Down Under

I've been back home for just over seven months now and am finally getting some time to post anything worth writing about.

Coolum Beach, along the David Low Way

I'm combining my time between teaching full time and training as much as I can. At least with the amount of work I'm doing, I can save for more racing hopefully next year, because the training is limited at the moment! I wake before 5am, head to swim training and don't stop for a break until 7pm after swimming or running has finished. Given that I'd rather spend my spare time training, it's enjoyable, but exhausting.

Cotton Tree Pool - 20hrs of my week

I am blessed to be training from Alexandra Headland in Queensland, Australia. To add to my pool swimming, I have the stunning Mooloolaba beach for open water swimming. For riding, I have the "hinterland" and the beautiful strip of road to Noosa, the David Low Way. On a sunny day, that ride is pretty much the meaning of life. Between running on the school track and along the beach front, I also have hectares of national parks to run in, including the torturous Radar Hill (2k from bottom to top - 9:59mins is my pb). I am even getting some consistent time in the gym too.

In fact, my gym work is co-ordinated by one of my year 12 students who is completing some certificate that requires he lead a gym program, so it's working out superbly for both of us.

 

Teaching is a blast at my school. I've never been to a school where I've found the most enjoyable part of the job being in the classroom interacting with the students.

I am teaching year 12 Legal Studies, 11 Business Comms. and Techs., 10 Physics, 9 Science, 9 HPE and 9 Business Studies. I don't know how I'm going to cope when my 12s finish. They are my number one priority this year (triathlon being #2 and wedding in November #3) and I will just have to wish them all the best.

Last week was school camp with the year 11s and it rates as one of the best weeks of my life. I was even sick for the final three days, but given I was preoccupied with all of the activities, I didn't have time to notice. The group I had was brilliant, I appreciated their enthusiasm and participation immensely. On the final night, we had a motivational speaker get the kids to say what they liked about me if they had the courage to stand up in front of the cohort (or if they actually did have anything nice to say!) and it went for almost 20 minutes. One of the girls even cried, she got so emotional. I don't value material things much, placing great value on the emotional and effort based rewards instead, so that experience was one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Aside from setting young girls' (and apparently boy's) hearts alight at camp, I've been getting a few open water swimming races done. I timed a sprint finish to perfection in one and won my age group. I'm using these races to "test the waters" for a return to international racing.

I'd love to start racing in July, but at the very latest, it'll be September and October, before going all in for a summer of training and hopefully my first elite Australian block of racing.