So I have the great pleasure of spending my Birthday out in Australia doing what I love and training hard. With an added bonus of spending it with some great people who I just want to say thank you for making my birthday a great 21st. Michelle (the best coach) and some great training partners Stuart and Bex and we were also joined by Spike and Erin both from NZ.

On my birthday day the rain was definitely pouring down as we set out on the bike only to turn around after 10 minutes. So we ended up swimming first and then the sun must of remembered it was my birthday and came out and made it gorgeously hot for the long ride. My legs were not happy to be out but I certainly was.

Then I got to talk to the famo back home which was great, they had also sent me over a moonpig card which was lovely and just having the opportunity to talk to them over skype was perfect. Technology eh!

They had also put up all my birthday cards that I had received back home and put them on the living room table along with 21 big balloons then they took a picture of it and put it on facebook which was such a lovely thought and I loved it!

On the evening Patrick (the saint and the kindest man I know) arranged a fabulous dinner at the Hyatt country club along with his partner Dee who is also a fabulous person. WOW I AM SPOILT, not only by spending my birthday meal at the Hyatt but with the great people too. Great food (the biggest chocolate cake ever) ,the best company equals a great 21st bday night. A quick thank you to my Australian family Patrick, Dee, Michelle, Stuart, Bex, Spike, Erin, Liz for making my 21st a such a great day in Aus.

OK so now I have spoken about my birthday and the celebrations I had I will tell you a little bit about training. I am training very hard out here so when I had a late night at 9.30pm on my birthday so we had to start training a little later than usual. The next day we had to get up an hour later lol the life of a triathlete.

Last week I had Crit and Well I not only have the great advantage of training with Michelle and Stuart, I also was joined by Liz Blatchford and the 2009 World Champion Emma Moffatt. For those who don’t know Crit is a bike race were go go around a loop which takes about 2 and half minutes per lap to get around it . It also contains a dead turn so the power gets put down and a small bridge where there is a slight hill, you go around this loop for 50minutes and then the organizer put up a flag that says 3 laps to go and then it’s a race across the line, its a lot of fun and a great workout.

I have got some really exciting news coming but it will have to wait until my next blog, I don’t want to bore you to much.

xxx

So I have been out on the gold coast now for 2 weeks and instead of the usually “Balls in the wheelie bin” sessions it feels like its been a balls in the wheelie in non stop! Things have really been ramped up this winter which is exactly what I need to step my performance up this year.

Even though I am not running, swimming and cycling super fast at the minute I am loving training out here. I mean how can you not when the sun is shinning and your doing what you love for a living.

I am doing my training with Stuart Hayes in the swimming pool and running which is great to have an athlete that pushes as hard as you in every session. Stu really drives me through the sessions when I am hurting its great to have someone there going through the pain with you as well but what makes the sessions even better is having the coach on the side lines that knows how each session feels and really understands and gives you the motivation to get through it.

Michelle is not only getting me through the hard swim and run session but in the bike session she is training herself which is great for me as I not only have Stuarts skinny ass to chase but hers also. She is training for the national road race championships and is going very strong.

We did a session around a place called Nerang and it’s a two and a half minute circuit with half of it up hill. when I had to go hard I had Michelle next to me shouting at me to dig in making me push that little bit more. It just shows how strong she is when she is still shouting at you when were both cycling up the hill! But I love it.

I had a quick look at my diary today and notice it was only 8 weeks till Mooloolaba World cup so I best keep working hard.

All the best guys
xxx