Itchy Feet and A Renewed Love

October 2012 was the last time I put on a Triathlon Race suit and raced seriously, It was World Champs in Auckland and it was freezing cold. My preparation for the event had been excellent and I thought I was ready to smash it and have a great race. The course suited my strengths, tough deep water swim, hard undulating bike course and a windy run course, which meant out of sight and out of mind of my opponents. I was the lightest and strongest I had been since probably High School. I thought it was going to be great, then race day came.

I don't think I've ever been so cold, 14 degrees in the water and miserable weather conditions. I did not enjoy one part of the race.

Coming back to Perth I decided I didn't want to be involved in the sport anymore and took some time off from training, sold the bike and left all my training squads. After 2-3 months I was approached by some Junior Triathletes at my school to start coaching them, I wasn't sure I wanted to do the sport anymore but I knew that I still wanted to be involved. I started off with a small squad of a few Junior Boys, before I knew it I had a full squad of nearly 20 Junior athletes and the 2012/13 season was almost finished, now ending the 2014/15 Triathlon Season I am working with close to 30 Junior Athletes and nearly 10 Adult Age Group Athletes. For the two seasons I was very happy being on the sideline cheering for everyone I worked with, knowing how much hard work they had put in and seeing the joy on their faces at the end of races and achieving their goals has been great.

 As a Junior Coach I have been lucky enough to travel with School Sport WA Triathletes and TEP High performance athletes all across Australia. I have been lucky enough to work with athletes that have medal-ed at National Championships.









Until recently I have missed the racing or training aspect at all, only recently have I begun to get itchy feet and want to tri again. The early mornings and long days in the saddle haven't left me, as I am up every morning with training. But last week over in Penrith and then Busselton have left me with a desire to do more again.

I have qualified for the Duathlon World Championships which are in Adelaide in October, so this gives me a good focus point to get started again through winter. The toughest part for me will be fitting my training in around the training of my athletes. I am a strong believer in the fact that I can not give 100% service to my athletes if I am training at the same time. School allows me a lot of freedom and thus makes it easier for me to plan my time commitments and train, coach and teach all during the day. Being Perth based I also have access to some amazing facilities and great weather to train in. I have access to a Wahoo Kickr at school which will allow some seriously focused training sessions condensed into small time frames, the ability to simulate courses and altitude without leaving my office will be of huge benefit. I am also lucky enough to be able to access Altitude Training equipment, which will fast-track my fitness as Worlds gets closer. For the running, which has never been a strong point for me I am lucky to have a strong relationship and friendship with Raf Baugh, head of Cloud Running, which will help me bring my running back up to speed quickly and safely without the risk if injury.

The ability to complete training sessions at less then my current weight is allowing me to complete more kilometres then my body can currently handle, this over load is keeping me fresh and improving my endurance, without needing me to factor in extra recovery into my program, thus allowing me to return to my previous triathlon fitness levels with reduced injury risk and on a faster timeline.

The Cloud Running puts me on a treadmill where I can control my body weight, speed and incline to simulate any type of running that I need. Currently I am using it heavily for my recovery runs. Raf and his team have been very helpful in getting me back up to speed and have actually created a new love for running, something that I have always struggled with, I strongly recommend visiting them.

I am very lucky with all the athletes I work with and the associations I have created through coaching that I am now able to take this big step back into the racing scene, I may never be as competitive as I once was and I will only be very select in events that I compete in, but I enter Winter and a new training regime with excitement, itchy feet and a renewed love for a sport that I have been involved with for over 20 years now.

I want to thank all my athletes, those on full programs, just swimming and the new up coming casuals who have such an enthusiasm for the sport for renewing mine, I look forward to a strong solid winter and an exciting new season ahead.

Maybe even a comeback to a 70.3 race, but lets not get too excited just yet.

Season Opens with a Bang

2014/15 Season is now well underway and we have started with some sensational racing.

Over winter we have trained hard and have added some serious depth and talent to the squad and this has really stepped the group up to a whole new level of competition.

During the winter break we have had some outstanding results in the National Duathlon Series, with several age group winners at WA Champs out at Champion Lakes and then Sheridan and Steve Smith and myself travelling to Adelaide for the National Titles. It looks likely that all three of us have qualified to represent Australia at Worlds next year, excellent work.

After the WA Duathlon Champs the crew headed south for a week long training camp, this time in a house that was much more suited to our needs. A proper bed and decent place to recover make a world of difference to how well the training works and pays off.

On the racing scene we have had several big outings recently. School Sport Champs on Thursday 6th November saw almost every athlete collect points towards State Team Selection, an outstanding day with several medal winners across all the age groups. Racing then turned to a new format for the WA Juniors with the introduction of a Draft Legal Series. The format was short fast and very very hard. The day consisted of three single races with about an hours recovery between each one. Athletes were put through their paces with a 250m swim, 6k bike and 1500m run. This really created some excited and showed the ability and knowledge of the athletes, drafting changed the format and meant athletes had to start thinking tactically. Excellent results with Jess Claxton taking out the girls with Tegan Scott second and Kaitlyn Illingworth fifth. Cambell Smith and Josh Roberts raced in the boys races and were always up there before making the decision to concentrate on other events and save their legs for the second day of racing. Sophie Foxcroft proved to be a resilient athlete who refuses to give up completing all of her races and then backing up the next day. Sunday 16th November saw race 2 of the State Team Selection events, the day after TEP race 1. This was going to be a real test of the athletes abilities as many had raced the day before. Josh Roberts and Cam Smith proved their decisions to save their legs was the right idea by winning their age groups. Outstanding results by all the juniors and maybe one of our best days out so far.

Its great to be finally racing after such a long solid winter and now we are starting to see the rewards of our hard work.
On a sadder note I lost a very close friend in October and have to thank everyone for their support and understanding with the matter. On Saturday 25th October we paid tribute to a close friend and it was a ride I don't think anyone in WA will forget in awhile. People tell me it was somewhere between 400 and 1000 riders but I'm not sure, all I know is it was overwhelming and awesome all in one go. Sitting on the front of a group so huge was something that will stay with me forever and I want to thank all my athletes for supporting me with this.

Our next big weekend is very close with a TEP Draft Legal race being held on Friday 28th November followed by TEP training Saturday and Intraclub Champs on the Sunday, huge demanding weekend and best of luck to everyone involved, following this we have some parents competing in Ironman who we will head down and support in the same way the support us at all our short course races, good luck parents and then we head into the first TriEvents race of the season at Hillary's on Sunday 14th December, which also doubles as the final selection race for the WA School Sport State Team, good luck to all athletes competing. Jess Claxton and myself have been invited to Runaway Bay, Qld for a Junior Elite Camp on the same weekend, so DETS will be tearing it up across Australia!!!!!

A massive thank you to all our supporters through winter and now into the season. Parents without you we wouldn't make it to training and racing and thank you to Nicole Foxcroft and Food Risk Management for their continued support, Mikey McConnell for his mentoring and support for me and towards some of the boys in the squad, its always nice to have an outside ear to hear things and provide an outside prospective. Al and Suzie and Al's Cycle Surgery for continuing to support so many of the Juniors and even some of the adults now joining the squad. And anyone else I may have missed, or if you are interested in becoming involved with us please feel free to contact us and get involved.

See you out there on the training track or ripping it up at a race venue real soon!!!!!

Winter Season is well under way

Winter has arrived and we have experienced all four seasons this week through training. From rain and wind on Tuesday morning on the bike, 4 degrees Thursday morning and really really cold before hopping in the pool Friday morning. Mixed in with some sensational afternoons with perfect weather conditions for running.

Despite the cool weather, swimming has gone from strength to strength, we are now in our second month of building are aerobic base and are getting into some real quality swim sets. The pool is great, if not a little warm. Arriving at the pool rucked up like your going to the snow and then stripping down to summer clothing is an experience each morning.

Running is also now really starting to develop some quality sets and the introduction of a weekly core strength session has really increased everyone's strength. Building the k's each week and making a nice strong solid base for the up coming season. The exciting part is watching everyone run so well already, with only 6 weeks under our belts everyone is producing the form that they had during the Triathlon season, which shows we are on the way to a big strong Summer.

Cycling has just begun and although the distances aren't huge, we are building a nice base and throwing in a good variety of little strength based drills, who would've thought a 30k bike session could still leave the quads burning and feeling like several hours on the bike. Beautiful crisp mornings always make the ride enjoyable, so long as we a wearing enough layers.

We have also been fortunate enough to expand our support base and network over the off season. 32GI and Food Risk Management are continuing on with their support of the squad and we are very happy to have Next Move Physio come on board and support our athletes with rehab, recovery and prevention of injuries. Next Move is based at Whitfords City in the Endeavour Business Centre and provide Physio and Exercise classes to help everyone.

Our athletes have also been very busy during the off season with some gaining new sponsors and many performing exceptionally at School Sport WA Cross Country Championships and the ACC Cross Country Championships.

We now move into a solid block of training with some real quality work coming up and some minor racing including The Western Australian Marathon Club Cross Country Season and Midland Cycling Club Pickering Brook Race Series.

Exciting times are ahead!

First Season... Amazing Success... Where to now...

Well the blog was set up along time ago with the intention of being regularly updated to allow fans to keep up to date with more detail then usually provided by photos... However that never happened and now we have come to the end of the season for all but one of our athletes.

This was the first full season as an independent squad with no assistance from anyone else. It was an upsetting series of incidences that lead to the squad becoming full time under head coach but, those incidents have tested us and made us stronger.

We started swimming as a group in August and from then on have not looked back, having one coach run all the sessions makes everything more streamlined and allows both athlete and coach to constantly evaluate and adapt to suit environment and how the athletes were feeling and traveling.

The squad has gone from strength to strength. Every athlete has achieved a PB every time they stepped onto the track or into the pool for TEP Time Trials. This is something I could only dream of as a coach, having the athletes always step up and perform makes me feel very proud and proves that we made the right decisions.

Athletes have cleaned up all across the country. The season started off with a bang at National Duathlon Champs with Ben Walton and Carly Scott both claiming their Age Group National Championship. Following this the squad went into a training camp to get ready for State School Triathlon Champs. The squad had a very successful State Schools Champ and came away with 8 athletes qualifying to represent the State.

Following on from this DETS experienced great success at all of the Telstra Tri Events Series Races, consistently gaining podiums and having Joshua Roberts and Kaitlyn Illingworth both win the Series for their age groups.

Joshua and Elliot Roberts also chose to travel to Australian Youth Triathlon Champs at Twin Waters and experienced the pressure of draft legal racing, both boys have come home stronger and are looking very excited to start the winter season and get ready for a big 2014/15 season. Tegan Scott and Cambell Smith qualified for TEP and traveled to Runaway Bay and Penrith. The first two races of the ITU Junior Series. Both events were big learning curves for both athletes and they have both come away stronger.

The last big event of the season was School Sport National Triathlon Champs held in Bendigo, Victoria. Despite the very wet and difficult conditions all athletes performed well and represented DETS and WA with outstanding results. Tegan Scott came home with a silver medal in the Senior Girls age group individual race. An amazing result helped by producing the fastest bike split of the day and one of the quickest run splits. On relay day DETS had athletes come home with medals and success in the Intermediate Girls Relay, Senior Girls and Senior Boys Relay's. All the DETS athletes showed what it meant to be racing for WA and made everyone proud.

It has been an amazing first full season and I can not wait for the winter training to start and the next racing season to arrive. I must say thanks to all the parents for driving the athletes around and their continual support and belief in the program. Must also thank Food Risk Management and Al's Cycle Surgery for their continual support.

Looking forward to a big exciting winter...