One small step for man... One long trip for me!
Well... we have all arrived safe and sound in Cologne, Germany; the base camp for our European adventures and where Matty, I and the girls (Loz and Mel) will be preparing for the Games in October. Supercoach Matty's skills are currently needed in Singapore for the Youth Olympics at the moment but will be meet us with open arms in a couple of weeks in Italy. By all reports, this competition is going well as it is the first time a youth Olympics has been held! Good luck to the small but quality team in Singapore having a crack at gold!
The journey was as painless as can be expected, I guess. Both flights from Sydney to Singapore and from Sing to Frankfurt were really full so there was no stretching out over a number of seats like has been done before on some long flights! Loz and I did not, unfortunately, get upgraded like last year (much to our dismay!) even if I tried some flirting with the check-in lady. But I could certainly have done a lot worse than sit next to the lovelies at my side, and we seemed to have synchro-ed our pee breaks and exercise sessions at the back of the plane, so it was an easy 24 hours or so in transit.
It was bloody great to get into the hotel and see my boy and roommate Joel Milburn, finally! This meant a) I was finally in Europe and at the training camp which means I get really get this season under way, b) I had at last finished the uncomfortable long trip from Oz to Europe, and c) I get to hang out and listen to music with Joel! Joely is a very old friend with a similar passion to both athletics and all things musical; he's also a funny bastard and a very easy going roomie. All these things mean the next couple of months are going to be good fun in room 304.
Physically I feel pretty good. I've learnt that the big issue for me with long travel is usually the mental fatigue and messing around with sleep rhythms, so I have a bit of a headache, I can't really think, and I am pretty damn tired, but all to be expected!
So... last weekend was my last race in Australia before I left. Again it was wet and cold conditions (8 degrees, up to 5m winds), and despite Loz doing an amazing job in the conditions to run a 56-low, I struggled with stride patterns and my warm up a little and ran a slow 51.2. I was pretty disappointed with the time as I really wanted to better my race 2 weeks ago in the Nation's Capital, but there was some really obvious and fixable mistakes on my behalf so I have been trying not to let the race get me down too much. As Matty has said, I'm ready to go and really get this campaign under way; I've done the hard work and am in fantastic shape. I was just really keen to get on the plane and start racing properly.
My first couple of meets in Europe are still unsure. My manager Brian has no confirmations yet other than the Continental (World) Cup so I am really hoping that changes in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, it can be the game you play over here; waiting to see if you are in a meet or not. If you are top 10 in the world, you can pretty much run anywhere, but at around 24 I am not a super-high priority in the better meets so will see what happens...
The journey was as painless as can be expected, I guess. Both flights from Sydney to Singapore and from Sing to Frankfurt were really full so there was no stretching out over a number of seats like has been done before on some long flights! Loz and I did not, unfortunately, get upgraded like last year (much to our dismay!) even if I tried some flirting with the check-in lady. But I could certainly have done a lot worse than sit next to the lovelies at my side, and we seemed to have synchro-ed our pee breaks and exercise sessions at the back of the plane, so it was an easy 24 hours or so in transit.
It was bloody great to get into the hotel and see my boy and roommate Joel Milburn, finally! This meant a) I was finally in Europe and at the training camp which means I get really get this season under way, b) I had at last finished the uncomfortable long trip from Oz to Europe, and c) I get to hang out and listen to music with Joel! Joely is a very old friend with a similar passion to both athletics and all things musical; he's also a funny bastard and a very easy going roomie. All these things mean the next couple of months are going to be good fun in room 304.
Physically I feel pretty good. I've learnt that the big issue for me with long travel is usually the mental fatigue and messing around with sleep rhythms, so I have a bit of a headache, I can't really think, and I am pretty damn tired, but all to be expected!
So... last weekend was my last race in Australia before I left. Again it was wet and cold conditions (8 degrees, up to 5m winds), and despite Loz doing an amazing job in the conditions to run a 56-low, I struggled with stride patterns and my warm up a little and ran a slow 51.2. I was pretty disappointed with the time as I really wanted to better my race 2 weeks ago in the Nation's Capital, but there was some really obvious and fixable mistakes on my behalf so I have been trying not to let the race get me down too much. As Matty has said, I'm ready to go and really get this campaign under way; I've done the hard work and am in fantastic shape. I was just really keen to get on the plane and start racing properly.
My first couple of meets in Europe are still unsure. My manager Brian has no confirmations yet other than the Continental (World) Cup so I am really hoping that changes in the next couple of days. Unfortunately, it can be the game you play over here; waiting to see if you are in a meet or not. If you are top 10 in the world, you can pretty much run anywhere, but at around 24 I am not a super-high priority in the better meets so will see what happens...
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