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Peta Mullens' 2006 Diary

As part of the Australian Junior World Championships squad, Peta Mullens and Tess Downing, two selected riders from Victoria, rode the Kowalski Tour after a squad training camp in Canberra. Peta provides an update to their build-up to the trip to Europe.

Junior Squad Training - Sydney

Friday 23rd June - Thursday 6th July 

I arrived at the airport on Friday prepared for a hard two weeks of training, but things didn't start out quite as I had hoped. Due to fog the night before all flights had been delayed and the airport was packed! There were four Victorians to fly to Sydney; Tess Downing, Leigh Howard, Tim Decker (endurance coach for junior national team) and myself. We all had to re-book our flights and it was only Howard and I that ended up on the same flight. Five hours after arrival, Tess flew out to Sydney. One hour later Howard and I departed, and another hour later Decker departed. When we finally got to Sydney, we discovered our bags had been lost! Saturday morning came and still no bikes, and even worse no clothes! The endurance athletes had a track session in the morning and a road race in the afternoon, double sessions everyday is what our camp experience would be.

Finally we found our bikes and found ourselves out training the next day. The first week went by slowly but come the second week our bodies had become accustomed to the abuse we were putting it through! In saying that the camp was truly an experience, and with nightly talks and the occasional bonding session, we all enjoyed ourselves. Sessions were hard and time schedules were strict, there wasn't much time for anything but training, eating and sleeping, and even sleep seemed deprived. Our days consisted of hill efforts in the morning, track in the afternoon. Or a long road ride in the morning and track in the arvo [afternoon]. But often it was just a double track session. Whatever it may be, it was hard, and come the day of trials we were nervous for our times. Whether trials were good or bad, we were all ecstatic because it meant the camp had finished and it was now time to find our road legs and head to Canberra.