Gday, Hola, Ciao,
The past few months have seen some interesting travels and the collection of many more tales for the brew shop back home. I flew home to Sydney just before Christmas last year. This was a marvellous time reconnecting with friends and family in the Great Southern Land! Australia really is my favourite place in the world. Not only is it stunningly beautiful, I am lucky to have the best family and mates there. This is what makes a place home, which you come to appreciate fervently when you spend extended periods away.
On top of the usual family banter, I took one week with mates to train and race in the ski resort of Thredbo. This was a golden week, we took the win at the super fun ‘Wicked Wombat’ 8 hour MTB race and managed to sneak in a solid block of miles at altitude with great company. Back to Sydney for more mates and miles. With all the focus on efficient training I have this year, I caught myself more often than not spending a good proportion of each ‘training ride’ sitting in coffee shops deep in conversation with old mates. With everything logged on an ‘electronic Garmin device’, it was evident that most of my ‘training’ was done idle at purveyors of fine coffee. Life is all about balance and priorities, of which relationships will always be #1 priority. This was my excuse for 2hour blanks mid ride on my training ‘data’..
Lucky I did spend this time catching up, as it was not long before I was back in the big metal bird for training camp #2 for Team NovoNordisk professional cycling team. We have just spent ten days south of Rome in Terracina for some solid miles and more physiological testing to see where our strengths lie for the season ahead. It was great to reconnect with my team mates and the awesome staff that run this slick operation again here in Italy. This time in Italy opened a few windows deeper into the world of professional sport for me. This is a serious business and a hard job, requiring many many sacrifices, especially for antipodean athletes who have to leave their homes for most of the year. You are constantly being told you are living the dream, of which there are plenty of moments where it certainly feels like you are. But the other side is having your every movement tracked by an anti doping agency, being woken at random at 6am any day in your life to pee in a cup and have blood taken in front of an official, being weighed and have your skin folds measured reguarly, training for 6hours in the freezing rain with your heart rate above 150bpm and missing the weddings, babies and other special moments that happen at home without you. These challenges and frustrations can be confounded if those in charge disregard them, treating athletes as machines will create machines. The head is just as valuable asset as the legs for an athlete. I want and hope for everyone to have access for complete support for both these assets. As I grew up believing and seeing ‘smiles on faces, win races:-)’. Every pursuit in life has its challenges and what helps me carry on through the challenges is purpose.
Team training camp Terracina Credits: S. Schwenke
Team NovoNordisk is lucky to have truckloads of purpose, meaning and inspiration as its fuel to success. For me, when times are tough on the road, it helps to remember and to know the impact this team has on the whole diabetic family worldwide; 350million strong and beyond! We are now in Mallorca, Spain lining up against a world class field at the UCI ‘Mallorca challenge’. 4 days of top level racing with a squad of 8 riders who all have conquered the challenge of diabetes in their lives and can live their dreams no matter what they may be! Competing with this challenge of diabetes is a huge accomplishment. It is proof that no matter what challenge is put in front of us, with a solid, meaningful purpose it is achievable!
From Mallorca it is back home to Aussie land for a short while before heading back across the pond to the US of A! Hope to see you for a brew soon!
Adios, Arrivederci, Hooroo
Justin/MadDog
@JustinMorrisTT1
Justin Morris – having a brew in Varese, Italy.