Weekly News Number 13

Easter week, thoughts and training

This year I really enjoyed my Easter bunny, because it travelled halfway around the world. I think out of all the kids here in Australia, I was probably one of the few who received Swiss chocolate. Funny enough, even though I’m from Switzerland, I rarely eat chocolate, even when I’m there. So once again, I’m the perfect example of how you often use the least what’s right in front of your own doorstep. It’s the same with the beach here – it’s right there, but I still don’t go every day.

Moving away from chocolate and into what actually happened this week, because there was quite a lot. Between searching for Easter eggs, visiting the zoo with my mum and a few other things, I invested my energy into training as usual and got one week closer to the race in Sydney.

As every week, I also spent time writing training plans, which I still really enjoy. It was nice having my mum here, as it gave me a few new ideas on how to continue building my coaching.

At the start of the week, I felt good and ready to get back into training. But already on Monday it got tough. Maybe I pushed the VO2 intervals too hard, or maybe the fatigue from the race was still there. So for the rest of the week, I listened much more to my body, and it gave me a clear idea of how hard I could go.

This week basically had three zones: easy, medium and hard. If you really listen to your body, it tells you quite clearly how far you can go. The good thing is that you often still end up doing what was planned, but the mental barrier disappears. You think less and often get closer to what you actually want to achieve in training. For me, that’s extremely valuable, and I believe it’s something coaches should teach their athletes over time.

Training, experiences and small highlights

The training I want to highlight this week is my long ride on Wednesday. I did it on my gravel bike, as I’m happy not to always ride the TT bike. The more specific sessions are still done on the time trial bike, which I think is very important.

Another advantage is that you get to see different routes. Most of my TT intervals are done on the same roads, so I know I can hit the numbers exactly as planned.

This time, I followed a track I had seen before and always wanted to try. I knew roughly where it would end, but not what the terrain would be like. On the map it looked flat, but in reality it was much steeper. At some points it even turned into a “hike your bike”. But for the views, it was more than worth it.

On my rest day, my mum and I did something that had been on my list for a long time: visiting the Australia Zoo, built by Steve Irwin, a true legend here in Australia.

At the beginning, we saw huge turtles that could be around 40 or even over 120 years old. For me, it’s fascinating how old some animals can get.

What we really wanted to see was the crocodile show. It started at 13:15, but it took another 45 minutes until the crocodiles actually appeared. Still, the time passed quickly with the birds they showed and all the information they shared, including how to behave when encountering animals in the wild.

When the crocodile finally came, I was quite happy to be sitting on the other side of the fence. Luckily, it didn’t have a bad day, and now I at least have a better idea of how to behave around crocodiles.

After that, we went to the kangaroos. You can walk through their area, touch them and feed them. It was pretty funny to see how relaxed they are. From there, we continued to the elephants and then to an island with lemurs, which I knew from the movie Madagascar.

We finished in the African section with giraffes and chimpanzees. The animals live on huge open spaces, and it really looked like they have a very good life.

Saying goodbye, family and what stays

On Sunday, it was time to say goodbye to my mum. I drove her to the airport, helped her with check-in and we sat down together for one last coffee.

I really enjoyed the past three weeks. The number of experiences we had was huge, and I won’t forget them.

I really like my life here in Australia and enjoy it a lot, but saying goodbye to people who matter to you is never easy. In my head, she’s still just two flights away, which makes it a bit easier. The more often you travel that distance, the smaller it feels.

I’m already looking forward to the next phone call, the next message and especially the next time we see each other.

So enjoy the time you have with your parents or your kids, because it doesn’t come back. Until then, I’m looking forward to everything that’s ahead and to the next race in a few weeks.