Will Clarke's Blog by Will_Clarke

Hello everyone and I hope you all had a lovely romantic Valentine’s Day! I personally couldn't open my door in the morning…but only because I forgot my key! I've got a little more to talk about for my blog this week. It's been quite action packed! I just recently got back from a short trip down to Victoria. I was in Geelong racing in the Australian Championships, and the funny thing is that there were no Aussies on the podium this year! I'm really happy because I managed to come home in second place, which is a great start to the year for me. It's not a win, but it was a VERY close fought race with a good friend and world ranked athlete Laurent Vidal from France, so I know I'm in good company.

I executed my race perfectly which I can't say often and I could tell that for this time of year, for a first hit out, it's looking really good for the year ahead. We were staying a bit out of town in a village called Clifton Springs where we rented a house with ocean views. It was cheaper and also much more chilled out then being around the venue all the time, so it made for a great weekend! How about this though. Lance Armstrong is back! He raced in a long distance race in Panama against a pretty strong professional field. Lance is 41 and used to be a triathlete before he turned professional at cycling.

He's now taken up the sport during his retirement to raise awareness and money for his foundation and probably more likely to satisfy his competitive tendencies. At the weekend he was close to winning on his first outing! What an incredible athlete he is. He's still competitive and it's so amazing to see one of my heroes racing in our sport and still doing an incredible job! He came out of the swim about 30 seconds behind the leaders before putting 5 minutes gap into everyone on the bike. His run wasn’t quite fast enough to hold off Bevan Docherty who has won medals at the last two Olympics. I'm buzzing to see him race this year and we'll probably see him improve as well!

On a sour note, I was really saddened this week and pretty depressed to hear that one of our club members here on the Gold Coast was killed by an out of control car. He was riding back from a bike race that we all do every week over here, before getting knocked down at some traffic lights. He was 26 years old and it was the second such incident that I've heard of in the area this week. He wasn't actually even riding at the time and it just made me realise it can happen to anyone.

Here in Australia it's becoming more and more dangerous for cyclists. Especially with celebrities like Shane Warne kicking off on T,witter after he’d had his own battle with someone. Please everyone be careful when you are cycling. Obey the rules of the road and be as safe as you can. We're so vulnerable! Likewise, when driving please be patient and watch out for us!

Hello everyone. How are things back home? Actually I won't pretend that I don't know. The snow back home has even made it onto the news over here in Australia. So I've been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast and pictures that people have popped up on Facebook and Twitter, just to keep me motivated and realise how fortunate I am to be out here during that! I have to say it seems like a different world away for me at the moment. I've almost forgotten what the British winter is like. Most of my friends out here are all athletes, the better ones each year do a summer in Australia and then move over to Europe for our summer. Brad Kahlefeldt told me the other day he hasn't seen winter for 10 years! That's the life! Anyway enough on the weather…

I've had another good week, although it's been pretty chilled out because on Saturday I am heading down to Geelong near Melbourne for the Australian Sprint Championships. I wanted to get a decent race in because I've got some important races coming up that count towards our Olympic Qualification. There is a big difference between being fit and race fit. For any athlete the first race is usually pretty average as you turn up a bit rusty after a break. It usually takes 2/3 to really get going, so this race plays an important role in my form in April. We usually take about 30% off the usual training volume and bring in a bit more speed work.

I'm feeling in pretty good shape at the moment so I'm really excited to get out there and see if I can kick off probably one of the biggest seasons ever for me with a big result! It's 169 days to go until the Olympics now, and that's crept up fast hasn't it? Now it really is just around the corner. To be honest I'm really happy that I'm hiding away for this period on the other side of the world just knuckling down and getting on with the hard work.

Here in Australia it's just another Olympics, but back home it's just the biggest sporting spectacle ever. It's been made out to be the be all and end all for all athletes. Sure enough there are constant reminders about that, on the wrapper of your Cadburys chocolate bar, getting off the train in London St Pancras, newspapers, big countdown signs, shops opening up, building works, adverts, it goes on and on. Wherever you look, it's in your face. I'd love to be in the position now where I was already qualified, knew I was going, enjoying the build up and soaking it all up. But unfortunately I've still got another 4/5 months until I find out, just like most teams! It's an exciting journey ahead but also pretty stressful. I think it's good to get away from all the hype and just treat it like another year!

I've just had the best week so far here on the Gold Coast and thankfully the weather cleared up for us to finally do some training in the sun. It was pretty shocking for the last 10 days, which always makes training outside much less motivating! I started off the week feeling a little bit average with a belly full of food, a little bit of an athlete’s hangover and some tiredness, after one of my best friend’s weddings. It was a fantastic day and I was very happy to be part of it as an usher. It's the first wedding I've been to since my own and I saw how hard Stu was trying to hold off the tears as Michelle was walking down the aisle. He kept on looking away to distract himself!

The timing was pretty good for me, because it ended up being just mental and physical rest that I needed, because training has really turned a corner this week and I'm hitting out some really high quality sessions. Our squad is constantly increasing as more members join, so we now have a really good sized group which helps keep morale and work ethic high. The Gold Coast seems to be a bit of a who's who of International Triathlon at the moment! I was out running the other day and I met top marathon runner Michael Shelly from Australia who is also realbuzz.com blogger, which was a good ice breaker!

I've been here for a month now and it's been pretty much perfect preparation. So next week I'm heading down Melbourne way for my first hit out of the year in Geelong for the Australian Sprint Championships. I can't wait! The other day I also celebrated my 27th Birthday. I spent the whole day training hard as usual but we had a great evening. Clare got all my friends from the Gold Coast together for a meal. It was a great turn out. It's amazing how many good friends I have in this place! I still can't quite believe how fast my 20's are disappearing though, it's quite scary really…I still feel like a 21-year-old. I am a big believer that one of the benefits of keeping fit and healthy is that it really does keep you looking and feeling young.

I really notice the difference the fitter I get, even the hair on my face stops growing! I'll miss the tennis now that the Australian Open is over. Wasn't the final between Nadal and Djokovic amazing?! I really respect the guys at the top of that sport. It must be so hard competing that frequently, holding off the impact injuries they must get and squeezing in enough training to hold your form. Not to mention all that time on the road. Djokovic made $2.2m for winning the Aussie Open. How does he not want to just take a holiday and celebrate after winning that much money?!

G'day everyone! It's been all go here the past week and I'm looking forward to another massive week coming up with lots of tennis action from the Australian Open and one of my best friend's weddings! First up, I'm happy to report that at last I've seen my first snake and my first encounter certainly couldn't have got any better! We were halfway through a 4hr mountain ride up to Beechmont. There's a national park at the far end, so it's a great place for some serpent spotting. My training partner Dane shouted out in an Aussie accent. "Look at this beauty!" And there she was, about 1.5m long, sprawled across the path, lying perfectly still so we could all take time to appreciate it.

I was just about to get a stick to give it a bit of a poke when a ranger came down the hill and pulled up. We tried to talk to him but he pretty much ignored us and just walked straight up to Sid. With one swift movement he grabbed it by its neck, tied him in a knot and threw him in the bush. We all thought it was the best thing we'd ever seen obviously. We asked him what it was and tried to tell him how cool he looked, but he totally blanked us, got back into the truck and drove off! So for me, he is this week's lad of the week!

Yesterday was Australia Day. It's massive over here and arguably one of the more celebrated days of the year. I love the concept; shrimps on the barbecue, stubbies, games on the beach, lots of house parties. I wish I could have joined in the festivities, but unfortunately for the self employed we don't really get bank holidays, so it was just a normal day of training for me. It's actually one of the hardest days of the year to train eclipsing even Christmas Day. On Christmas everyone is hiding inside keeping warm so nobody really sees you out. But in Australia people are outside celebrating, everything is closed, and the roads are really busy. And occasionally you get a waft of barbecue chicken to really rub in the fact that you can't celebrate and have to get the miles in instead. Jealous!

I was a bit nervous this week. It was a deja vu of the Queensland floods last year. We had 3 solid days of non stop rain and there were literally no breaks. There were floods but thankfully it calmed down a bit and we didn't experience any large scale damage like last year…yet! It is raining again however today and unfortunately for them, it's the day where my coach Michelle Dillon and my training partner and one of my best buddies Stu Hayes are tying the knot. I'm one of the best men, so it's a very exciting and new experience for me. I haven't been to too many weddings yet, but I'm super excited to attend this one! I hope everyone had a great week!