The last month has been really hectic. I spent a good month training in Boulder Colorado and really enjoyed the altitude training. It is definitely a big plus for my long course racing and my last 3 races have been solid off the back of the workloads I have done in Colorado. I am now in San Diego for the next few days and will fly to Germany for the Quelle Challenge Roth on Friday June 15. I am really looking forward to the Ironman race. I have definitely done a different approach for the event with less mileage and more focus on speed work and sustained running speed. I have done more of a half Ironman preparation for this race and hope that this will give me the speed to get close to the World Record in 12 days time. It will be a big effort but I will have a go at it and see what happens. I might end up in a bad way late in the run, but I am interested to see how that feels. The time is just so quick that anything could happen out their.
Since my last post lots has happened. My family has sold up everything in Australia and we are making the move to the USA. I cannot wait until they arrive here in USA on July 1st. We are looking at where we will be living but it looks very likely it will be either Santa Barbara or Boulder. This will obviously depend on my family and where the best schools and stuff are for them. The weather is also something that concerns me, but ultimately I will leave the decision up to Emma Jane and we will move into our place after Ironman Hawaii. We are looking at Condos now in Boulder for the summer and Emma will spend 2 weeks in Santa Barbara when I race in Malibu hanging out and looking at the area. She has not spent much time in this area so getting to know the place and being shown around by a few local friends of mine will give her a better feel for the area. We will however spend the training block for Hawaii in Boulder Colorado and make our mind up after Hawaii as to our permanent base. It has all been very quick but we spend so much time apart that this was the best move for us. I will still be racing for Australia despite what some people have wrongly assumed, I will just be working from the USA. I really enjoy the USA and the people here and it will be a very easy transition to relocate my family here. We have spent so much of the last 8 years here it is like our home away from home anyway. We will be applying for our green cards and going through the process, but my passport will still be an Australian one.
It is old news now but lots of speculation in the build up, but we have signed off on our Specialized contract about 1 month ago. After 6 years working with Kestrel, a unique opportunity came along to work within the realms of Specialized and its long arm of experts, athletes and Teams that we had to look at this opportunity. I sat down with my existing sponsorship base and we looked at this and many of them supported me in this opportunity and for this I am truly grateful. I want to thank many of these companies for their support and friendship over the past 6 years and even more so thank you all for allowing me to move in this direction. Specialized bikes are amazing and the new Transition bike is incredible. It looks amazing and rides very smooth and fast. Many people will see it in this years Tour De France and it is a sweet looking bike. This opportunity was the sole reason we had to make the move to the USA. My entire sponsorship base is out of the USA and the opportunities here are just bigger for athletes in our sport. The sport in this country is just booming and triathlon is growing exponentially. It is really exciting times for the sport here and to ride the wave of the sports growth here is a huge opportunity for athletes.
Anyway that’s about it for now. The Hawaii build up will begin after Roth and this year we are looking at working alongside a charity to raise money and awareness for something that I feel very strongly about. We are just in the process of putting together the finer details of our plans but the aim will be to raise as much money and awareness about this disease and do something really positive outside my competitive desires for a cause that has effected myself and my family and means a lot to me. I am really looking forward to it and I am sure the race itself will be a blast as well. My training is on target and my run has really come along well.
Anyway I better go. I will write again when I arrive in Germany on Saturday.
Safe Training,
Macca
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