“If we’re doing a big building phase, we’ll ride up to 400km a week,”
Images: Warren Clarke
Runs on the board
“Triathletes tend to peak in the latter stages of their careers because of the years of training you need under your belt in order for your body to be able to handle the distances of a marathon and the long periods on the bike. Your body changes – women particularly tend to get leaner. The guys tend to peak mid-30s and are gone, but the previous Ironman Triathlon world champion, Natascha Badmann, was 38-39 and still won the world titles.”
Water work
“My training is swimming, cycling and running triathlon-specific, but I also incorporate yoga and a bit of circuit training in there as well. I probably train for about two or three hours a day. I train early morning, then I’ll do another session at night. During the day I’m with my daughters, but when one starts going to school and as they get older, it’ll allow me to do a bit more. I do my swimming training with a squad. We normally cover four-five kilometres, but I also do a lot of ocean swimming at the Balmoral Beach Club because most of the triathlons I do feature open water racing. I compete in ocean races every weekend, which are about 1200m-1500m long. I’m one of those nuts who swim in the ocean all year round. I just love it.”
On her bike
“I have some cycling partners who are either age group triathletes or just good amateur cyclists. If we’re doing a big building phase, we’ll ride up to 400km a week, but at the moment we’re probably at the 200km mark. That’s pretty conservative for long distance triathlon training, which is what I’m training for. To be competitive again will be a whole new ball game. It’ll really require a lot of hard work. “My cycling tends to be a fair bit along the northern beaches. For the first year of Drew’s life, I did probably 85 per cent of my cycling on an indoor trainer, purely because I was breastfeeding for ten and a half months and I couldn’t be away. I’m the only person who can feed her. I have a bike at home and I do a lot of spin cycling sessions as well.”