World Championships Done. What's Next?

Me, racing the slippery wet roads of Hyde Park.

Well the World Triathlon Championships are done. That took a bit of work. I even managed to train with Aussie Elites in Spain, at their training base for the Northern Summer, before racing in (a rainy) London. I didn't win, but I did some personal bests. (I was initially elated then depressed then felt I had accomplished something.) It's a weird world, the head of an athlete. So I can tick that box. But what do I move on to? After full time training for a few weeks I was my fittest ever. It's going to be a challenge to maintain that leanness and eat everything I feel like. (The joy of 4-6 hours per day of training!) But I loved the training environment and the fact I didn't have to work or do anything much else. It did sap my creative energies though, hence a sparsity of posts here. I feel that coming back a little now. 

I was cycling with my brother today and he asked what was my next exercise goal, after the last I have race coming up in a few weeks in Noosa. I hadn't really thought much of it. I was contemplating doing nothing much at all, which for me is probably still more than most, but maybe it's time to think of something different. I'm never going to be a world champion triathlete for a host of reasons. So maybe look at something else? Persist just for the sake of it, and push my limits? It's certainly a great way to keep über fit. But maybe there's something out there that I'm missing that would be perfect for me... 

I'm open to suggestion.

Contemplative in Byron

It's been a while. I've been busy, and I've not really been in the mood to blog. I guess I've been less interested in the world out there. And more focussed on my own world. Selfish? Maybe. Self preserving? That too. Maybe I just don't have that much to give any more. I don't know. At times I do, and at more times I'm too tired from everything else I'm doing to fit it all in. Which brings me to what the hell I AM doing. 

I have qualified for the world championship sprint triathlon which will happen in London in September.  It's taken some work to get there, and a lot more work ahead to get where I want there. The side effect of all the training is getting a whole lot fitter. I'm okay with that, and I should have peak fitness in the Australian Spring. Okay I'm fine with that too. I ordered my team uniform this week. I'm going to be wearing Green and Gold and my name with AUS under it. It's kinda cool, and kinda scary. But I don't know I'll be doing it again so I'm going to go hard at it. 

Right now I'm back in Byron Bay. It's a yearly escape and has an ocean swim race and a triathlon bookending my week here. I love it here. It's like a playground for me. Great beaches, great places to ride, though they need to learn how to repair roads here, great food and enough eye candy to keep one well and truly satiated in a relaxed environment to take it all in. And I'm off now to take more of it in.

V Day PDA Day

Valentine's Day!

It's only recently that I've been seeing a hell of a lot of men kissing, embracing and marrying each other. It's now routinely in the media, from the news to music videos, TV, theatre and cinema.  

As a kid there was nothing and even as a younger gay man it was only something I'd see in gay venues and occasionally on the street in the gayer inner city neighbourhoods or at gay & lesbian film festivals. It's only really quite recently that I've actually felt more comfortable with public displays of affection with same sex couples, though while a straight couple holding hands or kissing on the street won't register on my radar, a same sex couple still pings as something out of the ordinary, and makes me just a little off balance. I don't want it to but we have been taught from a young age to identify things that don't fit patterns and it still doesn't for me. 

I'm enjoying the normalcy with which the media is increasingly portraying same sex connections, and the fact that the straight community is actually starting to be a vocal supporter. I look forward to the day when nobody takes a second glance at a same sex couple displaying affection, unless it's because they're just too sexy.

Happy Valentines day everyone.