on Halloween!!!), drinking solo and eating whatever I wanted. Then the long-haul home to arrive back in Oz on the the 3rd of November. A quick trip to the Sunny Coast to pick up a few things and catch up with some special people before packing up my essentials and driving about 350km south to Lennox Head in NSW to start a new chapter of life and my sport.
Why the move? Why not? I had nothing keeping me on the Sunshine Coast and I became aware of an opportunity at Lennox before I went to the USA to start training with a new coach and squad. Fortunately everything fell into place with a room available with another triathlete and cyclist in the squad about 50m from the beach and 50m from the coffee shop! After a rough year losing Katie and spending 5months sidelined with the stress fracture and a disappointing return to racing a fresh start was exactly what I needed.
Yes it's been hard. I left all my friends, moved further away from my family and left an awsome swim coach/ squad a block from my house. I left my 60 private physiotherapy clients which was a great little side business that I really took for granted. I have picked up a few clients here and I know it will build as my networks do. The training has been great, different every day, different every week. I don't have to think, it's all posted to me the week before and I just have to show up to the sessions and do the work. It was a shock to the fat, unfit and fatigued systems doing 600km on the bike in the first week back at training! But I am loving it. I am loving the other athletes, the coach (Grant Giles) and not having ANY distractions to my training.
This Friday I will head down to Canberra to race the 70.3 on Sunday. It's been unusally cold for the start of summer and the forecast is for rain and low temperatures. Thankfully it will be a wetsuit swim seeing my speed suit has been thrown in the bin following my bloated USA belly busting out of it mid-swim at Miami! I am really excited about this weekend and even though I have had a short prep I'm feeling pretty ready to go.
Then I'm looking forward to a solid summer of training here before starting my 2012 season. Looks to be some pretty interesting things popping up on my agenda at this stage..... But at this stage, stay tuned for Canberra race report!
Rachie xo
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