Kris Gemmell updates after watching the World Champs
16 June 2008
Last weekend I was just a spectator as the World championships were held in Vancouver Canada. Its the first time I've missed a world champs event since 2002. I decided to skip Vancouver in favour of keeping my travel down before Beijing. It's something I have struggled with in the past and so it just seemed like the best option for myself in such an important year.
I had to decide to either do my build up in America and then race worlds and the big money event in Des Moines two weeks later. Or stay put in Europe where I'm well set up and keep my race and training shedule within Europe only.
I learnt a few things from watching the build up of certain athletes leading into Athens. Number one was what is best for one athlete, is not always the best for another. So with all that in mind the decsion was made for me to skip worlds last weekend.
I have instead been training hard at Altitude in Font Romeu. Which is situated in the heart of the French Pyrenees. I really love it up here and the enviroment just seems to motivate me to train harder. The training center is situated at 1830 meters above sea level which as you can imagine makes the simple things in our everyday life so much harder... like BREATHING! You have to have a lot of control when training up here as it is very easy to train too hard and get into a big hole. I have learnt over the years where my limits are. But you must always push the limits now and then so with that in mind I have a very strict regime of monitoring myself while Im here to try and avoid any issues.
I've just completed my third week up here and will be racing next weekend in a big race in Germany. There will be a lot of guys racing that will going to the games and also last years world champion Daniel Unger. He too is taking a similar approach to myself by not traveling a lot so I'll get a good gauge on where I'm at.
Unlike the Famous journey man Phileas Fogg who made it around the world in 80 days. This little Kiwi is staying put with same amount of days until the fireworks in Beijing begin!
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