I'm coming back!!

That's right! Not only is the race season almost upon us but, after a time off from training and focusing o triathlons I am going to dust off my race cobwebs at Ironman 70.3 Western Sydney where I raced in 2014.

What makes this season exciting are all the changes I have made to get me to where I am. These are perhaps changes you may not be able to see but I can feel them. The feeling of gratification  that what you are doing feels like it is making a difference to you and those closest to you.

What makes this season even more exciting is that because of this I am 120% enjoying every moment of every day and a lot of it comes down to training. Because I am now at a fitness level that I have not felt for almost two years. As you can guess I love being competitive and it's mainly against myself and I guess that comes from 17 years of racing motocross.

I have learned though is that I have had a lot of self-doubt and it’s one thing that has held me back from achieving my best, the fear of failure before even beginning, the "if's" which presented opportunities to make excuses even before starting. This has not just been in my sporting career but also in life.

I have been learning to back myself and as I have branched out and moved to the Waikato after 6 years being home in the Manawatu it has been a relief to do something for me, with my own ambitions in mind and I think it has changed my approach on life a lot which in this case drastically changes my approach to this sport.

Looking back at 2014 I think I was starting to be burnt out, I did six 70.3's throughout that year, I won my age group at 70.3 Putrajaya which was a tough race but a great result and a big high. I diverted away from consistent training (From when I started in 2012 to 2014 I had always been self coached) but luckily I was still able to see results with top 10's at races finishing around my PB times on different courses.

I have been learning a lot over the last 4 months thanks to my coach and house mate Simon Cochrane and I have been able to compare my current strength with my 2014/2015 season. Looking back I was someone that had all the gadgets but no idea what they were telling me or how power the information was. I had the Garmin devices including power pedals but, I never raced to or understood what any of these numbers meant, which makes it very interesting looking back at previous race data and comparing my current fitness, numbers and my  race strategy which gives me a boost of positive vibes!

I don't know what this year will offer but I haven't been on such a high leading into a season with one ironman, thirteen 70.3' and two ultra-marathons under my belt, put this together with no expectation I believe this will produce my best result in the coming months but for now, I'll let my results do the talking once I race and just give it my all.

In short, I'm hungry to race and backing myself so, I say roll on Western Sydney only 6 weeks and counting and I'm ready to back myself 👊🏽

Until next time,

Robo

"You can quit if you want and no one will care, but you will know for the rest of your life"