Prior to a big race event I find my stomach becomes unsettled with the nervous energy that I experience and it is important that I don’t aggravate this by eating foods that are too rich or contain creamy sauces. I tend to keep my diet very plain, simple and consistent, consuming clean healthy food which is easy to digest.

The day before the race I will have porridge with fresh fruit, preferably berries and some yogurt at breakfast. My mid morning snack is generally a couple of savory SunRice cakes with avocado, tomatoes and spinach. Lunch would be tuna, rice and salad that is quick and easy to prepare. Afternoon tea consists of banana with sweet SunRice cakes and a coffee. Dinner is lots of green vegetables, sweet potatoes and steamed chicken.

The morning of the race I generally eat porridge as I find this doesn’t upset my digestion. The types of snacks I take to the meet would be raw nuts, seeds and dried fruit, banana, sweet SunRice cakes and plenty of fluids to replace electrolytes and water.

Along with my pre packed snacks I also pack in shakes and gels to aid recovery. It is important to include a good source of carbohydrates which is quickly absorbed before a race. I prefer the Endura gels which I consume right after my pre-race warm up, generally 30 – 45 minutes before I race. After the race I usually consume a banana or energy drinks, depending on what I feel like. Post race protein recovery shake which I consume after each session at the end of the day. Recovery food is an important part of racing especially if you are racing over a few days.

I will be defending both my titles in the 400m & 200m Individual Medley and I hope to gain a spot on the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay. These are the same swims that I was so successful with in Beijing and I’m really excited and grateful to get this opportunity again.

My team mates from St Peters Western swim club (SPW) were also very successful and I am so proud of them all and of our fabulous coach, Michael Bohl who has done an outstanding job in helping us all to gain selection. Our club makes up 10 of the 44 team members for the Olympic swimming team which is an outstanding achievement and I think it is a record. The SPW squad going to the London Olympics are Bronte Barratt, Meagan Nay, Leisel Jones, Yolane Kukla, Ryan Napolean, Kennrick Monk, Ned McKendry, Mitch Larkin & Nick D’Arcy and of course me:) We are all looking forward to supporting each other through this next preparation and helping each other to get the best from ourselves. It will be great to have Team Bohl working together towards London. Bring it on.

Dryland training is a tool that increases your core strength and activates your core prior to swim training. Our squad spends 20- 30 minutes, 2 mornings a week and 30 minutes 2 afternoons a week, prior to our swim session, specifically working on our core strength. The types of exercises we do besides skipping, shoulder and scapula control and abdominal exercises are all body weight resistance exercises such as pushups and lunges, which create lean muscle, not muscle mass. You can view a series of film clips I recently did for my sponsor SunRice, in particular the one on Dryland Training. Keep an eye out on the SunRice Facebook Page. SunRice - Steph's Swim Squad | Facebook

Muscle mass, strength and definition are created through weight training, which I will cover in coming weeks.

My training post surgery was modified to all land work for the first week as I was not able to swim until the sutures were removed. I couldn’t wait to get back into the water and I managed to pick up the tempo and get back into a full workload within 4 weeks. This rehabilitation was much easier and quicker than the 2010 surgery as it involved a 12 week program before I could train properly.

The racing I was planning to do in the lead up to the trials has been modified as I had to pull out of the Queensland State championships which were in December but I will be attending the NSW State championships the weekend 11th February and I am looking forward to seeing how I will go.

My preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics was uncomplicated by physical restraints but the last 15 months have been very different. I can have a great stretch of solid swimming training and then may experience shoulder pain but I have learnt to deal with this by listening to my body and backing off on the intensity in the water and applying more intensity to other areas of my training which are out of the water. 

Once I get to the pool I go and speak to my coach, Bohly and we go through my events and my race plan. Then I stretch and change into my swimmers and do the warm up, which is basically the same every time except for a slight change depending on the distance of the race. I generally do my warm up 90 minutes before my race is scheduled and this takes about 50 minutes. When I am finished the warm up which is usually 2 – 2.5 kilometers, I have a few mouthfuls of sports drink before changing into my racing suit and I tend to allow 20 minutes for this. I need to be in the Marshalling area 20 minutes before my race so I have my routine scheduled perfectly. Once I am in the Marshalling area that’s when I start to mentally prepare for the race. I like to listen to my music and keep pretty much to myself and I use this time to chill out and try to relax. I do get nervous but I like to use the nerves to my advantage as I know if I am nervous I am ready to race. Once the race is finished I go straight to Bohly and we go through the race splits and things to work on and improve as there is always something that could have been done better. Then I get changed out of my racing suit and back into the training suit, consume some sports drink and a few lollies and then commence my 1 kilometer swim down. Sometimes there can be 5 races in a day and it is very time consuming preparing for each race but it is essential to do it properly.

On Saturday 12th November, McHappy Day aims to crack the $3 million fundraising target for RMHC. Australia’s 13 Ronald McDonald Houses have provided more than 60,000 families with a home away from home while their child has undergone treatment for serious illness at a nearby hospital.  Sadly, every year some families also have to be turned away due to a shortage of facilities, so McHappy Day needs the support of Australians across the country to reach our biggest ever fundraising target and help even more families with seriously ill children.

You can help support this charity by simply dropping in to your local McDonald’s restaurant on November 12th. McDonald’s will donate $2 from every Big Mac which will go directly to funding RMHC programs.

So please get behind this great cause and call into McDonald’s on the 12th and buy yourself a Big Mac or two.

Here are some pictures of me visiting the Ronald McDonald House in Herston, Brisbane and the Milton McDonalds store in my local neighbourhood.

Thanks for the fun day.

It is also really important to write your goal down so you can see each one and tick them off as you achieve them. Visualisation is a powerful tool and is a key element to personal success. One of my favourite quotes is by Napoleon Hill, “Whatever the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” When I am setting a new goal the first thing I do is write down my ultimate goal and from there I work backwards, stating the things I need to do in order to achieve them. For example making the Olympic team is my goal, and to achieve that I need to do Personal Bests (PB’s) in training, strengthen my kick, lose 2kg, and improve my underwater. You can take it a step further and expand it more, for example to improve my underwater I need to hold 6 kicks on every turn in training and do extra drills after training.

Over the coming months I will be discussing other aspects of my preparation for the London Olympics so make sure you check my website regularly to keep updated on my progress.

Duncan devised an “Amazing Race” type run where we were divided into 2 teams of 4 people each. The “A” Team, comprising of D’Arcy, Bronte, Kenny and Ricey were the overall winners despite the cheating from the other team, who will remain nameless. We were given a sheet of clues and would commence our 10 kilometer run. An example of a clue would be, “I am a Landmark in the middle of Southbank and I am named after a bank. Stand in front of me and take a group photo.” My team did all the challenges correctly where as the other team only produced a photo of one person standing in front of the Suncorp Piazza. This didn’t help them in the end because my team still won! The challenges were so much fun and they really bought out the competitive spirit between us all.

 

Another example of a cardio work out was – 10 minutes on a spin bike followed by a 1 kilometer run followed by shooting 10 hoops and we had to do this 3 times through. The shooting of 10 hoops proved the most challenging for some of us. There was a lot of extra cardio and Core Strength Dryland work every evening. The idea of the land work every evening instead of swimming was to help get us fit quickly and get back into shape. The only pool session we did was in the mornings and we swam 5 kilometers each session.

 

The land work has definitely paid off as I am feeling I have gained back my fitness after the break. Stay tuned as next time I will be talking about the next block of training.

I really like the Welcome page and encourage everyone to try and beat my reaction time, which was 6.41 seconds. There are some great competitions coming up so you need to keep checking back and I will keep you updated.

My competition for the “signed Stephanie Rice swimsuit” was a big success with hundreds of entries from Australia and overseas. I loved reading all your entries and found it really hard for me to pick a winner as there were a few that I really liked. One guy that entered said that he had named his little Mazda car after me, now that is really cute.

But there can only be one winner and that was Robert Bullock from Queensland with his entry – “i think you are an awesome athlete and just a down to earth person . you prove that everyday people can achieve anything if you put your mind to it ..

Thank you to everyone who entered my competition and wrote those great entries.. I really appreciate the effort you all made and I loved reading all your entries.

My first event was the 200 Individual Medley and my final time of 2:09.65 was the same time that I posted in the semi-final. I usually improve my times through the heats to the semi’s and the final and I was disappointed that I didn’t execute the final race as well as I could have.

I was very happy with the 200 Butterfly result as this was the first time I have raced this event at an international meet. I did a personal best time and to be only 0.53seconds off Liuyang's winning time was a great boost of confidence for me. It was a nice surprise, and I’m continuing to think about what this means given that medleys have, to date, been my focus. 

The 400 Individual Medley was a good result as I haven’t been this fast since Beijing, except for the fast swim-suit era in 2009. To race the 400 Individual Medley at an international competition is a lot more fatiguing as you need to set a fast time in the heat, that morning, to ensure a place in the final. I don’t think I have the required fitness as yet, due to my shoulder rehabilitation but it is encouraging result given the volume of work I have done.

There were many impressive results from swimmers from around the world. From swimmers who have been knocking on the door for awhile and some from the younger but very talented athletes. I am looking forward to testing myself against these very impressive opponents again soon.