I decided to call my Memorial Day weekend festivities my 2nd training camp of the year.  After all, I was going to be spending the majority of it training just like I did during my first training camp in Australia.  Some things would be different.  Firstly, I didn’t have to fly halfway around the world to get to camp.  However, my 2 ½ hour drive which turned into 5hours thanks to the crazy holiday traffic made it feel as long as flying around the world.  There were no coaches there but instead I had my family for support.  My dad was kind enough to hop on his mountain bike to come check on me during my workouts.  The first day he met me with 10min to go in my 4 ½ hour workout and greeted me by falling off his bike gasping for air because he had to climb up a hill.  Shouldn’t I be the one falling over and gasping for air?!  (i ...

When I was initially asked by Dan, the local Zoot rep, to represent Zoot at Danzeisen and Quigley’s Triathlon Night I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Making an appearance turned into giving a presentation, which turned into giving a presentation in front of 100+ triathletes.  Ahhh!  It had been a while since I had given a talk in front of such a big group of people. Not that it ever crossed my mind to say no.  Both Dan and Zoot have been great to me and I’m always happy to support them (plus, I love triathlon events!).  D&Q bike store is in Cherry Hill, NJ and about 45min from home.  I hadn’t been to D&Q before but I was instantly impressed.  D&Q is the biggest bi ...

Life is in full swing now and there is no rest for the weary.  It started a few weeks ago with the kick off of triathlon season (ok, technically it was a duathlon).  The Doylestown Duathlon was the perfect little race to test out my fitness and remind my body how to race.  I definitely needed the reminder although the race went smooth and I was happy with my splits.  After the race my husband and I headed up to my parents to celebrate their birthday’s which I missed while in Australia.  Plus, it was one of those big birthdays although I won’t tell which one.  We went out for oysters and Cajun food.  Yum!  We got home Sunday night and I just barely got unpacked and laundry done before I was re-packing to head back up to my parent’s house the following weekend.  This time though it was a wine tasting trip through the Finger Lakes with my a ...

I love Zoot camp and this year it saved me from suffering major depression from leaving Australia.  I flew from Brisbane to LA and headed right down the coast to Carlsbad.  It was absolutely beautiful in Carlsbad this year since they’ve had a lot of rain and the flowers were in full bloom.  I couldn’t believe the colors!  We switched hotels this year and we had a great view of the flower gardens and the ocean.  It was perfect.  Plus, it had 25meter outdoor pool.  Totally cool (although we really didn’t have a lot of free time to be in it)!  It was great to see old teammates, especially since it’s been off season and none of us ...

Monday started off with a bang as we were in the pool by 5:30AM swimming, swimming, swimming and more swimming.  Good thing we had a day off yesterday so my arms were a little more rested.  Coach Paul busted me for taking it too easy when on the last interval he told me “My watch is on you Heather!” and I swam about 6sec faster for my 100 than I had been.  Seriously though, it was a new PR for me and I was happy to be able to swim that fast.  Later in the day we had one of my favorite workouts, hard bike intervals.  We found this great road that was a 5minute loop with only a few turns and no cars.  We cruised around the loop with Paul riding next to us on the scooter (I really wish I had my camera! It was hilarious!) giving us tips and yelling at us to ride faster.  After the ride we went over to Paul’s for a twilight BBQ.  There is nothing bett ...

After a long week of super hard training it was time to have a little fun.  Bright and early Saturday we all piled into Coach Paul’s van and headed down to Redcliffe, a 90min drive south, for a local Splash and Dash.  The race was a 600m swim, 3K run, 600m swim, and 3K run.  Short and sweet.  Thanks to the cyclone which was inching its’ way toward the Australian coast, the protected bay where the swim was held was super choppy.  Regardless, the race was a fun way to get the body back into race mode.  My legs felt surprisingly good on the run despite the hard week of training.  The toughest part of the race was by far the second swim.  After the first run I dove back into the water and just sort of lay there thinking, “do I really have to start swimming again?”  Anyway, it was fun to race a bit and to cheer everyone else on.& ...

Life here in Noosa has settled into a nice little routine.  Up early for training session #1, shower, breakfast, calls to home, nap, snack, training session #2, shower, lunch, errands, training session #3, shower, dinner, stretching, reading, bed.  I miss my husband and family enough that I guess I will return to the States but it IS really nice down here.  The sun has even decided to stay out for the past few days and we made it through a whole 4hour bike ride with no rain!  Time has a way of just passing by and the days have all sort of just blended together.  I’ve been heard on more than occasion saying “remember on that ride we did yesterday…” only to be informed that the ride was 3 days ago.  Not sure if that is a good thing or bad thing… My body is definitely feeling the effects of all this volume and intensity of training and fatigue i ...

I was welcomed to the Noosa, right in the heart of the Sunshine coast, by what I’m calling a monsoon.  Apparently it’s been raining here for weeks almost non-stop.  It’s not showing any signs of stopping in the near future either.  There are actually 2 cyclones heading our way.  Regardless, it is still absolutely beautiful here and warm.  The second day I arrived here, which was the first day I was functioning.  The first day I was in a total fog due all the traveling.  I did manage to stay awake the whole first day which definitely got my on “Noosa time” quickly.  And actually the second day managed to be sunny almost the whole day.  We got a long run in and a surf swim in the ocean without much rain.  The next day we weren’t so luckily.  First was a group ride in which we proceeded to ham ...