Friday, February 8, 2008

More from Austrlia



Being here in Australia has been a fantastic trip. Simon has proven to make very significant gains in the past year. Last year he was able to sustain an average of about 195-210 watts for our rides. This year he is well over 240 for an average and that is great.

Barry, one of my new clients has just moved here as well. Barry has not been with me too long, only a few months but has already shown AMAZING progress. Not only has he lost about 100 pounds (most of which before hiring me) but also he continues to see performance gains almost every week. He is a great guy, and the type of guy you love to see have success. Barry even went for a ride with us in the foothills of the mountain chain here for 4 hours and was able to keep up. He was so excited; it was great to see him realize a new level of fitness. I'm very proud of him for his hard work and dedication.

We were able to have multiple swim session with John VanWisse, multiple Ironman Swim champion. His approach to swimming is a bit unique, but obviously effective. He thinks most triathletes simply beat themselves up in the pool too much and usually do not see significant gains because of it. He wants me to work on some specific things, but also to not swim at LT all the time. Go easier? Hey I can try that.

Got to do a bit of swimming with Craig McKenzie. He has a goal of winning IM Australia this year; he has been 4th there the 2 previous years. Craig is able to swim in the 40’s for his swims, and also run 2:40’s off the bike. What’s better is he one of the nicest guys I have gotten to meet down here.

Yesterday ended with a session at MSAC. MSAC is the pool where they have the FINA World Championships, as well as the common Wealth Games at times. It is an amazing facility with multiple pools to include an outdoor AND indoor 50-meter pool. Not only that but Grant Hackett and some of the other Aussies were swimming a session also. Grant holds the world record for 1500m. He was AMAZING to watch.
Today we head to Geelong to do the 70.3 race. Or focus for the past 14 days has been training so this should be interesting. The best part about the race by far will be having family such as my father, friends that traveled down to do the race, and getting to race with some of the new people I have be able to meet.

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