Scenar Health sponsored Kayaker and London 2012 Olympic hopeful Jo Brigden-Jones is in hard training for the upcoming London 2012 Olympic selection trials.
We catch up with Jo and what she has been doing.
“Hi All,
The first of two Olympic selection regattas start in 2 weeks!
The first regatta is called Oceania Championships then 10 days later I will race at the National Championships. I will be racing in the K4 500m, K1 200m and K1 500m. To gain selection to the Olympic Team I have to win 2 out of 3 selection races in any of my events.
Training is going really well. Most of my training over the next 2 weeks will be focusing on speed and power and allowing extra recovery so I am fresh and ready to go for the races.
I have been taking my personal RITM SCENAR device to all my training camps and regattas so I can treat myself when I need to. It’s a great way to make sure my body is ready for the intense training and races!
In January I raced in a couple of regattas, the NSW state championships and Grand Prix Two. It was good to get back into racing and to put all the training I have done into practice on race day, and it was the first time I have raced in Australia for two years. I missed the domestic season last year due to my injury and got straight into racing overseas at the 2011 world cup series.
The state championships went pretty well. All the top girls from around the country came to race so there was stiff competition in every event. I raced in all the Olympic events just to get lots of race practice. We had some solid races in the K4 and took home a couple of gold medals, as well as bronze medals in my K1 and K2 races.
Our team flew straight from the regatta to Penrith for a 10 day team-boat focused camp. Penrith is the location for selection trials so the plan was do do lots of time trials, solid work over race distance and practicing starts in the new starting gates. On the first day of the camp I became was sick and spent the next four days in bed with a virus. I am known to enjoy my food (both eating it and cooking it!) so when I’m not hungry and don’t feel like eating anything there has got to be something up! So much for backing off my racing so I was fit and healthy for the camp! I am back into the swing of training now and it’s all starting to come together.
During the camp we were lucky to have some great group talks from John Eales (Wallaby great and Athlete Liaison Officer for the London Olympics) and Jackie Fairweather (former world champion triathlete). It was fantastic to hear about their own experiences, what they did to succeed and how they overcame obstacles. It really reinforced a few things for me and gave me some ideas to put into practice. Every sport is so different but you can find so many similarities in how other athletes prepare for competition, handle pressure and perform on the day of competition.
I now have a new kayak! The boats are made in Portugal so it always takes months for them to arrive in Australia after you place your order. It’s like christmas has come again as it’s always exciting to unwrap a big new toy! I love how the design on it turned out but most importantly the boat feels great on the water, very smooth and I hope I can paddle it very fast! Keep an eye out for me!”
We certainly will, Jo!
