Weekly News Number 30

With this week's blog, we're looking back at Swiss National Day, which also marks the beginning of August.

Here in Noosa, someone actually put up a Swiss flag, so there was even a little bit of Swiss spirit down here in the Southern Hemisphere. I still wouldn't call myself a patriot, but I'll always carry the Swiss mountains with me. This week someone asked me, "As a Swiss, you must live in the mountains, right?" My answer was, "Not exactly... but yes, we do have mountains."

A new system at the pool

Apart from that, training went pretty much as planned this week. So honestly, I don't have any big stories to tell.

Noosa Parkrun

The biggest change happened at swim training. We now have two LED screens showing the time, along with a speaker. Our coach can set the send-off times and the system counts us down with a simple "Ready... Go!"

I really like it.

Everyone can immediately see their swim times, training runs much more smoothly, and it gives the coach more time to focus on each swimmer, give advice and make technical corrections.

Otherwise, everything stays the same. I try to get the best out of every single training session, no matter how I feel that day. In endurance sport, consistency is still the most important thing. At the moment, training is going really well and I feel like I've found a good rhythm. That's exactly when you have to be careful not to get overconfident.

I've experienced that before.

These days it's much easier for me to stay patient and simply take each session as it comes. When you're fit and give yourself enough time to warm up properly, a lot of sessions suddenly feel surprisingly good.

I also have to say how grateful I am to be healthy and fit.

Fitness isn't something you can buy in a supermarket.

That's exactly why it's worth investing time in movement and exercise. You don't have to train like a professional athlete, but staying fit is one of the best investments you can make for your health, especially as you get older.

Looking forward to racing

In five weeks, I'll finally be standing on a start line again.

Watching races every weekend naturally builds the excitement. At the same time, I'm also grateful that I've been able to complete a long block of uninterrupted training. Now I'm looking forward to another five weeks of training and continuing to build my fitness step by step.

Salmon from the fisherman

This week we tried the salmon from our local fisherman for the very first time.

Together with vegetables and pasta, it turned into a fantastic dinner.

Emma has been using a recipe app for a while now, and I can honestly say we've been eating even better ever since. Of course, I like some meals more than others. I can always tell when a recipe is really good... because I go back for a second serving.

To finish

If there's ever a particular training day or part of my daily routine you'd like to hear more about, let me know.

To be honest, not that much happens in my day-to-day life. I spend hours on the bike, swim in the pool and run plenty of kilometres.

And yes, hard sessions are hard for me too.

Running two sets of five kilometres at tempo pace isn't any more enjoyable for me than it is for anyone else. During those final three kilometres, I'm wishing it would be over too.

The good thing is that the pain disappears almost the moment you stop.

What stays with you is the deep satisfaction of knowing you finished the session.

So I'd like to leave you with one thought this week.

The next time you're training, try to stay in that positive training discomfort just a little bit longer. Because when you've truly reached your limit, it usually starts feeling better only a few seconds after you stop.

With that, I'll leave you to enjoy the rest of your week.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.

Cyrill