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How my addiction to training took a toll on my triathlon career

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From a young age it was drilled into my head that I had to look a certain way as an athlete. I suffered a lot during high school which ultimately lead to an eating disorder. While the restricting only lasted 6 or so months, it still continues to play with my mind to this day. I felt the need to control something and food was no longer something I could use as an escape from my underlying mental health issues. The next best thing I could control was my training. I became obsessed. For years I have been in denial that I was addicted to training. I wouldn’t let myself miss a session. I had to have the perfect graph on Strava. I had to run at a certain pace and a certain amount of kilometres. If I took a day off I feared that I would gain weight. I denied myself rest. I abused my body. Over the years I have been able to fix some problems but it still ultimately lead me to this point of being diagnosed with RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport). In simple terms, I was unable to fuel m...

The World Games 2022

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The World Games 2022. Definitely the highlight of my career so far.   I left for my long journey to Birmingham, Alabama on the 4th of July. Five flights later, I made it. The weather was a bit of a shock to the system with it being humid and mid 30’s most days. Coming from a 13hour time zone difference and winter back at home, I arrived 10 days prior to my race to adjust. I struggled training most days leading up to the event and thought it was my body struggling to adjust to the heat, however a couple of weeks prior to the Duathlon I came down with Covid and thought it wouldn't affect my training and racing but it very much did. I tried to put it behind me and focus for what was ahead. I was set to race on Saturday 16th of July at 8am and arrived at the venue about 90 mins before I was scheduled to start. I checked my bike in and went on to do my usual race warm up. We were soon called to line up and and get the race underway. The Duathlon started with a 10km run done as 4x 2.5km ...

Europe Trip 2022

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It’s been a while since I last posted on here so I’ll give a bit of an update. Things had been pretty quiet during Covid with competing in my last international race for two years at the start of 2020 in Rayong, Thailand. My next race wasn’t until 2021 where I raced the Standard Oceania Triathlon Championships and Cup and the Sprint Oceania Triathlon Cup, both in Port Douglas, Australia. Both were pretty average races but didn’t race as well as I wanted. From then I put my head down, joined a new run squad, worked really hard on my running as it’s been a weakness in the past. It took me about 6 months before I noticed any improvements but I still have a long way to go. I started my local season in Perth, Australia where I won seven races in a row which has set me up really well to win Open Female Triathlete of the Year in WA.  I then set off to Europe for a six week racing block with the main aim of the trip to gain an automatic qualification for The World Games for Duathlon in Jul...

Bali Super League Qualifier

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What an experience Bali Super League was! Day one began with a 1.6km run time trial as Stage one of the Equaliser. It started in alphabetical order and 10 seconds apart. I was the last one to start, so I did my best to try and minimise any time loss to the other girls ahead of me. I ended up coming in with a time of 5.51, setting me back 41 seconds behind the leader for Stage Two of the Equaliser later on in the day.  A few hours later was when Stage Two began. The format for this race was a continuous 2x (300/5/1.6). I got to the athlete's lounge an hour before the race to warm up and set up my transition. About 20 minutes before my race was due to start, I did a big swim warm up to ensure I had a strong swim as I knew I had some time to make up. The waves were crashing right on shore where the sand was, almost like the same consistency of quick sand, not to mention the strong rips and currents, so I had to put my open water swimming abilities to great use....

Devonport OTU Sprint Triathlon 2019

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My first Oceania race of the season was Devonport. It’s my second race as an U23 athlete and I must say it was quite the competitive field.   My race was scheduled around noon which gave me plenty of time to sleep in and have a chilled morning before my race. I was in riding distance from the race venue so I used that as a little bit of a warm up as I knew that the schedule would be tight and a little rushed. Once I arrived, I stayed in the athletes lounge, checked in and then went for a quick run warm up as I was a little short of time, so I just did what I needed to. I believe the swim was an optional wetsuit swim and as much as I hated swimming in a wetsuit I thought it would be a good idea if I did just because everyone else was wearing one and even though I am a stronger swimmer I’d rather give myself a couple of seconds advantage and not struggle heaps in the swim if I didn't wear it. So we had 15 minutes to get our bikes into transition and set up as well as co...

Rayong Asian Cup 2019

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So I finally got a job and am now able to compete in various triathlon competitions world wide. I decided to start off with the Asian Cup in Rayong, Thailand, which was not only my first Asian Cup but also my first race as an U23 athlete. Myself an a few mates of mine from Eclipse Performance Centre decided to head over to Thailand on Jan 22nd. We arrived the next morning and drove from Bangkok to Rayong where the race was held. The first couple of days consisted of a few training sessions as well as race course familiarisation prior to the race.   Friday was race day and I was feeling pretty fresh but also a tad tired from travelling and lack of food as I was limited to what I could eat (incase you didn't know, I’m 3 years Vegan and lived off rice and pizza for the week we were away from home). Anyways, I completed my pre race warm up and found myself lining up in my prime position on the very end as far away from everyone as I know thats where I st...

2018 Holten ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup

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The journey to my first International triathlon, the European Cup in Holten (Holland) began with an early wake up on the 12th June. After almost pulling an all nighter, needing to get up at 2.50am and only having 1 hour of sleep, I thought that I’d be able to sleep on my 11 hour flight to Dubai. Let’s just say that it was quite an unpleasant and restless 18 hour journey to London. Training in England was a lot harder than I had expected, the worst part was the roads to ride on. They were no where near as good as they are in Perth and were extremely busy. It took me about a week to adapt training in a different environment, but I enjoyed every part of it. I had the opportunity to train with Lucy Charles , her partner Reece and their friend Guy. Samuel and I swam in the London Olympic pool with them a few times and went on a 100km ride with them, which I may have bonked on… Another opportunity I had was having a swim technique session with Ray in an endless pool. Happy to s...