Training at the AIS: Vandals, Vitamin C and Voodoo
It was mid-morning by the time I started my drive up to Canberra, while I was looking forward to getting up there and starting a good training block, the prospect of an 8 hour drive to get there was it not the most enticing thing. Luckily the drive went by quickly, aided by plenty of podcasts, car karaoke, phone calls annoying anyone who was willing to keep me company and enjoying all the magical Hume Highway landmarks that passed me by like Dog on the Tuckerbox (which was vandalized the very next day, and I swear it wasn’t me). I arrived at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) at around 6 p.m. quickly taking advantage of the dining hall before checking in, unpacked and getting an early night making sure I was rested and ready to put my maximum effort face on the next day.
The AIS has become a second home during my racing career, spending scattered weeks throughout the year training with my coach Freddy, taking advantage of one of the quickest tracks in the country and its great strength and conditioning, sports science and sports medicine facilities.
While I have never had the chance to move to Canberra permanently like some of my teammates, over my career I have trained at the AIS in blocks of a few weeks to allow Freddy to be sure I’m not slacking off on my training back home. For this particular block I'm up in Canberra for 3 weeks for speeding up my arms on the quick track, some quick heat chamber testing planning for Tokyo 2020 next year and topping off this AIS stint of training with a competition on the last day.
Canberra welcomed me with it's chilly embrace on the first Monday, to the point where training was called off outside and we escaped into the indoor straight to do our session. It was just my luck that I then began to feel under the weather. As my very unfortunate, dreadful cold set in and got worse, so did Canberra’s winter weather. So far this trip it has snowed twice and I'm in no way getting used to the below zero temperature slapping me in the face as I leave the apartment in the morning. Who really needs to feel their fingers and face anyway? As I continued to train hard, it was clear my cold was getting worse as I stated leaving drip marks from my running nose on the track like a flu infected Hansel and Gretel. The AIS physician has been keeping a close eye on me and ensuring I get lots of lozenges and vitamin C to keep the cold at bay.
It’s great taking advantage of some of the world-class facilities that they have here at the Australian Institute of Sport, one of them is being able to train using treadmill. I know most of you are trying to imagine how a race chair on a treadmill would work, and let me tell you, it’s awesome. First of all it gets you inside, and getting away from the cold is always a plus. Secondly, it's great for over-speed, allowing you to push with your arms moving at a higher speed for a longer amount of time than you would normally be able to do on the track. However, the thought of getting your hand stuck in the spokes while the belt is running and then having your fingers being shredded off at a high speed before the automatic stop kicks in does keep you slightly on edge!
I'm not sure if it's the high-tech wizardry of the treadmill, Freddy’s coaching master plan finally kicking in or some Dr. Facilier level voodoo going on, but I’ve been seeing some fast results on the track and it’s been really rewarding. Despite being ill, I’ve hit new personal bests in both my starts and my top end speed! With the chance of some pretty major races coming up later this year and with Tokyo 2020 just over a year away I’m thrilled to see just how far I can continue to improve, especially after I shake this cold. After almost a decade of my racing career it’s awesome to see myself continuing to improve and get faster. Thanks to whoever is casting that voodoo black magic...and Freddy, of course!
While Canberra offers some fantastic training opportunities, it comes with the added benefit of having plenty of social ones too. Quite a few of the athletes that I grew up training with and traveling the world with live here now, so when we are not training or zonked out sleeping and recovering it's great being able to hang out away from sport. Board game nights have now turned into an epic Dungeons & Dragons quest...our clan rolls deeeeeeeep...
Cold weather and inflamed internals aside, the trip to Canberra's been pretty successful so far. I’ll keep you all in the loop next week on how the competition goes. Whoever is working that voodoo black magic, please do me a solid and make sure it doesn’t snow and that I go fast!...and maybe get revenge on Dog on the Tuckerbox vandal, too!