Lily’s Blog

Lily Burnet is off to Australia for a month of warm weather training (amongst other things). You can find out what she is up to here….

6th April: I have been in Australia for over a week now and it is absolutely boiling. I have taken part in two of the Redcliffe Triathlon Club sessions and they have been very different to the training sessions at home! The first session I took part in was a time trial track cycle session. This session was on my second day of arriving and I was still exhausted from the long journey over which made it quite tough. I found it particularly hard work as the only bike available to hire was a mountain bike and everyone else were on road bikes. The other people at the session were very serious and didn’t talk much but this session was extra for those doing the championships or something. Overall I had a tough first session and the weather being 30  c did not help at all!

The next session was running and luckily for me it was colder and there were light rain showers. There were a different people there who were a lot friendlier and less serious. Even though it was quite cold I still found it hard in the heat. We did core exercises and two laps of a field followed by stretching and run sets for warm up. Then six lots of four hundred meter laps. I was not the fastest but my times were consistent staying either the same or dropping or adding a second onto one minute fifty five. We were told to run at our 3k race pace aiming to hit the same time each lap.

I am really enjoying experiencing the different training environment and tomorrow I am taking part in the Queensland sprint triathlon race! I am really excited and nervous about it. Last night we drove back from my granny’s farm and arrived home very late so I feel pretty tired but at the same time I feel ready for the race. It starts with a 300 meter sea swim in Redcliffe Bay, followed by an 8k road cycle and then a 2k run. Luckily we managed to hire a proper road bike. I have only managed to fit in two practices on it though. On my first practice I could barely stay upright so I just tried getting on and off properly. However on my second attempt I felt so much more confident and I had no problems with staying upright. The handles are curved with the brakes on the end which is a bit awkward to use so I’m going to avoid using them, also the brakes are also the gears which is even more awkward. But I am really excited about the race and it will be a really good experience!

7th April: Here are the results for the triathlon I did today. Unfortunately they mucked up badly on my times and I was given a yellow swimming hat not a blue one and was set off with the tens to elevens and the thirty up year olds however my ankle timer was set with the twelve to thirteens who set off 90 seconds before so my swim time and overall time are 90 seconds slower than they should be which was really annoying.

I really enjoyed it though and I think I had a really good race and I don’t think for me it could have gone much better. I really enjoyed the swim once I put my head down and got going, I ended up passing lots of thirty year olds and caught up with some of the slower blue group swimmers. The water was really wavy and green there was a bit of a strong current which pushed us in all sorts of directions. I got kicked a few times but the training with Fran at the swimming sessions really helped. The man with the microphone said something about me having a really good swim and that I had overtaken most of the thirty year olds, he seemed to know my name.

The cycle went well on the bike even though I had only ridden it twice. There were a few people on mountain bikes who were really struggling so I’m so glad I had a road bike. There were lots of other  people doing the race at the same time which made it hard to overtake and turn corners. There were so many bikes at the transition area and it was quite a long run from the swim to the cycle but I put a bright yellow water bottle next to my bike so I could find it. They were very strict about mounting and dismounting but I didn’t get a penalty luckily.
The run though was quite tough as the sun started coming out and it got hotter. But I didn’t get a stitch and I still managed to have the fifth quickest run time!
Overall I really enjoyed it and I would definitely like to compete in more like it, it was a great experience and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to do it.
Lily

12th April: Since the race I have gone to two other training sessions with Redcliffe triathlon club. One running session and my first swimming session with them.
I was a bit worried about the running session as it was hot and sunny and I was struggling being outside in it but luckily for me everyone that did the race the day before did a recovery session so we did ten lots of one hundred and fifty meter sprints after warm up and core exercises. It was still too hot though!
The swimming session was really good but also pretty tiring. It was in a twenty five outdoor meter pool and although it was quite cold outside the pool it was really warm inside. It was really cool when it started raining because the water went all flat but you could see the rain hitting the water when you put your head under. The training was quite full on as the whole thing was either sprints or time trials. There was a great big list on the board of what we were doing and in the end we did nearly everything twice! We even did three lots of twelve lengths just arm pull  all of them time trials! That was tough. At about an hour in I was really tired and I thought we would be getting out soon but the session ended up being an hour and a half long! The man coaching us said I had a nice arm pull and one of the mums said the same thing. The weird thing was the girl who came third in the triathlon at the weekend was struggling quite a bit to keep up and in the end she was given a pair of flippers yet she still seemed to be finding it very tough which was a bit odd considering she did so well. Even though the swimming was hard work I still enjoyed it and it may have been my last session with Redcliffe triathlon club as we are going on a sailing ship to the barrier reef for a while before spending some time travelling around Brisbane city. It has been a great experience training with Redcliffe and meeting lots of new people, I have really enjoyed it and I’m so happy they let me train with them.
Lily