My First Blog

Blogging is something I have been meaning to do for some time so finally a good friend has convinced me that it is time to start. So here goes!!

I am currently at the half way point of my first training camp (actually second after the camp i attended as coach of my school 1st Eight however more about this some other time) for the year. Not the usual cycling training camp of your entire team or institute, this time it is just myself and my good friend Drew Ginn, another rowing convert to cycling. Drew's Pedigree in Rowing is of course far beyond anything i could have ever imagined and in my time in rowing he was certainly a key role model for me the person whom i regularly looked to improve my speed on the water. We maintained this relationship as i tranitioned into cycling, intitialy with him taking a similar role in giving me direction as to how to attain my new goals in a new sport. Slowly, and with drew's transition to cycling post his 3rd gold medal in beijing, our relionship has become one in which we are now learning from each other. This has therefore led to drew traveling down to Hobart Tasmania to spend a week training with me and getting a first hand impression of what i do on the bike, an impression a SRM power file simply does not tell you which has been the more regular way of us sharing what we are doing with our respective training.

Although having attended regular training camps over my 8 year sporting career, i had never been incharge of developing the training program and also maintaining to positive and interesting environment away from the training. The good thing was that drew was here to see the way i train so as i am fortunate enough to work with Aldo Sassi, one of the best and most prominent cycling coaches in the world, the training aspect on the bike was already done for me. I simply incorperated my sessions into the most scenic route so as drew could experience the best sites southern tasmania has to offer. Off the bike was entirely my responsibility so required some planning. My very supportive partner Jess is always there to ensure our nutrition is up to sratch to meet the 14000kj i have burnt over the first 3 days training. A trip to her parents Peter and jenny's property in the derwent valley was our way of allowing drew meet my beautiful dog tasha and to experience some good quality home grown steak, a few tasmanina beers, and jenny's desert specialty, Toblorone Cheesecake. Some might say not the most ideal cycling meal, however if you had seen drew post day one ride, it was certainly required to bring him back to life for the days to come, and it certainly worked, he was a new man after his meal at the Wade's. Luckily for me, late nights and the subsequent late starts with 5hr 30min and 6hr 30min respectivly on the bike, meant the remainder of the day was spent sprawled out on the loungeroom floor, stretching and watching fox sports news and cycling dvd's of those we are trying to emulate. A meal last night at jess and my favourite restaurant Paesanso's in west hobart, where we enjoyed a Peroni, a couple off pizza's and off course a little dessert, and we had in my opinion made it successfully to the halfway point of the camp!

I will elaborate more on the training side of the camp in a future post, but now the time 12:15 and we have not had breaky, so better get into salamanca for Jess to enjoy a new york bagel and let drew experience a propper coffee as apposed to the sump oil i have been serving up to him for the past few days!

Wurfy