Roast dinners are ill-suited to an Australian summer but a trip to the beach takes the grind out of training
? Introducing the Guardian's Olympic diarists
I don't think I'll ever get used to Christmas in Australia. My family always make a point of having a proper British roast dinner on Christmas Day, even when it's 35C [95F] outside. I was sweating while I was eating, it was that hot. But the flip side of being down here at this time of year is that is I spend a lot of my time down at the beach doing outdoor training, which I love.
In the last couple of years I've got into doing the open water competitions down the coast. It's just a day at the beach combined with a training session, so I get the best of both worlds. And you get pretty good prizes for winning. This year I won one of the biggest races in Victoria ? the Pier to Pub. I got a travel voucher for winning, which I plan to spend when I have a holiday at the end of this year.
Open waters are really horrendous to race in. They are completely different to pool swimming because it's really rough and you get hit in the face quite a lot. The Pier to Pub was girls and guys at the same time and the guys are a lot rougher than the girls, I got a few elbows to my face in that race. It's also hard because you can't really see where you're supposed to be going. You have to just pick a landmark in the distance and sort of aim in that direction, which can be difficult with the strong currents and the splash from other people.
I like them, despite all that, because they're such a change of pace from being at the pool. There is no pressure on me because I don't really do enough of them to have any sort of profile. It's nice to just be an unknown in a race competing for the fun of it. I also think it helps with my fitness, I just see it as a kind of cross training. I see paddle-boarding the same way. I got a board for Christmas. It's great. I can just paddle around on the nice flat water. It improves my core strength, and it's also just really fun. My dogs have got into it as well and they quite happily sit on the front of my board as I take them out to sea.
The Australian State Championships have been going on for a couple of months now, I did the Queensland States in December last year and we just had the Victorian States a few weeks ago. Quite a few high-profile Aussie swimmers were there which made for a good competition.
I got to see Ian Thorpe in the flesh for the first time. I still get really star-struck when I meet legends of the sport like Thorpe. It's quite surreal seeing him swimming when I've only ever watched him on TV, and that was years ago when I was little.
I was really happy with how I raced at the States and I'm feeling really strong in and out of the water. There is quite a lot of rivalry between the Aussies and the British swimmers. I like being over here because I get to race the best that they have in Australia on quite a regular basis, it's really great to be around these swimmers and to be against them at all the meets so when it comes to racing at the majors I'm ready. I know I can match them.
It's a funny feeling that the Olympic trials are so soon. I'm not thinking too much about them, I never think about the trials until I'm in England and I'm about to do them, I find that thinking about them now takes too much emotional energy and nerves. The only time I ever really think about it is when I see an Olympic advert on TV. Though being in Australia there isn't too much advertising for the Olympics. I feel like it's a benefit for me to be out of it and away from all of the pressure. It's been a great sunny summer and I've got a lot done, but now I can't wait to get back to England and race in the Olympic pool at the Olympic trials in March.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/jan/30/ellen-gandy-olympic-diary
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