Firstly I will be 22 on Saturday, whoa! Time fly’s...

Next weekend I will be racing in Devonport, Tasmania. This race is our NZ National Champs, Oceania Champs and also the qualifying race for U23 World Champs in Auckland later this year. There are also ITU points available which I really need to get to improve my World Ranking. This is so I can get a start in the Sydney WCS race in April, which is our final Olympic Qualification race. So no pressure or anything. But seriously all that aside I am just happy to be racing and really interested to see how I go in my first Olympic Distance race this year.

Training is going very well, I am running consistently and love riding my new bike. It is so comfortable and cornering and descending crazy fast.

I have been unlucky to pick up another bug though, making this week a pretty slow training week, which is not ideal for next weekend. It is frustrating but I am just focusing on what I can do and just being content with the fact that there are some things you just can’t control.

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the Breakers Basketball team play over at the North Shore events centre, I also got to do a live interview on Sky Sport 1 during a time out break in the 3rd quarter. Great for my profile, my sponsors and more experience for the future.

Also as I am on the long list for the London Olympics I got to attend a workshop evening where we got sized up in the uniforms, heard NZOC members speak and learned more about the London Olympics by seeing pictures of the facilities being built.

I have also been attending as many of the functions put on by the NZOC as I can. Not just to learn about the Olympics but to learn about other kiwi athletes, and get a small insight into their world and their sport, it’s fascinating. I have been meeting lots of new people and other athletes all really excited about the Olympics.
Attending these events has given me a stronger sense of purpose in my life. My goals seem that much more exciting, the urge to become the best swim/bike/runner I can be is that much more powerful. I have been stocking up more fuel for my fire for the times when I am deep in my own little triathlon world. When I have to beat the boys in the next lane during 400m efforts in the pool or when I am on my 5th VO2 max effort quarry hill rep on the bike or when my calves have started playing up again and I have to ice/rest/massage and physio just so I can run again. Times that are the most important to me. They are not the end result, the place you came in the race which the whole world gets to see, they are the journey which you take to achieve those results.

What I love about sport is that there are no set rules on how you create your journey. Two people may have the exact same goal, may want the exact same result but the journey they take to get there may look completely different.

So if it’s not London then it will definitely be Rio 2016 Olympics for me! The journey has already begun and I am loving every minute of it.