More training in Switzerland.

We have till the end of the week left here in Switzerland. These 6weeks training out here have been the best.

It is a beautiful place to live and train, and I may not earn much money as a professional triathlete, but to be able to afford the lifestyle that Bella and I lead is just priceless, I feel so lucky, I make a point of realising this everyday.

Training wise my swimming is going great, Brett has been working us all hard in the pool and I just feel my swimming is gradually improving all the time.

Bike wise, I am feeling really strong, I will wait till my first race at IM Malaysia to get real confirmation but I am happy with with where I am in Jan.

I have been running lots and hard, and I feel my run is coming along, I am very confident of bringing my IM marathon run time down alot this year.

So back to the UK for a few days at the end of this week, then on to Thailand for a good long camp out there. Can't wait.

A big well done to some team meates: Belinda, Justin, Luke and Hilary at Challenge Queenstown very good effort by all.
And also to Reinaldo winning the ITU points race in Argentina yesterday, good effort!

Thanks for reading.
Stephen
www.stephenbayliss.net

Drugs in sport....

I'm annoyed, very annoyed! I shouldn't let it get to me, as it does my own training and performance no benifit at all, I should be able to put my trust in WADA(World anti dopping agency) and our national and international govening bodies! But, what the hell is going on, please read this link to a letter from Les MacDonald(President of the ITU(International Triathlon Union)) to Dick Pound(WADA president) : http://www.slowtwitch.com/headings/olympics3.html

So, there are a few issues that really get my goat here:
There is a positive test from the Ironman World Championships 2006, why is this athlete not named and banned?
The politics of it all is very very frustrating, it seems that there are a few people who want to be the big daddy and so don't really care about the sport of triathlon or the athletes, and seem to only care about being "King of the jungle" of something.

Surely all events could sign up to a world anti doping policy! Infact there should be a world sporting police, who inforce that all events(maybe just professional sporting events) have dope testing.

For clean athletes trying to make it to the top, like myself, I should not have to worry that I will be racing doped athletes, and that they may very well get away with it!

I just really hope that the powers that be do EVERYTHING they can to stop doping and give proper bans to athletes caught doping.

Anyway, rant over, I off for my second training session of the day.

Thanks for reading
Stephen Bayliss(aka big legs)
www.stephenbayliss.net

Training in Switzerland

I am currently training in Leysin, Switzerland. It is beautiful out here right now(well it is beautiful anytime of the year) snow on the mountains and quite alot of snow in the town at the moment, which is making the skiiers happy as they had very little snow up until 1st Jan!

I'm looking forward to 2007, my main aim is to keep improving and get closer to the best in the world, so as in a few more years I can challenge the best in Hawaii. For those of you who follow my results, this basically means a bit more power on the bike and keep getting my marathon off the bike, faster and faster.

I read in 220 magazine a few weeks ago that there is quite alot of doubt over a Brit ever winning in Hawaii! Well I can tell you, we already have 1 athlete who in 2007 is going to be challenging for the win, no other than my girlfriend Bella Comerford, other than that I can only talk for myself and I would put good money on Stephen Bayliss getting a podium in Hawaii in 3years!!

So why so confident? Well I know how hard I can work, I also know that being the best in the world is more of a choice than luck or destiny. I am chosing to work seriously hard, harder than the rest, and I put no limits on what any human body can achieve.

I hope to have great 2007 season starting in Feb with IM Malaysia, but my main aim is train, train, and train some more, until I get there:)

Happy New Year and I wish you all a succesfull 2007
Thanks for reading
Stephen Bayliss
www.stephenbayliss.net