Looking Back and Forward
18 January 2011
The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect on the previous season. It’s the eternal search to become a better athlete, and be the best athlete you can. I try to
look at both the positives and negatives throughout the season, harness that and apply it to the next season. I went into the 2010 season with all guns drawn.
There’d been some positive changes to “Bevy World”; relocating to Cali, a new training partner (GOG), a baby girl in the oven, and a ton of motivation to wrap it all up with. Little did I know that this was the recipe for several different outcomes, and I would have a year of what professional sport can produce in a whole career ‐ the exhilarating highs of winning and the bottomless lows of burnout…
Lets focus on the highs for the most part. Professionally, the high point of 2010 was to win the opening round of the World Championship Series in Sydney. With the level of the sport being raised every year, it seems to take more and more to win a race. So for my health, training, traveling and racing stars to align for that particular day, it was just an awesome feeling. The feeling that you’re so pumped and amped that you just want to scream out and let the world know. So that’s exactly what I did, unfortunately dropping an F Bomb as I celebrated down the finishing straight before the thousands of spectators in front of the Sydney opera house! Some say it was the best finishing celebration of 2010, while others just disapprove.
The obvious high point of 2010 personally, was the birth of my little baby girl McKenna Eva Docherty. It’s one of those things where no matter how many people tell you about parenthood, until you actually experience it you just don’t get it. Over the last 4 months I have just learnt so much. I now understand the meaning of “precious”. I now understand what it feels like to be sleep deprived, and still get up and put together a solid days training. I now understand how a simple smile can make up for hours of unexplainable chaos! I could go on and on… One thing is certain, she completes me as a person and is only going to strengthen my triathlon game. In‐fact, just weeks after her birth, I was back on top of the podium, winning the LA
Triathlon. I like to refer to it as “Baby Doping”.
Now time for the low point of 2010; however, as I have always said, “there’s always a silver lining in every negative”. If you were to graph my form throughout 2010 you would find it resembles the state of the economy in the last few years, with a sudden drop in form mid season. My explanation, “The perfect Storm”! Nothing actually went wrong, quite the opposite, everything went too well; the training in Cali was awesome, my training partner Graham O’Grady loved the punishment my coach dished out, and there was no sign of an injury. With my motivation at a high, I just pushed and pushed until I fell into the classic triathlete trap! Did it suck? Yep!. Was it bad for me? I don’t think so!
So 2011, what’s in‐store? This is the year that the whole Olympic circus starts kicking into motion. Some athletes start holding their cards a little closer to their chest, others start racing from one end of the globe to the other in order to gain valuable qualifying points. For me its business as usual. The year holds a great balance of racing from domestic races in NZ and the US, to World Championship Series races throughout. The obvious peak for the year is NZ’s first qualifying race in August, held on the Olympic course in London. A top 10 at this event will be enough to secure a spot; however, it would seem most countries are going to use this race. So, as per usual, I’ll need all my triathlon stars aligned come August. The rest of the year is just going to be impregnated with plenty of solid training, more recovery and some good old fashioned racing….
I’ve learnt over the years that anything can happen in an Olympic campaign. You have to try to control the controllable and deal with the uncontrollables as best you can. A head of me are some very tough weeks of training. There are going to be some set backs but hopefully there are going to be plenty more positive F Bombs dropped
down the finishing straight…
As always, thanks to everyone that supports me. This is the main reason I’m in Sport, to make my Family, Sponsors, Friends and Kiwi’s proud…
Bevan Docherty
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