Cape Town

I have just finished my 1st training camp of the season. 2 weeks in Cape Town. I spent the time paddling on Marina Da Gama, swimming and doing gym at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. I even managed to fit in a cross country skiing session. The training venues look really good and the team of professionals we'll be working with next year are world class, I really believe we are giving ourselves the best possible training opportunity for the next few years. Our team is made up of:

Shaun and I (Athletes)

Marcus (coach)

Julia(manager/physio)

Ross Tucker (Strategist/Sports Science)

Tim Noakes (mastermind)

Dr. Jeroen Swart (Exercise Physiologist)

Dr. Clinton Gähwiler (Psychologist)

Shelly Meltze (Nutritionist)

Johann Pretorius (Strength & Conditioning)

It was definitely the busiest training camp i have been on but the venue we stayed at just seemed to help ease the stress, our rooms were literally 5m from the waters edge. It is awesome to be back in Durban with my wife, catching up with friends...

Always better to be on water than in water.

Back in training and have to say that it's rather awesome! I’ve just finished my first week of specialized 200m training; it is great to be back on the water and I’m loving the fact that this seasons base training phase does not include much swimming. I woke this morning to the exciting news that CSA has increased my residential allowance by 100% this is a definite training motivator and I am very grateful for the support. I have finally decided on my paddle for the next 3 years and thanks to my wife it’s definitely the coolest looking on earth right now, ‘put your orders in fast to avoid the Christmas rush!’

Out and About

Just been relaxing catching up on work and enjoying all the free time that comes with not having to train 5 hrs a day. I still can't seem to keep myself out of a boat though. Took physio Julia's kayak for a bit of a spin yesterday, lots of fun, have to say I was pretty impressed by the way Julia handled being worked by the four foot surf.

There's No Place Like Home!

It is great to be back home with my wife. I have the added bonus of being off rigid training for the next month or so. Hayley and I spent the weekend up in Underberg, (sharp contrast from the green of Canada) it was awesome. My next few weeks will be spent sorting out all the admin and planning for next season. Shaun and I are looking at moving down to Cape Town to work closely with SSISA (Sports Science Institute of South Africa). It is also rather important for us to spend time in the K2 together, this past season we only managed to spend 7 weeks in the boat together which was not ideal. I am really looking forward to this next seasons specific 200m training. A whole lot is going to change in our sport and we are going to have to do a whole lot to change with it.

World Champs Final Day

6^th fastest boat in the world! We have exactly three years left till our London 2012 race and it is awesome to know that we are on the right track. Looking forward we are only 3 places away from a potential medal. It’s so exciting to race at the top level of any sport. How often does one get to line up against 4 Olympic champions (Beijing ’08), 7 World Champions, and 2 World Champs silver medalists all trying their utmost to beat you, and all of this in front of a massive crowd?

World Champs Day 3

How awesome, my first world champs A-Final. We had a really good afteroon getting a second in our heat and then third in the quickist semi of the day. Amazingly blessed to be racing for a medal tomorrow and will take the oppotunity with both hands.

We are 3 years away from London 2012 and tomorrow determines how many places we need to make up in order to be on that big podium. To top off all this excitement I'll soon be on my way home to my gorgeous wife!

World Champs Day 2

Day 2 was the ex-Olympic 500m K2 semi. We had a really solid race but just seemed to loose our power in the last 100m which is where it is won or lost in the 500m causing us to slip from 2nd to 5th. I'll leave the analysis for next week for now I'll be focusing on the Olympic discipline, the K2 200m! I have to race the heats and semi's this afternoon and am feeling confident of an A-final for Sunday. Good times...

World Champs Day 1

For starters the question on all the athletes minds has been answered. The London 2012 Olympic Games will be raced over 200m and 1000m. This is a huge change for all of us, we now are forced into making a definite choice as to what type of athlete we are training to be. No athlete will be able to compete at such a high level in both distances. From here going forward, including this world champs i have to look at the 200m K2 as the big one, what a total change in mindset. At this present moment in time our 200m is good and am relatively excited by the prospect of building to the London games as a 200m specialist. Ruby has an extremely tough descion to make.

We had a solid heat this afternoon and are feeling confident for tomorrows semi final. We ended fourth in a really close (2nd to 6th were all in 1 sec of each other) and tough heat. I only race one race tomorrow afternoon and then things begin to heat up with 7 races in the last 2 days. Hectic!

It's World Champs Week!

Four sessions left to get me to the greatest and most important peak of my life so far. Last week was another week of good solid work. I was taking strain by Saturday's session but am really happy with how it went. Marcus and Julia are doing a great job in the final stages, Marcus breaks me and Julia puts me back together. As the time goes by here I am really beginning to miss my wife back home and i know she'd love to be here in Canada with me. We had the day off and took the opportunity to explore Nova Scotia it was truly impressive the scenery is amazing. (Click on my slide show to view some pics) We have received our lane draws for our races, I'm really looking forward to the years racing pinnacle, I'm sure it will be a great one.

What a day!

What another great day of training here in halifax. Three great sessions, really forward to getting back into the K2 with shaun in the morning we going to be doing some time trials, ending off with a current favourite of mine, the 200m. It should be awesome, i'm over all aches and niggles caused by travel and super keen to start going fast.