Jun 3, 2011
My life as an elite athlete.
So this month I want to tell you what my day of being an
athlete consists of. Each day isn’t always the same but pretty similar.
Monday
On a Monday morning I set my alarm for 4.15am, so very, very early! As it is so early in the morning I don’t always have breakfast as I don’t always feel like it. If I do eat then I will have 2 weet-bix with milk and a sprinkle of sugar. I then drive 20mins to get out to Nunawading swimming pool, This is a suburb outside of Melbourne. We get in the water at 5am and finish at 7am. I have a drinks bottle with squash, I can’t just drink water during a session. Sometimes I will have a High5 energy drink.
After my session in the pool I come straight home. I always eat when I get in. I will eat either some toast with flora and jam or I will have some cereal. Its then straight back to bed and I sleep for 2-3 hours depending on how tired I feel.
It’s usually about lunchtime when I get up so I have my lunch. I try to have different things for lunch. I will have sandwiches, eggs on toast, omelette, soup and sometimes I will have left overs from the night before if I make a pasta bake, lasagne or something similar.
I am then at the gym in Nunawading for 2pm. I lift weights for about a 1-½ hours. I do lots of different exercises such as loaded squatting, Bench press, dumbbell exercises as well as core exercises. My programme changes every few weeks and we introduce new things.
From weights I go straight to work. I am now working as a swim teacher on a Monday and Wednesday afternoon.
I get home about 6.30pm and usually make something quick for dinner. If I’m lucky then my boyfriend will make dinner on the days I am working. We will have something like a stir-fry so I have my protein, carbs and vegetables! Then I will probably have some yogurt with some fruit for afters. Sometimes I will treat myself to some chocolate! I will sit and chill in front of the tele before going to bed between 9.30pm and 10.30pm depending on what time I have to be up the next day.
Tuesday.
On a Tuesday I don’t have to get up till 6.45am. I train at Richmond swimming pool which is just 5 minutes down the road from where I live. We get in the water at 7.30am and swim till 9am. I then have another swim session in the afternoon again at Richmond pool from 3.00pm – 4.30pm.
Wednesday.
On a Wednesday morning I have gym at 10am – 11am then swim 11am – 12pm. I train at the VIS on a Wednesday. This stands for the Victorian institute of sport. It’s where a lot of the top athletes in the state do their gym work. It’s also where one of the top Australian football clubs train.
In the afternoon I am at work again from 4.00pm – 6.00pm.
Thursday.
Thursday morning is the same as Tuesday morning training at the Richmond pool. On a Thursday afternoon I do a bike session. Usually I go out on my bike for about an hour. I usually ride by the river on the cycle paths. It’s a great place to ride as it has plenty of hills and its very quiet.
Friday.
On a Friday morning I am up again at 4.15am to go to Nunawading pool. I swim from 5am-7am and then I have my gym session from 7.15am – 8.30am. I then have the afternoon off on a Friday. We have a big session on a Saturday morning so I use Friday afternoon to recover. Usually I will go sit and have a coffee somewhere and watch the world go by!
Saturday.
I am up at 5.15am on Saturday morning. Training is 6.00am – 8.00am. Saturday morning is usually a really hard session. We make sure that what we have worked on in the week is put together for some really fast swimming on a Saturday morning.
After Saturday morning I am then done till training on a Monday morning. If I have had a really hard week I will use the weekend to recover so I will try to rest as much as I can.
At the moment my main focus is for next years Olympic games. Everything that I am doing now is to make sure I am at my best for the Olympic trails in March next year. Once I have hopefully qualified the focus will then move to the Olympics, which is at the end of July next year.
Kate
