Aleisha Wesley - Triathlete

My first race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series began with a wake up at 7am on Saturday the 3rd of February in Glenelg, SA. The race was scheduled to start at 11.30am so with a race being so late, I decided that it would be a brilliant idea to have my trusty 3 ingredient vegan pancakes for breakfast. As my race was later on in the day, I thought it would be nice to watch some Netflix in my hotel room to pass by time. As time slowly passed by, it finally was time to head down to the race venue which was a lovely 800 metres away from where I was staying. Once I arrived, I watched the junior boys compete in their race and cheered on some fellow team mates and then went on to do my 2k warm up jog whilst they were racing. After I got back, I set up my run shoes in T2 as there was two transitions in this event to spice things up, rather than just having the usual one transition. Once set up in T2, I rode over to T1 with my gear to put next to Alan. As soon as I had set up in T1, I ...

The final race of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series began early Saturday morning with a 4.30am wake up. I felt pretty good leading up to this race, certainly a lot more confident than I was for my race in Glenelg a few weeks ago. I didn't really have much of a goal for this race but I was determined to not get dropped on the bike as I have been getting dropped all of this season in the draft legal triathlons that I've competed in.  I arrived at Champion Lakes with both of my brothers and Damon from Melbourne around 5am for the open and under 23 races scheduled to race at 6.30am. My race was at 10am, so there was a bit of waiting around for a few hours which gave me time to rest, watch the U23s, Opens and Youths race as well as preparing for my own race. As time was passing by, it was nearing my time to start warming up. I went for a 1.5km run warm up doing a couple of efforts and felt pretty good and light for once. Shortly after I went and racked Alan in transition a...

In the early hours of Thursday morning my journey to Glenelg, SA began for race three of the Australian Junior Triathlon Series. After the two and a half hour flight, Brooke, her mum and myself landed late morning in Adelaide. We spent most of the day settling in, setting up our bikes, going for a short ride and run and visiting harbour town.  The following day started at 5.30am where a bike familiarisation course was organised for all the athletes. During the cycle in the morning I discovered that I had a flat tyre. This was not the first time that this had happened while I was away at a national event (the third time actually). So I changed my tube and checked it all out to make sure that I wouldn't get another flat, pumped it up and put it back on my bike. Shortly after I went on a run with Brooke and Abby to do a pre activation set the day before the race. I arrive back at the motel after the run to only discover that I had yet another flat tyre. I started to get really wo...

I walked into this race with an expectation to place in the top 10, even though it was my first race of the Australia Junior Triathlon Series, I was more than confident that I would have a strong performance and do my parents proud as I always strive to do. The race was scheduled to start at 11.30am on Saturday the 20th of February. As I’ve mentioned in previous race reports, I do struggle to get into ‘the zone’ when it comes to racing, so unfortunately I couldn’t completely focus until the signal to start had gone. I am determined to find out why this is so and hopefully when I find the solution I will start having better performances. When the morning of the race came, I was so happy that I didn't have to have an early wake up. Instead I was finally able to have a day where I could have a sleep in. I woke up around 8am and pretty much sat around doing nothing in my hotel room until I had to leave for the race. It was good only staying a few km's away from the rac...

I was very excited leading up to this race as I finally had the opportunity to compete with the elite triathletes in the open category for the pursuit distance. I had no idea what to expect but I was just hoping for a top 5 finish. On the morning of the race I was trying to get myself into race mode through visualising my performance and where I wanted to be in the field. Getting into that zone is something I do struggle with doing but as soon as the horn goes off, it all clicks and I realise why I am here doing what I do best. I had a bit of an idea of who would be competing in the open category and I knew that it was going to be a tough race, but I was up for the challenge. As I was racking my bike in transition the other girls in my category came up to me and spoke to me about me stepping up and how good it was to see me getting out of my comfort zone. I was a little intimidated by my competition at first but I couldn’t let the intimidation get to me, so I continued with my ...

Today I felt quite a bit of pressure on me because I knew that this was the race that I would perform well in but things can turn around quite quickly. I guess that most people would be pretty happy with coming third. But for me, I wasn't overly proud of coming third in todays race. The reason behind it was because I set my goal too high, it wasn't impossible though. I know I could of done better and I know where I went wrong. I went out too hard in the swim and then smashed myself on the first lap of the bike trying to keep up with the two girls I wanted to beat. This wasn't the best choice to make when I realised that I still had two laps to go and a hard and fast 2km run off the bike ahead of me. The water was pretty cold this morning but after swimming a couple of strokes it actually wasn't that bad. I got out of the water after my warm up and focused on my race. After a long few minutes we get called to the start line. The nerves really kicked in. I was so n...

Planning my race, not knowing what to expect. I was just aiming for the top 6, hoping to get a place in the State Team. I really didn't know what to expect with this race. So I go for a warm up on the bike with my good friend Abby, both discussing the race. So we finished our ride. I headed into transition and set up. Shortly after I went for a quick run to get my legs warmed up for a quick and fast race. I felt pain running through my legs but I knew that I couldn't let that affect my race. After a motivational chat with my parents and coach I went for a warm up for the swim. I felt really good swimming before the race, I felt prepared. So the co-ordinator of the race calls us to go to the start line after the intermediate boys went off and started swimming. "1 minute till start!" The nerves were really rushing through my mind but I felt pretty confident stepping into this race. Before I knew it the horn went. I had a pretty good start. I lead it for about 1...