I've been training in St Moritz, Switzerland for nearly two weeks and everything is progressing smoothly. I'm staying with fellow Aussie Walkers Nathan Deakes, Luke Adams, their coach Craig Hilliard and physiotherapist Toby Watson. We're in the same gorgeous house as last year, Haus Am See (http://www.haus-am-see.ch/) and the owners, the Rosenthaler Family have kindly rented their personal apartment for us to use. The house is divided into three apartments and one has been rented permanently for the entire year. They even placed two Aussie flags on the balcony of the house for all that pass through St Moritz to see! So I have renamed it "Australia House!"
My body is travelling quite well; it helps when Toby is working on me every day. I usually get treatment 5 times a week in Australia and Spain, but 7 days is certainly helping my battered body cope with this hard training phase. We also use the cold water of the river that flows into the Lake from the mountains to recover from training. It's about 10 degrees Celsius and I certainly don't enjoy dipping my legs in the water. For the first two minutes it's incredibly cold and painful and I nearly jump out of the water immediately. But usually Nathan and Luke encourage me to stay and I hate to be a whimp! So I lasted five minutes the first time and then ten minutes today!!
Nathan and I recovering in the Lake
I know most people I speak to think that my life as an athlete is very exciting and glamorous, especially when I mention four weeks in St Moritz! However my days here aren't interesting at all; basically at the moment my day goes something like this: I eat, train, dip in the lake for 10 minutes, eat, receive treatment, watch Tour de France* stage finish, train, eat, sleep. So not that much fun, but the gorgeous landscape certainly makes the camp more relaxing and enjoyable. I will stay here until 1st August then I will travel back to my base in Girona, Spain until 6th August when I will travel to Kochi, Japan. All the race walkers in the Aussie team will use Kochi as their base before Beijing. I will stay there until 15th August when I will travel to Beijing!
All of use here in St Moritz were shocked and saddened when Jana Rawlinson had to withdraw from the Olympics this week. All athletes know how frustrating it is to have an injury but when it forces you to withdraw from the Olympics it makes it even more difficult. I hope Jana gets back to 100% soon and I know she will come back bigger and better than ever!
* Matt (my husband and coach, if you didn't know) is the Director of Garmin-Chipotle Pro Cycling Team at the Tour de France. They're going well in their first Tour and were winning the Teams Classification for a few days last week! So Matt is on the road each day of the Tour deciding tactics for the team as well as writing my training programme in his spare time!
LATE NEWS: Souths have just won their fifth game in a row! Go the Rabbitohs!
Toby in front of Haus Am See AKA "Australia House"
I do most of my training at Samedan Airport which is 10 minutes drive from the house, but also some sessions around St Moritz Lake which is 4.3km. But is does get very busy with tourists so I prefer to do the harder sessions at the Airport which is 1707m above sea level. It's a fantastic 5.25km loop that is marked every 500metres. There are lots of athletes training in St Moritz from athletics, rowing and some winter sports also. Lots of race walkers from all over the World including, Athinasiou Tsoumelika (Greek Olympic Champ 2004) Susanna Feitor (Portugal, Bronze 2005 World Champs), Kjersti Platzer (Norway, Silver Medal 2000), Sabine Zimmer (Germany).
My body is travelling quite well; it helps when Toby is working on me every day. I usually get treatment 5 times a week in Australia and Spain, but 7 days is certainly helping my battered body cope with this hard training phase. We also use the cold water of the river that flows into the Lake from the mountains to recover from training. It's about 10 degrees Celsius and I certainly don't enjoy dipping my legs in the water. For the first two minutes it's incredibly cold and painful and I nearly jump out of the water immediately. But usually Nathan and Luke encourage me to stay and I hate to be a whimp! So I lasted five minutes the first time and then ten minutes today!!
Nathan and I recovering in the LakeI know most people I speak to think that my life as an athlete is very exciting and glamorous, especially when I mention four weeks in St Moritz! However my days here aren't interesting at all; basically at the moment my day goes something like this: I eat, train, dip in the lake for 10 minutes, eat, receive treatment, watch Tour de France* stage finish, train, eat, sleep. So not that much fun, but the gorgeous landscape certainly makes the camp more relaxing and enjoyable. I will stay here until 1st August then I will travel back to my base in Girona, Spain until 6th August when I will travel to Kochi, Japan. All the race walkers in the Aussie team will use Kochi as their base before Beijing. I will stay there until 15th August when I will travel to Beijing!
All of use here in St Moritz were shocked and saddened when Jana Rawlinson had to withdraw from the Olympics this week. All athletes know how frustrating it is to have an injury but when it forces you to withdraw from the Olympics it makes it even more difficult. I hope Jana gets back to 100% soon and I know she will come back bigger and better than ever!
* Matt (my husband and coach, if you didn't know) is the Director of Garmin-Chipotle Pro Cycling Team at the Tour de France. They're going well in their first Tour and were winning the Teams Classification for a few days last week! So Matt is on the road each day of the Tour deciding tactics for the team as well as writing my training programme in his spare time!
LATE NEWS: Souths have just won their fifth game in a row! Go the Rabbitohs!
1 comment:
Hey thats pretty cool that Nathan,yourself and Luke were able to train together. Great photo!
Pity about Nathans injury, but Australia (especially all the racewalkers) will be hoping yourself, Luke and Jarrad can do very well instead! Obviously your 4th!?!! Olympics means you have lots of experience to help those in their 1st Olympics, and that should help you in your own race too.
(I did Sydney Olympics trials for 20km and 50km walks, and lots of Junior Nationals races,but knee injuries and stuff means I just try and work on my marathon time these days...)
All the best in Beijing!
Jonathon P.
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