Melbourne World Cup prelude

Hey everyone,

Well today marks the first day of the Melbourne World Cup. The Aussie team and I have been here for a few days now and have settled in nicely, as you would expect at our home world cup.

The standard of competitors here matches that of a World Championship for the Women's Sprint division with the top 8 from this years worlds lining up in each event. This is pretty full on and reflective of the fact that everyone wants to get early points for Olympic Qualification.

Tonight I line up in the rainbow jersey for the Team Sprint with Emily Rosemond, we had a reasonable performance for our first ride together last week and I am sure we will be better for it tonight. I'd really like to make the final so I will have to pull my finger out in the first lap!

This morning I was a guest interviewee on the radio station SEN, which was really cool. It was nice talking to the boys and I really enjoyed it a lot. Yesterday I also did a fair amount of media, and doing some photos for a great sponsor of the team in Wattbike and also donning the new team Jayco AIS kit - which is very cool. I will endeavour to get as many photos up as I can over the next few days!

Wish me and Emily good luck tonight everyone! Stay in tune for updates everyday!

Karls : )

Post Delhi Depression, a long a few weeks, Oceania Championships and the future beyond...

Well its been awhile since my last blog, since Delhi to be precise and since Delhi so many things have taken place as hinted in my title.

After any major meet I usually always get what I call a post big race depression. Its hard for sprinters in particular as we train all year for 4days of competition at peak form and whilst when its 5months away it seems like an eternity before you know it you’re on the plane back home.

Delhi was slightly disappointing for me and its hard for me to say that considering I walked away with a gold and silver medal. I don't wish to sound precious but my form in Delhi was sub standard and it was hard for me to deal with initially. The disqualification in the sprint on the last day was kind of the icing on the cake (in a bad way) and the reality of the past few weeks came crashing down on me like an avalanche. I really struggled for a few good days mentally and motivationally, it wasn't until I got off the plane in Sydney and seen my family for the first time in two months that I was finally able to let go of Delhi and relax and refocus.

True to my character though I am fighter and after going through the Delhi experience I am in a much better frame of mind moving forward – particularly after some really positive and encouraging meetings with my coach Gary West.

After racing finished in Delhi a short break was all we were given due to the fact that Melbourne World Cup followed Delhi only 6weeks later and we need to be in some decent form as the Olympic Qualification process begins. Unfortunately for me I got quite badly sick after Delhi which forced me to have a two week break – I was one of a few from the team who came down with the same illness and actually came off OK. Something which in hindsight has actually helped to allow me to have a bit of extra time both mentally and physically to recover. The first few training sessions back hurt like hell and the first few weeks consequently were tedious and full of aching muscles, a few tears and lots of sessions in the recovery centre and massage room with my swanny Berthy May.

4weeks into the training though I started feeling reasonably good and showing some positive signs which have carried over to the first race of the season – the Oceania Championships. I regained the majority of my strength back in the gym and for the first time in nearly two years my hip has held in place for longer than a week (I am up to 4weeks now – touch wood!) and feel like I am actually on the road to recovery after an injury that has caused a significant amount of pain and grief in my day to day life and on the bike.

Prior to the Oceania Championships I was allowed a few days home in Sydney in which I was able to attend the NSWIS (NSW Institute of Sport) awards which I was honoured to be nominated for four awards and came away with the Team Athlete of the year award. NSWIS does so much for me and I am very grateful to the institute and the support they continue to provide to me.

It was also my littlest sister, Mackenzie, birthday when I was home and I spent a few days spoiling her, taking her to Little Athletics, McDonald's for breakfast and countless hours making cupcakes and jumping on the jumping castle with her! It was so much fun and I love and miss her so much.

The Oceania Championships for me was the beginning of what is going to be a long road to London with points up for grabs. This year I teamed up with Emily Rosemond in the Team Sprint in an unusual position for me! First wheel! Anna and I have a long standing joke between us that she has the 'easy job' in riding only one of the two laps but after this week I think I much prefer the second wheel as I think first wheel is tougher!! Although I did ride quite well in the first lap and I was actually purposefully under-geared to save some energy for next weeks Melbourne World Cup, and my big program on the first day which saw me ride both Team Sprint and Time Trial. Emily and I were successful in winning the Team Sprint and claiming the first points up fro grabs for the Olympics.

Later that night I rode the Time Trial and also won to top off a good nights worth of racing. With the first race of the season over I struggled to sleep that night with aching muscles – a good sign as it means I am getting my 'race legs'. The next day I backed up with the sprint. My qualifying was rather average in 2^nd spot behind Anna in 11.5. Despite this my racing made up slowly though the rounds as I got my race head back on and rode some really positive and good races. A few small mistakes to be tweaked for next week, and I think I am in a good position to ride some tactically efficient races against some opponents who will likely have better legs than me at this time of the year next week.

In order to conserve some energy I opted out of riding the Keirin as I felt like I got the hit out required to prepare me for Melbourne next week by riding against Anna in the Sprint final. A risky decision but sometimes we have to take risks in order to move forward.

My brother, Jack, came and raced this week as well and he had his first crash on the track in the junior men's point score. Luckily he didn't get hurt and he also didn't rip his skin-suit and he was up the next day racing the Omnium. There is still one more session to go and Jack is sitting in 15th place with the scratch race and Kilo to go. As a first year he is developing the skills he needs now to come out next year and show the world what hes got!

The Australian team and I leave for Melbourne on Tuesday and we are all looking forward to the challenge that the world will bring us on our home turf. It will be a tough world cup and I am sure that everyone is going to be out to claim early points for the Olympics! It will be a great show and I encourage everyone who can to come and watch and support the Aussie team. Below is the link to the World Cup homepage and you can buy tickets online by following the prompts!

http://www.trackworldcup.com.au/

I will try and update everyday throughout the World Cup so stay tuned if you cant come and watch!

Take care all and wish me luck! : )

Karls

And so it ends

Hi everyone.

Well firstly I should apologise for not keeping everyone as updated as I would have liked. I thought I would have had a lot more time to kill here than I thought but its been so hectic!

Day one of competition was the 500m Time Trial. I had quite high expectations that I would ride under the 34second barrier on this night and to fall short – by a considerable amount was a little upsetting. None the less I walked away with a silver medal to Anna Meares and third place was Rebecca James from Wales. I haven't been specifically training for the 500 and as they say you get what you train for so whilst I am disappointed with the time it wasnt a bad time considering I havent prepared for it very much at all.

The second day was the Team Sprint in which I teamed up with my fellow team mate Anna Meares. My warm up was very promising and I showed some signs that the form was there to replicate the form I had at the worlds. But alas it was not to be. Both rides, although the second one was better, were very average for me and whilst we walked away with a gold medal it wasn’t what I was hoping for again in terms of time and I feel very privileged to have won the gold medal with Anna. It was the first time I almost cried on the podium and I know that my attempt at singing the anthem was made even worse by me trying to hold the tears back!

The program here was a little strange and both Anna and I had to back up a few hours after the Team Sprint final and ride the Sprint Qualifying. Again I had a substandard performance riding an 11.4 to qualify in second position behind Anna. By this stage I started wondering where my legs were and why I had so little form to work with. Its quite a disturbing feeling and one in which I wish not to experience at a major meet like this again - but its times like that which make you a better athlete and a better person and my coach Gary West said to me that there is nothing more I can do then just keep on going and think about it all after we finish racing. So I walked out of the track and left all the emotion behind and went back to the village t get ready for my last day of racing.

The following day the sprint rounds began and in the first round I met Charlene Joiner from Scotland. Charlene is just out of juniors and she put up a good fight for her first major senior meet. I beat her in two straight rounds to progress through to the semi finals where I met Rebecca James from Wales. James is a former Junior World Champion so I knew I would have to be on my game to beat her but I was super confident that I would. Unfortunately I made a couple of crucial errors in both my rounds which cost me both races and so I was into the bronze medal ride off against fellow Aussie Emily Rosemond. Although I was pretty devastated, because the sprint was the one I wanted to win the most I was able to stay cool, calm and collected before the bronze ride off.

I went into the bronze ride off with confidence as my legs ironically were starting to feel less like they had no power and more like they were out to ride a bike fast! In the first round I actually won the race, however I was disqualified for entering the sprinters lane when Emily was still in it. This was a bit of a touch and go decision I felt as the race was already virtually over when I made my move around the outside however I did do the wrong thing, it was unintentional and I didn't mean it and the consequence of my actions were that I lost a bronze medal. To say that I was devastated is quite an understatement and when I was informed of this the emotion of the whole 3days hit me pretty hard and it took me a few good minutes to suck some air in cop it on the chin. Whilst I did shed some tears I managed to get myself together (mostly) and walk over to the media and talk to them - it was one of the hardest things I have had to do. All in all I was happy to see Australia get two of the three medals, when we probably could have all received one!

To end on a disappointing note was hard and after all the racing had finished I am still finding it quite hard to come to terms with some things and there are a lot of emotions running through me – one of them being elation with my gold and silver medals. I have already entered what I call the 'post race depression' that I usually get after a major meet like this because I trained so hard for so long and when it ends you know how much hard work you did to get there and then you realise how much hard work you have to do to make sure that next time you are bigger and better. Its a daunting, exciting and challenging task. Of which the lows of this competition are my strongest motivating factors to make sure that at the worlds next year I go out and get what I want out of that meet.

And so I sit here now writing this blog on my last day in India. The sun is setting and I am sitting outside by the pool enjoying the fact that the heat of the day is being lost in the night. Tomorrow morning I am up at 4am to catch the bus to the airport before finally starting my epic trip home, of which I will be back home in Sydney and able to finally see my family again after 12weeks.

After this I have a busy few months with Melbourne World Cup, Oceanias, and possibly Perth GP and they are made all the more important as Olympic Qualification begins this season.

Until next time take care all!

Karls : )

Hi all,

Well the days are rushing past in a bit of a blur here. I am pretty happy because I am sleeping really well and seemed to have gotten into my normal routine quite easily. Although the days are rushing past there has been some ups and downs along the way, but this is to be expected not only in a foreign environment but one in which is very different to anything I have experienced before – not just in terms of the country but in terms of the Games itself.

Yesterday we had the Australian flag raising ceremony in the International Zone. This was very cool and we were treated to some traditional Indian customs like all the different styles of dance and music as well as the different garments that different regions people get married in. We even got some traditional scarves which I have hung above my bed.

Dancers performing for us at the flag raising ceremony

This was an awesome spectacle! All the different costumes represent the different styles of dance that the Indians have across their culture

We all got given scarves when we arrived! Jason Niblett shows off his.Some of the team and I posing for a photo! Left to right: Me, Anna Meares, Cameron Meyer, Daniel Ellis, Shane Perkins and Jason

The flag raises into the air! AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!

We have had a few more training sessions and I am starting to feel my legs come together finally. Its quite a weird experience preparing for a major competition and I am still finding it quite hard to relax and let my body do its thing. I had a bit of a moment a few days ago because I had quite an average session, after which my coach told me to pull my head in and trust that its going to happen for me. Then the next day I had a better session – I wouldn’t say it was anything special but it was better and our motto for this competition (my coach and I) is that today was good and tomorrow will be better. I literally can not fault my preparation for this meet so I am content that what ever happens out on the boards I couldn’t do anything more or less to this moment. For the time being I am concentrating on taking things as they come – the time for me is right now.

Back home in Australia the World Road Cycling Championships concluded today in Geelong with Alan Davis coming third in the men's road race – a great effort! In the other events Luke Durbridge came second in the under 23 mens Time Trial and he is the youngest person to medal since Fabian Cancellera 10years ago – which is an amazing achievement considering Fabian is this decades most celebrated Time Triallist in the world, Fabian also won the Time Trial. Riche Porte came 4^th in the mens time trial and a big congratulations goes out to Michael Matthews who won the under 23 mens road race – enjoy those pretty rainbows!!

In the women's events the girls did some pretty hard and tough work on the front in the road race, with as I have heard Tiffany Cromwell had the ride of the day amongst the Aussie women. Good work to all the roadies.

The track team and I were informed yesterday that there are two new additions to the team here in Delhi with Luke Durbridge arriving tomorrow to ride as well as Michael Matthews so we look forward to seeing them and celebrating their fantastic achievements, as well as welcoming in the road team in a few days time.

Tonight the Opening Ceremony will officially open the Games here in Delhi and the team and I will be watching from the comforts of our rooms. I am actually quite glad we decided not to go to the opening ceremony as its way too hot outside and although the ceremony starts at 8.30pm we have to be in the holding areas from 3.30pm onwards. Today we were told that over 6000athletes are now settled into the village and you can start to see this with the dining hall being packed at most hours of the day. Because we didn't get to go to the Opening Ceremony we decided as a team to dress in our formal gear and go to dinner in it! We got a few strange looks and some people thought we missed the bus to the Ceremony! It was lots of fun and good to wear the gear as it will probably be the only time I will ever wear it!

Jason, me and Shane lining up for tea!

Cameron Meyer and I

Ashlee Ankudinoff and I.

Anna and I looking sharp! : )

My roomie, Belinda Goss and I

Tomorrow I hop on the track to do my final day of training – pre race! I will have some individual efforts to do and then some Team Sprint work with Anna and then its all over! 3 days of racing! Until Tuesday everyone take care and I hope to hear you all cheering for me and the Aussies!

Namaste!

Hi all,

To say that the past few hours or so has been an eye opener is quite an understatement. Whilst in many cases the trip here and the standards that we have been subjected to thus far have super seeded that which has been shown in the media it is still by Australian standards quite low.

In all honesty the buildings are not quite finished - but when I say not finished I am talking the finer details like some lawns and painting. Whilst most buildings are finished there are still hundreds of workers around the village doing things to get the village up to a livable state.

Not a bad building at all! Each floor has 4, 4 bedroom apartments each with 4 bathrooms, a kitchen and laundry. Pretty good really!

Our apartment houses the whole female track cycling team with twin share rooms and each room has its own bathroom. We have a decent size living room and kitchen as well. The apartments are quite a strange set up and I am told that when the games are over probably 4 different families will occupy this one apartment that we are using when in fact if we were back home in Australia I would be horrified by that thought and think that the apartment is a good size for just one family. It goes to show the differences between our cultures and living standards.

Contrary to what the media has been portraying the security here by far exceeded my expectations with checks as you get on and off buses and armoured guards everywhere, including a special lane for the Commonwealth Games buses that I kid you not has armoured gaurds every 50m or so. The man power is insanely huge.

Our trip from Europe to Delhi was reasonably comfortable – but a flight is a flight. Upon arrival in Delhi we were already getting the special treatment with a special immigration and customs section as well as food and beverages waiting for us. Once we got all of our luggage we were sent outside to the buses where Anna Meares was bombarded by the media.

Anna being bombarded by the media.

Again...our luggage is pretty massive for 8 people!

Dan looks pretty happy to be in another airport! Left to right: Anna Meares, Scott Sunderland and Daniel Ellis.

Finally in Delhi! : ) Very happy!

Our tracksuit is pretty inconspicuous!

The bus trip was a little long and tedious with the police vehicle having its siren on the whole time and the lots of twists and turns to miss the traffic that accommodates for 20million people in the one city – almost the entirety of the Australian population lives in New Delhi. We saw slums and stray dogs but on the other hand we saw beautiful temples and the people are more than welcoming, they are lovely and really want us all to have a great time and experience.

A view from our bus on the way to the village - the roads are in chaos because the commonwealth Games have its own lane...20million people are in gridlock - its good for us not so good for them!

The main stadium - its a pity I wont get to see it properly as I wont be doing the opening or closing ceremony.

Upon arrival in the village we showered and got to open our goodies bag which included all of our team kit and formal wear. I was like a little kid at Christmas and I am sure my mum is going to get some good wear out of some of the stuff once the games are over and done with! We were also briefed by the head honcho of the Commonwealth Games Association as well as some other very important people of which I cant say too much about but the briefing made us all feel safer and more secure.

The atmosphere in the village is already quite intense and only a quarter of the athletes are here. The dining hall is amazing and I have to concentrate on eating my food and not looking at everyone from all the different countries. Today I had lunch with some of the young Gymnasts from Australia who were lovely and who compete on the same days as I do. I am very taken with the Scottish men to! Ha-ha I don’t mind the accent at all and Anna tells me I should wait and see them in their Kilts! : )

These fridges are everywhere in the village and all drinks are free! Its like being a little kid in a candy shop! : )

But all that said and done I am first and foremost here to do one thing – ride my bike fast. We get on the track tomorrow afternoon which is exciting and I cant wait to see what the track is like. The weather is hot so I expect the track to be nice and fast. I also cant wait to test out our new riding kit – which is very yellow! It will look good on the bike. Until tomorrow everyone : )

Karls

India Bound

Hey all,

Well tomorrow the team and I finally leave Europe bound for India. There has been a lot of media attention and speculation over the event and it has created some tension within the team but mostly we are all actually really pumped up and ready to get there and let the Indian people (hopefully) put on a really great show - which I am sure they will.

We get regular updates from the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACWGA) about the conditions and what to expect and from what they are telling us it all sounds like its pretty positive - despite what the Australian media in particular are saying. Our team manager Paul Brosnan is currently in India, and has been for nearly 48hours now and I know for certain that if he wasn't happy with the set up and conditions that we wouldn't be going - that is what makes Paul a great team manager, he goes in asks all the hard questions and gets us what we want.

At the end of the day we have been told that if when we get there we are not happy or concerned for our safety we can be on the first plane back to Australia. I think it is only fair to get there and make a personal assessment of the village and the atmosphere rather than base my opinion on what the media is saying - which most of the time is looking for a story and to exploit a situation. Of course I also have some reservations and some concerns but as I said I will be making my judgment when I arrive there.

Training has been coming along really nicely, and I am happy with where I am at and looking forward to what I can do in Delhi. We have been lucky here to be able to do a little bit of sightseeing, as you can see in the photos below. The town we are staying in is quaint and very pretty and I love all the flowers everywhere. One day I would like to have a nice colourful garden!

Anna and I doing some sightseeing - and some shopping! : )

I love the flowers! They are everywhere here!

Gary (my coach) and I pose for a photo with the mountains in the background.

It was Anna Meares' 27th birthday on Tuesday and we helped her celebrate by eating a nice chocolate cake and surprising her with a gift for a behind the scenes tour of Adelaide Zoo, where she will get to feed the animals and do all sorts of cool things like that! I hope she enjoys it!

Anna enjoying her cake!

I was a little unfortunate to suffer from a small bout of food poisoning earlier this week. I woke up early one morning feeling very ill and consequently spent a good two hours lying on the bathroom floor vomiting up my dinner. Since then I haven't had much of an appetite and the food here is relatively ordinary anyway so I am hoping the food in the athletes village is of a better standard. Luckily it only set me back 24hours or so and I was able to train at full tilt 48hours later after an epic 16hour sleep. Although I am sure it did impact my training, which I am taking as a positive because I was moving quite nicely in training.

With the camp ending in Europe a few of our key support staff made their way back home, as we can only have a certain amount of staff and riders at the Games. Ideally it would be great to have our whole support staff in India but this time its not to be. A big goodbye and thank-you to Tammie Ebert, Kevin Tabotta, Davide Cappelletto and Alec Buttfield (I hope I didn't forget anyone!). Also a big thank-you to our staff still on board and I look forward to sharing my first Games experience with you all.

Two staff members in Michael Winter a.k.a 'Mikey' (Mechanic) and Berthy May (Swanny) stop for a much deserved rest whilst we're at training.

I will be regularly updating my blog in India and I am also on Twitter, Facebook and I am featured athlete on the AIS website so please everyone keep an eye on what I am up to and I hope that I can help you all come on the Commonwealth ride with me.

Next I write you all I'll be India - wish me luck! : )

Karls

Commonwealth Games Support Messages

Hi everyone,

Its lovely to know that the support for the Aussies is at full tilt back at home and I have been getting some nice emails and messages from various schools and people showing their support for my Commonwealth Campaign.

A special shout out goes to my little sister Mackenzie and her class 2C and her teacher Miss Cooley at Camden South Primary School who are going to follow my progress at the games in class. Thanks 2C and I will definitley try to come back and visit you all when I return from the games - hopefully with some medals to show you all! : )

Also a big thanks to Jordana from Miss Browns class at St John Bosco school in Adelaide who chose to send me a lovely a drawing and good luck message. Thanks Jordana I really appreciate it! : )

The issues surrounding the Commonwealth Games seems to be growing in intensity now that we are only 12days away from racing and only 6days from arriving there. I have to say my original doubt over these issues being of concern is turning slightly, with hype particularly in the Australian media growing in intensity. If I remember correctly however there has always been issues before every major Games in the past with concerns before the Athens Olympics about venues being not being completed and of course the pollution concerns in Beijing.

I remember going to Cali in Colombia in December 2008 and being told of the kidnapping concerns. Whilst that in itself was an experience the trip non the less was a success and the Colombians put on a great show and I still to this day claim that racing in front of that crowd was by far the best crowd I have raced in front of. Of course there were times when it was a little confronting but I went to a third country coming from a developed and amazing country in Australia. India will be an eye opener - that is a guarantee. But for the most part I think it will be a great experience and the rest of the Australian cycling team and myself will be going unless the government deems it unsafe - so please everyone keep up the support and remain optimistic.

On that note the link to send support messages to any athlete/the team in general is:

mailto:commgames.aussie.team@gmail.com

The link to send support messages to cyclists is:

mailto:cycling.cwg2010aus@gmail.com

Take care all : )

Karls

16 Days!

Hey guys,

Well I sit here writing to you all now in beautiful Europe. It very nice here and its a stark contrast from America in so many ways. Like for example the roads here are narrow and the cars are mostly small but in America the cars are huge as are the roads. The food here is also a nice change from the highly processed and sugary food in America. Although I was a little scarred when I was told horse is a regular meat choice on the menus in the country we are staying. My mum will not like that one bit, being a horse fan! My mum's horse also just last week had a foal. His name is Ziggy and he is so cute as you can see in the photo below and I can not wait to get home in a few weeks time and spend some time with my family and all the new baby animals.

Ziggy and Wow

The rest of the camp in America ended well and we were quite sad to leave the friends we had made and the atmosphere and training environment. We are now however with the rest of the team and I am so happy to be rooming with good friend and fellow Commonwealth Games team mate Ashlee Ankudinoff. Whilst our accommodation is pretty basic its nice to be around the “enduro's” and on a new track in a new country. The drive to our hotel was a beautiful one and I got some good photos.

Anna Meares and I on a break from our 4hour car trip to our hotel.

Our trip over was again not uneventful, with four countries in 24hours and lots of luggage. Before we left we said goodbye to some of the team who unfortunately didn’t make the Commonwealth Games in Peter Lewis, Alex Bird and two staff members in Nick Flyger and Scott Baker - who are sorely missed here in Europe. During the camp it was Nick's 30^th birthday and he conveniently didn’t tell us, but we have a way of finding things out so we surprised him with a 'birthday cookie' that we got made for him. As you can see there are sheep on the cookie because Nick is from New Zealand and there is a long standing joke that New Zealander's love their sheep! Happy Birthday Nick!

Nick's Birthday Cookie - YUM!

We were unable to finish the whole cookie so we dared our team mechanic Stewart Smith to eat a 'cookie sandwich' in one minute – he did it but he didn’t feel very well for some time! It was rather entertaining on our behalf!

Stewart Smith - 'Stu' attempting to eat his cookie sandwich in a minute.

Scott Baker - our Strength and Conditioning coach

Sorry Pete, couldn't resist putting this one up! Nice hat! Yeeeehah.

With Peter and Alex gone two new sprinter team mates joined us in Europe in Shane Perkins and Jason Niblett. The pair have come off a very successful racing stint in Japan in the Keirin series and it is great to have the two 'parrots' (a nickname we affectionately give the jokers or the silly ones in the group) back training with us. Shane conveniently brought over a projector and lots of movies so we are all enjoying having team movie sessions in the common room.

Shane Perkins - 'Perko'

Jason Niblett - 'Nibbo'. Nibbo has an insane ability to push out his belly - its rather gross!

With only 16 days to go until the opening ceremony of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India we now begin the countdown and everyone in the team is getting very excited, yesterday we were given our tracksuits to travel in and it was like I was a kid at Christmas. I was so excited to try it on – and perhaps a little bit proud of myself! Even our coach Gary West was parading down the hallways in his nice new trackie.

We have had some great training sessions and the spirit in the team is growing everyday, despite some ordinary ones thrown in there to make life interesting. Whilst I have had some emotional ones with a few tears shed here and there its very easy this close to competition to get anxious and nervous. I am in great shape (despite a small injury to my TFL from the travel) and I am the fittest, strongest and most powerful I have ever been...I just need to be patient and let the speed come. This, as my coach will tell you, is not really my forte (patience) and I tend to be quite harsh on myself so its been a little bit of a roller-coaster ride the past few weeks at times...with some great ups to come I feel.

Not a bad job huh?

The area we are in is beautiful!

One of the female 'enduros' Belinda Goss.

And so I end with a big thanks and a mental high 5 to my coach Gary West who tends to cop the flack from the downs of that roller-coaster ride that I am on. Thank you Gary – a great coach, mentor and person.

Tomorrow it is my good friend and team mates Anna Meares' 27^th Birthday and so I wish her a very Happy Birthday!

Karls : )

P.S. I have already been told by a few people that they have sent me support messages for the Commonwealth Games. A special mention goes out to Miss Kenneally and her year 7 class at Cowra High School! Thanks for the support guys and I hope that you will be cheering for me as I go for gold. Also a shout out to Camden High School for you're messages of support and whilst I haven't received any of them yet (I suspect I will receive them once I get into the village) I am definitely feeling the Aussie spirit behind me already.

Gatorade fights, wasp stings and suicidal chipmunks...

With only a week left on our training camp the days seem to be flying by in a bit of a fatigued blur. I cant remember being so stuffed from training for some time. All I seem to do at the moment is sleep, eat, train, study. This however is a good thing and is always the purpose of a training camp. I have been riding quite well and am showing some signs of the development of some sweet form. My team mates also seem to be thriving off the camp and everyone is in high spirits, despite being tired. We are all however looking forward to a change of pace and getting to our next destination and meeting up with the rest of our Commonwealth Games team mates before heading over to Delhi, including the rest of the sprint team of Jason Niblett and Shane Perkins who have been sorely missed!

I recieved a great email last week from my NSWIS (New South Wales Institute of Sport) team of Katie Slattery (Sport scientist) and Sam Pervan (Strength and Conditioning) of a photo of a skin-suit that I signed for NSWIS and Katie and Sam in particular. There is no way I would be where I am right now without there support and development of me as an athlete. I love returning home to NSW and using the NSWIS facilities and working with Katie, Sam and Gary Sutton (NSWIS head coach). I feel very proud to be up on the NSWIS wall of fame and be amongst such athletes like Ian Thorpe. Thanks NSWIS, Katie, Sam and Gary.

Sam on the left and Katie on the right.

As most people may know I am currently studying at the Australian College of Physical Education (ACPE), I have been really lucky to be able to do my subjects by correspondence and I have a really good lecturer and support team back at the College. I thank them greatly for having an appreciation for what I do and for my goal of (eventually!) obtaining a degree.

Next month I will be a feature story in the new Australian women's sport magazine called Move. Its a great magazine and I am really proud to feature in it so please do go out and buy a copy and support women's sport in Australia! : )

This past week has been quite a funny and testing one. Everyone has a cranky day and our poor coach Gary West tends to cop the flack of our cranky days. I said to Gary the other day what would he do if we all had a cranky day at once...he couldn't even comprehend that! Ha-ha.

With being tired and cranky comes some testing times between us athletes as well. Yesterday at track fellow NSW team mate Peter Lewis took it upon himself to create some trouble whilst I was taking a sip of my Gatorade he squirted it fully into my mouth which resulted in Gatorade going all over me! None the less I got him back by squirting the remaining Gatorade all over him. Vengeance is sweet! : ) I was also stung by a wasp yesterday as well, but it was only a small sting and I only suffered from a little but of inflammation thankfully! It hurt though!

There are a lot of chipmunks where we are staying and some of them are crazy little buggers. One little guy on our road ride the other day got a bit of a scare when he was crossing the road as we were riding along, he was quick to turn around and run back to his tree. It was quite funny - but then again we find a lot of things funny being so delusional and tired. Ha-ha.

This week has also marked the beginning of a lot of information starting to come through for the Commonwealth Games. Its starting to hit me a little and I get goosebumps thinking about it! Unfortunately though I found out last night that we will be unable to attend the opening ceremony as we race the following day. I will have to make friends with some other Australian athletes so they can take photos for me!

Apologies for the lack of photos this blog, I broke my last camera and only bought a new camera a few days ago - a lot of the photos are not very interesting, they are mostly of the taking photos of themselves posing. Ha-ha. So I will make a great effort before the next blog to take a lot of photos.

Warm weather and high spirits

Hi all,

Our first week on camp has been great with lovely weather and high spirits. Our first week here has been great with plenty of road rides out in the sun...my skin which has not seen sun for about 5months got a bit of a shock and rather than be blinded by my own whiteness now I am slightly tanned (I say slightly because I don't tan!).

Out on the road in the sunshine : )

The full team gearing up for a ride: (left to right) Emily Rosemond, Daniel Ellis, Me, Scott Sunderland, Anna Meares, Peter Lewis and Alex bird)

On a training camp we usually have a fair amount of time to spend in between sessions. So we have to find ways to keep ourselves entertained...

The boys (Scott Sunderland left, Peter Lewis right) playing 'mini ping-pong'

Scott Sunderland and Daniel Ellis attempting to walk up the stairs without bending their knees...as you can tell, we get bored - I too attempted this, unsuccessfully!

Once a week we are treated to a night out for tea with all the team including the support staff - with whom without we couldn't possibly do what we do. I was lucky enough on this occasion to sit next to our 'swanny' Berthy May on this night. Berthy is our second mum when we are away and she does a great job...undoubtedly the best swanny in the world!

Berthy and I

Training thus far for me has been going very well, and as a group great as well. We are all really thriving on the idea that in 39days most of us get to don the green and gold and roll out onto the track in Delhi. The team was officially announced just last week and I am proud to say that 6 NSW people are in the team and 3 of those are from my club St. George CC. Check out the link:

http://www.cycling.org.au/?Page=38903

The NSW riders are:

Ashlee Ankudinoff (Track Endurance) St George
Megan Dunn (Track Endurance)
Christopher Sutton (Mens Road) St George
Mark Renshaw (Mens Road)
Rochelle Gilmore (Womens Road)
Myself (Track Sprint) St George

Congratulations to the 27 people named in the team and good luck! : )

We were unfortunate for one of the days to be struck with some bad weather, and so we were forced to sit on the rollers as a substitute! I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to get on these for any extended amount of time until the games!

You can tell I look rather happy! Worst thing was that I was busting to go the toilet and the door to the toilets was locked...its not nice riding with a full bladder!

We have been lucky this trip to go do some sightseeing. Its very rare on any trip away that we get to see much more than the airport, velodrome and hotel. So it was nice to pass the time looking at some wonders of the world...rather than trying to climb stairs without bending our knees! ha-ha!

The team enjoying a day out and and afternoon off the bike! : )

As some people might know I am a huge fan of quotes. There is nothing better than when you are feeling down or need a bit of reassurance to read a quote that means something to you or uplifts you. The quote in the photo I think sums me up in one. I often cop quite a lot of stick from people about 'not being normal'...well I am normal, just uncommon. I like to think that being different and sticking up for what you believe in is worth a lot than being someone who just follows the norm - and it is why I will be the best in the world at what I do, and already so far am thanks to a great team mate in Anna Meares and an unrelenting persistence and dedication on my behalf.

So far in the trip I have taken over 500 photos and I would like to put them all up but some unfortunately are not that great! Below are a few of the photos I have taken with various team members...more to come at a later stage.

Alex Bird and I on the way to gym

Scotty Sunderland and I getting ready to tear up the road

That's all from me this time around. I hope you all enjoyed. Take care all...

39 days and counting...

Karls : )

30hours!

Hey Y'all,

Living in Australia means that travelling anywhere means one word - EPIC. 30hours of travel it took to get from Adelaide to the USA and it was a long and arduous trip - but non the less part of the job and I am pretty much so used to it now that I hardly ever get that cranky - unless you're name is Scott Sunderland (one of my team mates who at times infuriates me)!

Our first trip was from Adelaide to Auckland and because we had 40pieces of luggage between 13people we had to be at the airport a lot earlier to make sure we got it all on properly! As you can in the picture below we had a lot of stuff!

Check in was actually really quite effortless and we didn't get stuck with too much excess so thank you Air NZ! The trip to NZ was pretty easy, I slept for half of it and watched a few movies which was good. It was a nice new airplane to so that was cool...it even had an I-pod charger where the TV is in the back of the seats which is a lifesaver because I have my I-pod on 24/7 when I am travelling.

We had a pretty long wait in Auckland airport, so we decided we might indulge ourselves in a little massage. Unfortunately there was only one guy working so it was first in best dressed and out mechanic Stu got in there first for a full body massage...I was kind of glad not to get one after I saw how this guy massaged!

Our trip from Auckland to Los Angeles was a nice 11.5hour trip and I think its worth mentioning here that on both flights so far I have been seated next to the one person I cant seem to escape...Dan! Dan Ellis is one of the guy sprinters, with whom I live with...seriously what is with that?! Ha-ha! The trip wasn't too bad and I slept for maybe 4hours of it - a restless sleep mind you but sleep!

When we arrived in LA we were hit with our first feeling of warm weather for some time! OH YEAH! I have been to a few airports in the past and I have to say there are none worse than LA airport. After clearing customs, where you have to give you're fingerprints and have a mugshot taken (I am not joking) we had to pick all of our equipment up and we thought we just had to take it to a conveyor belt past the guys who check you're bags if you have anything to claim...well we were able to drop off our personal luggage but the bikes on the other hand, because they are over sized, we had to take to terminal 3. We were in Terminal 1. How do you get to terminal 3? Ha-ha...we certainly didn't know how...

Ok...leaving terminal 1...where do we go?...

Through the car park?....

Yep pretty sure we cant go this way...And yep pretty sure this walkway was not built for AIS cyclists with huge bike boxes! ha ha...Ok and yep the check is in upstairs so onto the lift we go!!

Finally we had dropped off our of our stuff and now it was a mad rush to try and get to our connecting flight to our connection on time...we didn't have long! Unlike Australian domestic terminals its not as simple as going through the security checkpoint...you had to have you're ticket checked first (to make sure you were flying - so no family can go in or anything) then you have to take you're shoes and coat off as well as take out all toiletries and computers! Far out! When we all finally made it through we were highly disappointed to see that our connecting flight was delayed!

The last trip was pretty good...I was KO'd the whole way from the moment we took off to the moment we landed which was awesome because it was pretty quick for me!

The airport we arrived in would have to be one the most amazing airports I have ever seen! For a mostly domestic airport its absolutely huge! The roof of the main terminal is made our of sails, so that its energy efficient...I tried to get a decent photo from the outside but it was way too dark to see.

The problem with that airport is that its so big that there are three levels that you can pick up and drop off at. The trolleys cost 4dollars each and were designed to carry bike gear so we couldn't use the trolleys. Luckily (we thought) our baggage carousel was near the pick up zone we we carried all our stuff outside and waited for Gary and Tammie (my coach and head sport scientist) to get the cars. 30minutes later and no sign of them we realised that we weren't so lucky as we were at the 'corporate' pick up zone which meant we had to carry all the luggage (again!) up to the level above us to get it onto the truck. By this stage there were a few cranky people and a few fights happened. Which luckily were sorted.

Midnight and at the wrong pick up zone...damn!

Onto the truck the gear goes.

Another hour and a bit drive and finally we arrived our hotel at 1.30am! 30hours later! We had quick showers and hopped into bed all very tired and glad to be here.

This morning I woke up to the sound of the boys enjoying a spot of basketball before heading to the cafeteria for breaky. We even have a pool outside our building and everything is pretty amazing.

Alex Bird enjoying some basketball with the boys...

I hope everyone back home in Oz are enjoying the cold! I might head down for a swim because I am so hot! Ha ha!

Take care all and until next time...

Karls

P.s. This a note to my mother and father...I have already copped crap about the spelling of my name by one of the coaches here at that training centre...he says I am the girl they will remember as having two A's in her name! Ha-ha...great! Love you!