Training in Auckland.

Sunset at Highbrook

It's really dark now at 6.30am when I start my morning training sessions and it's not until 6.45am that it's easier to see.
The weather in Auckland has only dished out a few crappy days, one was this afternoon, so a change of training plans for a session on the water was canned and it was taken inside.  Otherwise in the last two weeks there was two days where the weather had me training on the ergo.
If I don't have any homework after my afternoon sessions I'm in bed by 8pm.  One evening even saw me in bed as early as 7pm.  It's not too hard to get out of bed when you get enough sleep.
Very slowly I'm getting over the 'flu.  I generously gave the 'flu to my dad who passed it on to my mum who gave it back to me.  I think this week the cycle has been broken 'cos we've all stopped coughing.

Recently I changed my paddle.  I was using Brasca IV and I'm now using a Braca X (min).  Mmmmmmm I prefer the X.
Training is going well.

There's another three weeks left before I'll be in Italy training in the sun.  I'm looking forward to that for sure.

Australian Sprint Nationals

Open women's 500m heat.

I arrived home from competing in the Australian Nationals two weeks ago after competing in my age group and also in the Open Women's category.
I've raced against most of the girls in my age group before.  Unfortunately for me this competition was also doubling as selection for the Australian Junior National Team so the girls were really in top form and they had all made big, no massive improvement from when we had last met.
I think that I may have peaked earlier in the month when I competed at the NZ Nationals/Oceania Opens Competition.
For me I felt that my results from the Open Women's went better then expected, I was more relaxed and I didn't feel under any pressure.
So I did get some invaluable racing time and while I didn't do as well as I wanted I did come away with some positives.

U18 women's 5km

When I arrived home I was shattered, I was way too tired to go to school the next day.  I slept into the afternoon and if my mum didn't wake me I might have slept well into the evening.  Robi gave us 6 days off, he meant to give us 5 days off but when we started back at training the weather was not the best so we had to can training for that day and the next day the weather was way better.
So Robi, Ali and I are back into training and Robi has warned us that training is going to intensify.  Just as well Kane Raisey sends me Raisey's Isolate 'cos I know my muscles wouldn't recover as well as they do if I wasn't using this product.
And tomorrow it's the start of my training week, I really enjoyed my day off today.

The dentist & my new paddle.

Two weeks ago there was no training at all for me because my wisdom teeth were removed.  The dentist says that exercise of any kind is unwise after such major oral surgery.  I had 3 stitches and the left side of my face was swollen. 
Last Monday was my first day back on the water and I felt a little tippy.  I'm hoping that part of the reason for this was because I'm using a new paddle, I was using a Brasca VII split shaft and I've now changed to a Brasca IV fixed shaft. Check out their web site here "Braca Paddles"
When I started back it was just time on the water without the gym work and runs and today it was back to adding both of these things to my training sessions.
The weather is starting to get colder in the mornings and it doesn't get light until around 6.30am now.
Next week Robi has entered us both in the Australian Nationals which will be held in Adelaide.  He's entered me in 2 age groups for the competition, experience and as a gauge as to how I'm doing.
I've raced most of the girls that are competing in the under 18 K1 events so I'm really hoping that I can better my times and get some better placings.
This week is a taper as we leave for Adelaide on Tuesday.
I'm looking forward to competing.