“My training is swimming, cycling and running triathlon-specific, “My training is swimming, cycling and running triathlon-specific," Image: Warren Clarke

In the long run

“I have a couple of running partners, too. We probably cover up to 100km a week and usually run around the shores of Mosman and Balmoral. I enjoy running through the national park, Bradley’s Head, Chowder Bay … I mix it up.“Again, I fit my training around my girls. I often have to train at night, but my sponsor Brooks has looked after me in that respect  because they gave me glow-in-the-dark training gear. So now there’s no excuse. If you see this fluoro-looking freak running through the streets in the middle of the night, that’s me!”

Power of yoga

“I try to do three sessions in the yoga studio a week. There’s two things about yoga which are fantastic. One’s the core strength it gives you – it strengthens and lengthens your muscles, but also there’s the mental side of it in regards to the meditation. “I’ve been working with my trainer Duncan Peak doing a specific yoga called Power Yoga. It’s all about using your own bodyweight to build strength. It almost replaces the need for weights or any strength work because we’re doing a lot of exercises and poses which require you to have enormous amounts of strength in your core and in your legs and arms in order to hold the positions. The power yoga is fantastic for athletes. The Waratahs do the same type of yoga I do. It’s been adapted to suit elite athletes.“Before my break I did 12 years of ‘conventional training’, but this time I’m incorporating things which are a little bit different. I’m doing the Power Yoga, I’m including Pilates and doing a lot more ocean swimming and just getting a bit more balance so that I can enjoy a long career. In elite sport the burnout rate is so high, you’ve got to try and mix it up a bit to avoid burnout, both mentally and physically.”

Feel the vibe

“Fitvibe is really exciting. I did Fitvibe with the Rancan sisters, Adele and Lisa, who have appeared on Channel Ten and who own a studio in Sydney. They have the only Fitvibe machine – a super-expensive machine – around. It vibrates and makes your muscles contract and works them at a rate which you can’t possibly do on your own. You’re doing the exercises on what’s called a vibration plate. When I first started doing it I thought ‘this is ridiculous’, but I actually found it very effective. It was fantastic in the lead–up to racing, but now that I’m back into competing, I probably won’t use it as much. For the average person in the street it’s fantastic because it’s very time-effective. You can do a small amount of work, say 30-45 minutes, and the vibration makes you work ten times harder than you normally would. It forces you to do quality, not quantity.”