With around 270 days until the Olympics, it is all engines firing up here in Brisbane. Although that seems like a long time, time will definitely fly and trials will be upon us in no time. There is still so much work to do in the next 4 months, and although the workload over that period can seem a little daunting, the prospect of improving myself as an athlete is very exciting.

Whenever I talk to non swimmers, I am always asked how much training I do, and people are always shocked with how much it entails. For a race that lasts just over 2 minutes, the amount of training we do to prepare ourselves does sound fairly excessive but when step on those starting blocks before an important race, having the confidence knowing you have pushed yourself to the limit day in day out is such a tremendous feeling. However, getting to that stage is not an easy journey. We go through different phases in our training regime and right now we are in our hard build up phase. This consists of 10 pool sessions ranging anywhere between 50 and 65 km a week, plus 2 2 hour sessions in the weight room, pilates, boxing, running and biking. I love doing the work outside of the pool because it gives me something other than the black line to focus on, and also aids in my aerobic capacity, which is very important for such an aerobic sport as swimming.

This past weekend we did have a brief break in our training to compete at the Fina Sydney World Cup. I love world cup meets because the atmosphere is generally more relaxed and fun than a big international competition, so everyone just has a pressure free good time. Also, the format of these meets is very similar to the style of competition used in the American college system that I competed in for 4 years - very fast paced and exciting. There was some extremely fast swimming overall and my teammates all swam great, the highlights being Libby winning 4 events and my training partner Christian winning all 3 of his breaststroke races.

Although I did a couple personal best times in the 50m backstroke, I didn't compete as well as I would have liked. Not competing to your best is frustrating for an athlete, but you just have to put faith in the process and trust your coach. My coach Stephan and I have been working a lot on my speed, because that is one major area of my racing in which I am weak, so he was very happy to see improvement there. It means my training effect is working! However, as I get older I find it harder and harder to race fast during our training season. Normally leading up to big meets we go through a "taper" phase, where the workload is reduced in order for our bodies to freshen up. As I am now 25 and one of the more "mature" athletes, I find that my body doesn't recover as fast as it used to when I was a teenager so racing during hard work is getting increasingly tougher. For an athlete, this is a harsh reality to deal with when you want everything to be perfect each time you step up to race, but I just have to take a step back and realize that my focus is the bigger picture, and if I have to sacrifice racing fast at small meets to get the best out of myself when it counts, at Olympic trials, then that is something that I am very willing to do.

To cap off the successful weekend of racing was the annual Telstra Australian Swimmer of the Year awards dinner. This is always a great night for swimming, where individuals and teams are celebrated for their achievements in the past competitive year. It is also a chance for everyone to put on their finest garb and relax for an evening of fine wining and dining. As swimmers, the public is accustomed to seeing us in our togs with sopping wet hair, so having a chance to dress up is something that we all jump at. Also, being the girly-girl that I am, I live for times when I can frock up! My teammate Melanie Schlanger and I got ready together, and as much of a girly-girl I am, she is as much a tomboy, so my make-up skills got a workout that night! But the end result was great and we all had a fantastic time. My coach Stephan won Coach of the year, and my teammate Libby took out the coveted Swimmer of the Year award. She has had such a tremendous year, so to win that award was a perfect conclusion to a perfect season. If you guys want to check out some photos from the evening, I have put some up on my Flickr website - www.flickr.com/joannafargus. Enjoy!

So now we move onwards and upwards. We have our State titles next month which is the last major competition before our Olympic Trials, so it will be a good indication of how our training is going. It will be a long hard month of work, so I will relish every opportunity I can to relax, and after the craziness that was last weekend, I'm very much looking forward to a lazy one at home! I am a bit of a homebody and I love to bake, so I love to let my imagination run wild in the kitchen on weekends. I'm in a pretty festive mood, so I think gingerbread men are on the cards. I'll save you some!

Until next time,

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed"

~Michael Jordan

Jo