Australia Day Aquathon

It is now 2013 and what an exciting year it will be. My last year as a Junior Triathlete and the first year that I will be travelling overseas to race in Europe. The annual Australia Day Aquathon was held last Sunday at Wollongong Harbour, this was my 5th time racing here and enjoy it every time. This year saw the strongest field the Aquathon has ever had, with International triathletes from France, USA, UK and Australia's best. The long course event consisted of a 900m swim and a 7km run which saw over 360 competitors.

The first wave for the morning was the U30 males at 8am.
My start to the swim was good, kept out front with the lead pack for the first 300m and was feeling strong. On the way back to the shore I suddenly started to feel very fatigued and the lead pack began to get away. It felt like I had already been swimming for an hour and made it a lot harder as competitors started to pass. Out of the water and a short run on the beach to start lap 2, dove into the water and was swimming amongst the second pack. This lap felt no better than the first and slowly lost more ground. Finally the swim was over, out of the water in 13th position. Started my run feeling not good, very fatigued and legs felt extremely heavy. The first few km's was a battle to get through but the next 4k's was really good. Pace picked up and legs started to feel strong, was able to close the gap a bit between myself and the runner ahead but ran out of time before the finish was in sight. Across the line in a slightly disappointed 12th and 2nd U20.

The NSW Institute of Sport squad has now arrived back in Wollongong and have started my training back with them this week. Really looking forward to this months training in preparation for my next race in Devonport, Tasmania.

Towards the end of 2012 I was in contact with a compression company called Zensah through a mutual friend, Andrew Hedgman (Ultra Marathon Runner). He mentioned how good the compression garments are and that I should get in contact with them to try and gain some support. After correspondence with Corey Gill, I was lucky enough to have been asked to join team Zensah and promote their product through the sport of Triathlon. I have been wearing their compression since the new year and have definitely noticed a difference in my recovery after each day of training. I wake up with my legs feeling fresh every time I use the compression socks, the calf sleeves are awesome for those long runs and the compression top is great to wear underneath the jersey on cold morning rides and after hard swim sets. Thanks again to Zensah for accepting me on their team and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Be sure to have a read of my post below to find out what I was up to towards the end of 2012, some great training and racing.