G'day mate!

For the first few days out here my body seemed to not want to sleep past 5.30am! I would wake up, look outside, think it’s around 7am then turn to look at my clock and see that it’s still only 5am! It gets light here so early! So instead of trying to get back to sleep, I would get up and do an hour's worth of revision before the day's training would begin. With my Uni exams coming up, keeping on top the revision is important whilst I’m out here!

Most mornings we’ve been heading to the local pool – the local pool which has two 50m outdoor pools beside each other! What us Brits would call a luxury! It’s been so nice to be able to swim outside. As well as the pool we’ve also been swimming in the sea and in a nearby lake. We’ve been doing a lot of group swim practice, practicing swimming on hips, sighting and getting use to being bashed about! This type of training has been invaluable to me as confidence in the open water is something that I need to work on and continue improving. Doing some work in the surf has really helped my confidence too, learning to love the waves rather than be scared of them! I think a couple of surf lessons are in store for me next week when I move to Liz’s and my exams are out the way!!

Mark Niemz, my Strength and Conditioning coach, has travelled to the Gold Coast as part of the Youth Olympic Trip too, so I’ve been able to keep up my strength and conditioning since being here. The AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) have allowed us to use their Canoe centre gym, which is just across the road from our apartments, which has been a great help. Strength and Conditioning is just as important as any other part of my training to me.

As well as group swimming we’ve been doing a lot of group riding practice too. We’ve been training at a place called Nerang where there’s an outdoor velodrome with a closed road criterion circuit around it. I feel like I’m really benefiting from all the group work we’ve been doing on the bike. Helping me become more and more confident and aware when riding in a group. Yesterday we did a great session there, we did a number of races but all of them were different with different aims and tactics. I like it when I’m able to mix it up with the guys!!! And it’s great to be doing some hard stuff on the bike again!

I’m now at Liz’s house and about to crack open the revision books before going riding in the sunshine!

I’m loving The Gold Coast for sure!!!

Hollie