India Story - 1 year on, 2nd September 2002
Hi All,
It has been some time since my last email, but finally I sit and write this just before leaving Chennai tonight for the Asian Triathlon Championships in Xuzhou, China this Sunday. Following this race I will then head for home or a break arriving Sep 11 and will be home till Oct 14.
It has been quite a hectic couple of months and in fact looking back over the past year the time has gone quite quickly. On July 31, it was one year since my arrival here in India and I can say with some satisfaction we have come a long way.
This weekend in China will give us a good idea just how far we have progressed. Our main hopes lie in the U/23 Elite with our 3 best athletes all eligible to race in this category and a good sign for the future. It has been extremely satisfying to see the progress that has been made, not only athletically but the way the athletes personalities have developed. I am really enjoying coaching this group we have now as there is a lot more interaction between myself and athletes, though don't think the language barrier is completely broken, but we manage to get by and even develop our own way of communicating. You could call it "Austamhin" (a combination of Australian, Tamil and Hindi) to get us through which gives us all a bit of a laugh from time and as always hand signals are a handy back up.
As I look back over the past year at the progress we have made, I would have never thought it possible when I first arrived. I think I have adapted reasonably well with the way things happen in India, but don't imagine for one minute that I will ever fully come to grips with everything here. India is very complex and it will take more than a year or 3 to begin to understand Indian life but with Rahul and Rami explaining the intricacies of life here I am learning. I think Rahul gets a bit of laugh out of some of my reactions when he explains something that has happened or a news item and I try to come to grips with the logic of it. It makes for some very interesting stories.
As for the training, I must say over the last few months it has really come together for us. We have identified and now train at a number of venues that have proven ideal for us. The cycling which I knew was going to be the most difficult has proven now to be quite good as we use the East Coast Rd which provides us with over 100km of tollway conditions and not much traffic along with a good road surface. We also use Madras Racecourse (Horse racing) as there is a 2.4 km track around the inside which is great for us for speed work and circuit type racing and also utilise this for our bike/runs.
We have also just found a great little beach near Chennai with 2 km of good road with virtually no traffic and here we have our swim/bike/runs. I have even taught the athletes to body surf and after training we have some great fun catching waves and even our older army guys playing like kids and having just as much fun. It is really amazing but the water and beach are clean and there are miles and miles of beach with some great surf and nobody in the water!!! The weather has now cooled a little and it is low to mid 30's which is not too bad when we train in the morning.
The living conditions here for the athletes have been one area where it has been somewhat poor and despite doing quite a bit of work and making it is a comfortable as possible, we had little control over conditions and the food.. The athletes have been housed in a dormitory at the Nehru Stadium and while it served a purpose of providing a start when the program commenced, the time has come to provide the athletes with better living conditions. For the amount of training they have been doing and to produce the results we are seeking, we felt that they needed somewhere where they could be comfortable, have access to good food and better living conditions. I believe it is a sign of the committment of the Federation and the progress that we have made over the year, that the athletes will move into a 2 story 4 bedroom & bathroom house in October. The house offers us the space and the all the facilities we are seeking and already the team is very excited about the move.
There is much more I would like to say to say about what is happening here, but time will get away from me this time. Rahul will be visiting Australia with me from Sep 11 - 18 as we prepare to bring the team to Australia next year from Jan - April to train and race. I believe that the experience that they will gain during this time will benefit them enormously and help them to achieve the goals we have set.
I hope during this visit we can catch up with many of you and as I said earlier I will stay on till Oct 14 and have a bit of a break before heading back to India and then heading off to the World Championships in Cancun in November. Rahul has worked extremely hard to produce a 20 minute CD Presentation on the Academy and hopefully we might be able to show this at some time during our visit for those interested in seeing what we are doing.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all of you have donated your old training gear. Some of you may recognise your gear in the cycling photos attached, but cannot tell you how much we appreciate it as it so difficult and expensive to get the gear in India. Thank you again and thank from the athletes.
I have attached some photos which I hope you enjoy. In recognition of the team's hard work we took them out on Sunday for a movie and some time in the video arcades at a complex on the East Coast where we cycle. It is fairly obvious from the photos they had a great day and that is one of the enjoyable things about coaching here is having time like this with them. The other is of Kanthamini in school uniform and is our youngest team member @ 13 (14 in Dec). A very talented young girl who runs really well and is really coming along on the bike and couldn't swim a stroke 6 months ago and is now swimming up to 2 km each session and constantly improving. We really look forward to the future with her as she is extremely committed both at training and school. I will try in my future updates to give you some profiles of our other athletes and their progress.
Time to finish packing now and hope this finds everyone back home in good health and spirits. I read with great interest what is happening at STEAM and pleased to see the way the club is moving forward. Congratulation to Jason and the others involved with producing the STEAM news as it looks great and quite a good read.
Take care and look forward to seeing you soon.
Safe Training, Good Health
Brett Mace
National Triathlon Coach - India
India, 6th June 2002
Hi All,
Just arrived back in India after our first
International Event at the Subic Bay International Triathlon last weekend. Had a
successful weekend with 2 of our athletes placing 3rd in the Junior Elite and
Elite U/23 which was the first time a male triathlete has placed in an
International Event.
For the Team it was their frst time in a plane and out
of India which was a big event for them and all were very excited. Also the food
was totally foreign to them and some of the athletes were complaining about the
lack of spice in the food which they were not used to. Personally I thought it
was quite fine (for a change), though I couldn't do what some of them were doing
and putting pepper on pineapple and other fruit!!!!
Anyway all round it was a most enjoyable weekend as I
saw enough in our athletes to feel that we have some good talent capable of
developing into good athletes. I was particularly impressed with Mahesh who is a
21 year old who has been with us for only 3 months and he placed 3rd in the
U/23s in his very first triathlon ever!!!. Our Junior who placed 3rd, Jabir, is
only 16 so he has a number of years still left in the Juniors to develop which
is most promising.
It was nice to see Malcolm Lyons and Melissa Ashton win
overall and more impressive to me was the interest they took in the Indian Team
and the time they spent talking to the team. Our guys rarely get to meet
triathletes from outside India and in fact rarely get to see triathlon at all,
so they were eager to listen to Malcolm & Melissa and came away with a very
good impression of these 2 athletes and as such Australian Triathletes in
general. Malcolm and Melissa will have a least another 5 fans in their Fan Clubs
after the weekend!!
Just on the troubles here in India and though we have
been "strongly advised" to leave India, I feel relatively safe at the
moment and will continue to stay on here as planned unless the situation
seriously escalates. We have made very good progress so far and there is so much
to do so it would be a shame to leave now. Down south here we are a bit further
away from the action and out of range of missiles, but the threat will come more
in the way of terrorist type of attacks if things deteriorate, but as shown over
the last year I think most places in the world are vulnerable to this type of
thing now anyway.
Rob Pickard is still coming over to conduct the
Coaching Course and Nick Munting is still committed to coming over in laqte June
to take on our PR so we are trying to proceed as normal. In the event of a
'worst case scenario', Lynette is preparing extra beds and practicing up on
cooking Indian Cuisine should myself and the team have to 'lob up' in Australia
earlier than planned!!
Hope you enjoy the photo of our team with Melissa and
Malcolm and the only unfortunate thing was our team uniform didn't arrive from
Cannibal in time (no fault of Cannibal I might add, but more Indian Beaurocracy)
and our guys didn't have their proper racing gear, however some of you may
recognise some of your old gear.
Hope all is well and will write more, hopefully from
India, over the next few weeks.
Safe training and good health.
Brett
India, 27th May 2002
Hi All,
Though it has been some time since I last sent an
email, that doesn't mean that there is nothing going on, quite the contrary, as
there is always here in India there is always something happening, but I just
haven't sat down to put finger to keyboard so to speak.
We are currently experiencing the hottest summer
recorded in India and you may think that would be nice as you are starting to
shiver back home as winter approaches, but as the title of my email says, it is
like living in an oven. While Delhi has had temperatures up around the 48 degree
mark, we have had 43 but unlike Delhi, we get a very high humidity reading where
the Delhi heat is dry. At one stage we had one month where the temperature was
over 100 degrees in the old scale every day and I can tell you that even the
most minor indescretion by anyone really tests your patience and you find you
have a very low tolerance level. Thankfully the temperatures at the moment are
around 39 (and I thought I would never say this) but much more pleasant and
manageable, though I still spend a great deal of the time seeking my air
conditioned comforts.
Talking of heat, things are starting to hot up a little
with talk of all out war between India and Pakistan ecelating from their border
skirmishes up in Kashmir. As the BBC reported "there are 1 million Indian
& Pakistani soldiers currently facing off each other in the region",
which is quite amazing given the numbers, as if you put the total of Australia's
Defence Force together they would only fill half of the Melbourne Cricket
Ground! Besides the normal impact of war with the suffering involved, it will
have a large impact on our program as 4 of our 5 senior athletes are from the
Services Sports Control Board. These guys are recruited into the Army for their
sports ability and in peace time are full time athletes, however if a war breaks
out they are recalled and sent into action, so fingers crossed that cool heads
prevail. As for me I don't really feel any danger and have good advice here to
let me know if it is a good idea to pack myself and the remainder of the team
off to somewhere else to train.
Since my last email Lynette has been over and we spent
a lovely month having a bit of look around. We went and did the tourist thing in
Delhi and of course the obligatory trip to the Taj Mahal about 4 hours drive out
of Delhi. The Taj Mahal was very spectactular, but found the constant
harrassment by hawkers took away a little from the visit. We also spent a few
days down the East Coast, out of Chennai on the beach which was vey relaxing
after Delhi. Our final trip was by overnight train to Koodiakanal (better known
as Kodai), a Hill Station @ 2000 metres where the rich from Madras escape the
summer heat. This was a welcome break from the heat and a very pleasant few days
on the man made lake, and even cool enough to sit around a fire and enjoy a
Baileys after dinner! Like all good things it was over all too quickly, but look
forward to Lynette's other visits and seeing more of India, not to mention
expanding my culinary horizions which Lynette encouraged me to do with a limited
amount of success.
I have also just had Jo (Poshy) & Roy Robinson stay
or 5 days as they wound up their 2 month sub continent adventure, trekking in
Nepal to Everest Base Camp and visiting the National Parks in India in search of
tigers. Judging by the endless amounts of pictures of tigers and other wildlife,
this was a very successful search and I very much enjoyed their company and we
shared many laughs, but once again before too long they were on their way to
Africa and in search of the guerillas in Uganda before the rest of their
exciting journey around the world for the next 4 months. Their visit was also
valuable with Poshy taking a day out to massage the team and it was quite funny
to see the reaction of some of the guys who were quite enthusiastic through to
some who were terrified, but now that is another barrier we have broken down and
ended up quite a successful exercise.
On the training and competition front, as you could
imagine the heat was difficult for the team to train in, but we trained early in
the morning and again in the evening when it was only in the high 30's. The team
I thought handled it well and now we can look forward to conditions being a
little cooler. This weekend the Academy makes it's International Debut at an
Asian Cup race overseas at Subic Bay in the Phillipines. We are taking a team of
5 to this event which all are looking forward to and for those of you who know
how India works, the paperwork involved in doing this is just amazing. If you
are looking for a big business in India I would suggest going into forms and
rubber stamps as there is an endless amount of filling out forms and getting the
appropriate stamp to go with it. A couple of weeks ago we had an Aquathlon &
Duathlon in Bangalore which was quite successful and novel for India as this was
the first time an event had been conducted where competitors paid an entry fee
(A$2) and got themselves to the event. Previously all other events in India, the
Federation bore the costs of travel and accommodation and eveything else. We
have planned other similar events and hopefully we can continue to grow the
sport here and with this event we were fortunate enough to have access to good
roads and a pool inside a large army complex in Bangalore which was a great help
for the conduct of the event, though lucky it was a couple of weeks ago given
recent events!
After the Phillipines we will really put our heads and
work hard towards the Asian Championships to be held in China on September 8.
For this event we will fly to Shanghai and catch an overnight train to the race
site which will be an interesting experience. This will give us a good
indication on how we are progressing and what we are up against particularly
with the Chinese and Japanese who would be the dominant triathlon countries in
Asia. Following this event, I will be heading straight back to Australia for a
much awaited trip back home, before retuning to India for preparations for the
World Champs in Cancun, Mexico in November and National Champs in December.
Next month we are conducting our first Level 1 Coaching
Course over 3 days. This is a first for India and we are having Rob Pickard come
over to run this course. Rob as some of you may know developed the Level 1
course in Australia and with him conducting this course in addittion to having
Frank Conceicao come over to speak about the bike side of things and also to
provide much needed maintainence on our equipment here, I think we are making
some good inroads into the development of the sport here. Not only do I look
forward to the course but also to company of Rob and Frank who I am sure will
not only work hard, but play hard as well.
Finally congratulations to all those who put another
"Ironman notch in the belt". Enjoy your recovery and the refresh
yourselves before the training begins for another year. Also congratulations to
those who helped the BRATs to their first Club Chanmpionship win. I am glad to
see STEAM still going strongly and also helping Youth In Search which is a great
organisation doing very worthwhile work. Further congratulations to those who
competed in the Half Marathon at the weekend and while I haven't seen any
results I believe it was a pretty ordinary day weather wise.
Hope this finds everyone back home in good health and
good spirits and although winter is coming on, still managing to train well. I
have managed to keep up with all the footy scores and look forward to being home
this time when Newcastle win their 3rd Grand Final. There is no respite from
cricket here as you get every test match and one dayer live wherever they may be
played in the world. I love cricket but sometimes I would just love to see a few
good games of footy, and I don't care whether it is Aussie Rules or Rugby
League/Union just anything but cricket!!
Take care everyone, hope you enjoy the photos and
"GO THE KNIGHTS'.
Safe training and good health.
Brett
India 2002 #1
Hi All,
It has taken me a little while, but here I am back reporting from India on my second 6 months here. After the relative quiet of Australia it is back to the teeming mass of humanity in India and looking forward to a very busy year.
I have settled back in quickly and we now have a more streamlined squad training at the Academy for this year. The training is going relatively well and I have constantly got to remember that this is India and nothing will ever run too smooth for too long. When situations happen which they will all the time it is really all about managing and minimising the damage and getting on with it.
As I mentioned previously it is going to be a busy year and will be punctuated by visits from various people in Aus which I am looking forward to. Lynette most importantly will be coming over in March/April which will be great to have her here for a while and we might get out and around and see a bit of India.
I have not gone into too much detail as the Federation is putting a book together about the program and the Academy here and asked me to write a few paragraphs, which turned into just over 6 pages which I have attached. This covers my first 6 months here and though some of the stories may have been in earlier emails I hope you enjoy reading and apologise now for the length. (first 6 months).
On the social side of things I recently met an Australian couple living here in Chennai (about 2km away) and we have managed to have dinner and lunch over the past couple of weeks and it is very interesting (and similar) to trade stories on our experiences here. It is a great laugh and a good way of keeping sane here, not to mention having a few beers!!
Not long after I was back, there was a One Day International Cricket match between India & England here in Chennai. What an experience. Not only were the tickets sold out long in advance, but as you would expect there were scams going on with forged tickets and then riots outside when legitimate ticket holders couldn't get in when the ground was full. Luckily I had no problems and had teriffic seats. (see photos) The noise inside the ground was incredible. People filled plastic bottles with stones and constantly banged them on the back of seats throughout the day. When I got home I could still hear the banging. For the record India won and everyone went home happy. It would have been a bit scary if they had lost as they take their cricket here very seriously.
The weather here is starting to warm up as we move into summer and though it is still mild, you can feel the days starting to become much warmer. I am not really looking forward to the middle of summer Apr/May/June but will see how it goes. Have not seen rain here since last year which is good for training but not so good for water supplies.
Take care everyone, and I must apologise to those of you I didn't catch up with at Xmas but it was a really hectic time and hope I can do so on my next trip home in September.
Safe training and good health.
Brett
ps. Just a little about the photos. The cricket are self explanatory. The Bike training is taken at a session at the pool of everyone on the biker trainers which we use about 3 times per week. The tadpoles is one which I was lucky I had my camera with when they were doing this rather unusual (but efficient) way of strength training. very cute.
Chennai Chat, India, 10 December 2001
Hi All,
Just a short and final note (till January anyway) on life here in India. I can finally say I will be home next week albeit for a month only, but all the same looking forward to it very much. For those I will not see before Xmas, have a safe and Merry Xmas and hope maybe we can catch up early in the New Year. I look forward to meeting up with a number of you on Sunday 23rd down at Centennial Park for the Steam Xmas Breakfast and also finding out what has been happening back in Sydney over the last 5 months.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who donated all their old running and cycling gear. We received it last week after it taking a little while to get through Customs, but the important thing is we received it. The Triathlon Federation here was overwhelmed by the gear and we cannot thank you enough for it. It is difficult to explain how much this gear means to us as it has saved us many thousands of dollars which can be used in the development of the sport here, but in addition to that, it is very difficult to get our hands on this sort of gear. The running shoes we are particularly grateful for, as we are for the cycling nicks which we had very little of either. These are quite expensive and difficult to get and as you would realise, will make cycling more comfortable and running a bit more less damaging on fragile legs. If you have any more gear that is not being used, particularly shoes and nicks (and in smaller sizes, they have tiny feet here), if you could hang onto it and I will arrange another shipment early in the New Year. Once again thank you very much and it was very much appreciated. I have attached a picture of the gear in my apartment just after arrival.
To those of you competing at the Canberra Half Ironman best wishes for a successful race and hope you enjoy the event and the changes to the course which I believe will make it an even better event than last year. To Graeme Hannan and Nick Munting (the organisers and my partners in X-Tri), best wishes for a successful event and hope everything goes well and am sure they will build on the experiences from last year and make it into a great event which I believe it can be.
This weekend here in India is the National Championships in Chennai. The event also doubles as an International Event on the Asian Circuit and so far is looking quite good with entries from a number of countries in Asia. On Saturday we are quite excited about the National Aquathon Championships for Sub Juniors and Juniors which has attracted a big field. This will show what talent we have to develop over the next few years and looking at the qualifiers through the State Championships it looks very promising. We have made it Aquathon for this age group as it opens the sport to a whole lot more people and it is showing good dividends already with an unprecedented number of entries. As you would now understand, access to bikes (decent ones) is very limited so this is one way of making competition at this level fair as well as giving us a good opportunity to identify talented athletes that may excel in the future.
As for the group training at the Academy things are proceeding well. Now the rain has stopped we have been getting in a number of road cycling sessions. Despite the early start of 3am to try and avoid the traffic, cycling is still fraught with a number of dangers and have had a couple of close misses. We had our first fall the other week (a touch of wheels) no main damage but was bound to happen. I still wish that people would drive with their lights on at night as this would make things a lot safer but anyway haven't quite worked out why they don't but will have to keep a good watch out all the same. Most of the road is lit up ok, although they only turn half the lights on??? One disturbing thing is hearing the cries of young babies on the side of the ride as you cycle past the homeless people in the morning. Also young children as young as 2-3 years old on the side of the road at this time of the morning either playing or trying to wake sleeping parents is another vision one is unlikely to see while cycling in Australia. We have all seen homeless people in Australia, but it is the young homeless children that grow up this way is probably the most disturbing of all. I recently took a shot outside the Academy before and after cycling of some of these homeless people where we have a quite a few people living in this way. These are attached.
Our new pool is going well and is much better to train in. Despite it being Winter here (the temperatures have plummeted to 30 degrees during the day and 19-20 overnight) we have also done some open water swimming in the beach and the water there is still a very warm 25. The temperature at the moment is very pleasant to train in and very enjoyable generally and will usually stay this way now till March when it will start to warm up significantly. I have also attached a photo of one of our track sessions and this is the stadium where we do a lot of our training, have my office and equipment room, the gym and the living quarters. It is not a bad facility but like a lot of facilities, it cries out for continual maintenance, but is still quite suitable for our needs at the moment.
I will sign off for now and this year in India and look forward to bringing you more reports on life and Triathlon in India next year. 2002 promises to be a busy year here in India as the team starts to travel to International events seeking racing and experience and we hope to have competitors at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester and also the World Championships in Cancun, Mexico which is a whole lot to look forward to. To everyone and their families, have a safe and Merry Xmas and a Prosperous New Year and hope that you achieve all you set out to do.
Safe training and good health.
Brett
STEAM News, India, 15 November 2001
Hi All,
Hope this email finds you in good health and training well. Well done to those at Noosa & Kurnell, and best wishes for those racing at Forster 1/2 IM this weekend. (I think it is this w/end?)
It has been a big day here in India as it is one of their major festivals called Diwali (prounced Deevali). It is similar to Xmas in a number of ways particularly the family get together, celebrities coming on TV to wish everyone a 'Happy Diwali' and stores marketing heavily "the ideal gift for Diwali". The big difference though is that fireworkers are a major part, and it is absolutely incredible. Currently it sounds (and looks) like Madras is under attack. There are fireworks going off everywhere and there are huge explosions with big bungers going off all around, along with what sounds like machine gun fire from the stacks of bungers (see photo). You buy your crackers from the many stores that have opened up over the last couple of weeks and there is an endless amount of variety. Those growing up pre late seventies in Australia will remember the many varieties of bungers, (penny, tomb thumbs etc) skyrockets, sparklers (duds for nancies!) and various whizzers that you used to see, well they are all here. The crackers started in full swing last night and finally died down around 11pm, but were on again around 4.30am and despite a brief lull in mid afternoon, have been going full on since. People just come out on the street and let off their crackers. I was amazed to see kids handling these big bungers, sky rockets not set off properly whizzing around and all those things that got crackers banned in Australia happening. I won't be surprised to wake up in the morning and see quite a number of people injured. I suppose however you are more likely to get seriously hurt on the roads here or doing a number of other things, so I guess it just another hazard. But I must add, it is great fun both participating and watching others.
Our athletes (those who live here or did not go home) had a get together this morning at the beach near the pool. The photos attached are of that get together with all participating in the letting off of the crackers. It took me back to the days of cracker nights as a youngster (not that long ago really) and the kids certainly loved it. You can see from the photos there was no shortage of fireworks, thanks to the Ramichandran Family (who along with their company 'India Cements' finance Triathlon and Squash in India).
On the triathlon scene it has been a little frustrating but generally we are still making good progress. It is currently the Monsoon season and despite the weather being cooler and good for training, this has been accompanied by quite a bit of rain. We were looking to get out on the road, but not only has it been raining (which makes cycling that little more dangerous when you start at 3.30am) but due to poor drainage the roads flood easily and are subsequently damaged so we have been restricted to trainers. With run training, while not the most ideal conditions running in shin deep water, we still managed to get our sessions done, while with swimming it doesn't really affect things except for the coach who gets wet! Other things have gone well with the completion of my new office at the Academy along with a workshop and storage area for all our bikes and equipment (see photos). The office is a welcomed addition to meet with the athletes and we recently had a visit from the SAI (Sports Authority of India) based in New Delhi who were impressed with the whole setup of the Academy. Coming up to our first big event in mid December it will be interesting to just see how everyone performs. As you all know it is all very well to train but racing particularly over Olympic Distance is another matter and will be our first big test to see how everyone performs. Following this race we will review the members of the Academy for the next 12 months so this will add a little 'spice' to the event and competition for places will be keen so it will certainly be interesting.
Another interesting aspect of coaching here is that among the 27 athletes we currently have training in the Academy we have 6 different languages! This is not different dialects, but in fact different languages, so you have the problem of not only the coach having trouble communicating with some of the athletes, but some of the athletes have trouble communicating among themselves. The native languages spoken amomgst the team are Tamil, Hindi, Telegu, Kanarda, Manipur & English. Most understand English ok, but while some speak it well enough others speak little of it. Hindi (India's National Language) would be the most common of the others spoken. Our aim during next year will be to have English & Hindi spoken by all Academy members. I have started Hindi lessons and hope to make some progress soon, and once I have a grip of this i will attempt to learn Tamil which is the local language here. I am not sure what would happen if I lost use of my hands as sign language is pretty universal and comes in handy when everything else fails. In fact we have 7 languages if you count Australian which according to the athletes is quite different to English.
Last weekend we had the Chennai Marathon. It was held in dreadful conditions and we had 1 runner participating in his first marathon. This guy came to the National Camp in August from a small village in a state called Chattisgarh, in fact nowhere near the water and when he got in the pool was only one step removed from drowning, but he could get himself along ok in the run. At the end of the camp we could not select him as a triathlete but thought he might go ok in the marathon, so we decided to keep him on and train him for marathons and this would also benefit the other triathletes at run training having someone to pace them along. So with only 2 months proper training he ended up running 2.34 and finished 8th which we were pretty happy with, and only 7 minutes behind the winner who along with the other placegetters were experienced marthoners. We hope with more training and experience he will progress in the future and hopefully become one of India's best marathoners. He is also great for the Academy as he is the most dedicated of all the athletes and really wants to do well and I virtually had to tie him down to get him to recover during the week.(Freemans Syndrome I think the name of that is, named after someone we all know!!!) You will see a photo of him attached and while he is only small he has a huge heart and we call him 'The Kenyan'.
Congratulations to all who completed their Level 1 Cycle Coaching Course last weekend. I think that the club is very fortunate to have people giving up their own time to further their knowledge and assist in the development of training programs at the club. Hope you are enjoying the warmer weather now that Spring is here and please stay safe while training during this time with the increase of people out and about. Even here we know it is getting towards summer in Australia, waking up last week to the beautiful sound of Richie Benaud introducing the First Test. We get it here at 5.25am live which I mange to see a few overs before leaving for training, and then back home for most of the afternoon's play. I currently have 3 days off as most of the team have gone home for Diwali and will be back on Saturday for the final month leading up to the December race. I will make the most of the break as the next month will be pretty hectic with a trip to Delhi to be squashed in, then a couple of days after the race I head home for Xmas, arriving on the 20th Dec before heading back on 14 Jan.
Take care and look forward to catching up with everyone when I am back home. I will write again soon and look forward to seeing more good results over the next few weeks.
Till next time.
Safe training and good health.
Brett