Race week ahead
Let me take you on a journey through my last week of training and what race week will bring me
Last week was a bit hectic with a big final assessment presentation on Wednesday. I had to work together with my group, who didn’t want to work or only did so at the last minute. On Monday, we had a chat about who would do what subject, and I took the hardest ones. I regretted it way too fast, but I got the work done. On the day of the presentation, I finalized some missing parts but missed a complete section about the second objective because somebody didn’t do their job. Unfortunately, I had no time to add it, even though I had told them about it and even gave a hint how to do it.
During the presentation, I felt really nervous as it was my first time speaking publicly in English. It took me some time to realize this, and I started to ramble and speak fast. In the middle, I took a small break to reset and just talk slower. This worked a bit but made me pronounce some words wrong. For the next time, I will need more time to get used to my part of the text and start off a bit more relaxed. Just be the chill guy.
Training felt rough last week, still shaken up by the Formula 1 weekend. Not enough rest, feeling tired, and a bit of pain everywhere. I tried to take more time off and just get back into a rhythm. This went better as the week went on; swimming actually felt great, but the bike and run were worse than other weeks.
On Sunday evening, I flew to Perth to get to Western Australia. It was a 4-hour flight with a 3-hour time difference. So, I arrived at 21:00 in Perth, having departed from Melbourne at 20:00. When I arrived, I got the car at the rental company and drove to a hotel nearby. On Monday morning, I went for breakfast in Perth just before driving to R&D Cycles. BEST bike shop I have been to so far in Australia. I bought my race tires and was able to change them in the store's workplace. It was super nice of them to let me use their workspace myself. After that, my 3-hour drive to Dunsborough started. I arrived around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I met up with Scott Anderson at the house where I am staying this week. We went out for a coffee, and then I went out to check the bike course.
The bike course is super technical with a lot of rocks and loose sand, and 90% of it is single tracks. It has more turns than most books I read and a lot of jumps that you can fully send because the landings are quite soft.
Let’s look ahead. This morning, I went for a swim in the ocean, which is warm when you swim but cold when you get out. While you swim, you can see everything, so you’re more snorkelling and looking at the wildlife than actually swimming. This afternoon, I will go and check the short track course. Oh yeah, I am going to race the Short Track. LET'S GO! Tomorrow, I will check the run course and do the bike course a few more times and have the elite race briefing for the short track and full distance. Then, Thursday evening is short track race day and an easy 30-minute ride to recover a bit. Friday is a recovery day for the big one on Saturday. In the next blog, I will tell you all about the races and how they went. This was a short one, but I have nothing more to tell. I hope you liked this one too and see you after the race.
