KYLIE STEWART
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Triathletes Name: Kylie Stewart Age Group: 40-44 Country: Australia
Favourite Distance: Sprint Time in Sport: Appox. 3 years
Hours per week: 10hours
Best Results: 2nd AG Batemans Bay Tri and Husky I Tri, 2nd Elite Energy triseries 2010-2011
Additional Information: Training is easy for me as my whole family competes (husband, sons 16 and 12, and daughter 9). We train together and help each other out with individual sessions. My sons will often provide swim sessions for me. My husband and I work with an event management company on the NSW south coast in Australia which specialises in triathlon. I am very lucky that I am able to compete at all of our events as my work updating the company’s website can all be done before and after the events.
How did you get started in Triathlon? We attended a local event as spectators, and were inspired by the atmosphere and the fit bodies. The local triathlon club, and coaches at the local high school are extremely supportive of new triathletes, and we live in a gorgeous area for training, so it was pretty easy to get started
TRAINING AND RACING TIPS
Favourite Training Session: Long ride on Sunday morning
Favourite part of a triathlon: The swim. I started swimming 3 years prior to triathlons, so was comfortable with swimming
What would you like to improve? The run. I don’t seem to be a natural runner and I’d like to keep strains and blisters away long enough to increase my run fitness (and whose idea was it to put the run at the end of the race????)
Tips to stay motivated: I treat training as just something you have to do, like picking up the kids, or grocery shopping or other work; treat it as though you don’t have a choice – just do it. Most of the time I don’t have a problem; I know how good it makes me feel, but this is what I do when I’m faced with a 1 hour run when the day has just turned uncomfortably warm and I can’t fit it in any other time.
How important is confidence? I guess it must be pretty important to me; I haven’t raced unless I have felt that I could perform adequately. Before my first triathlon, I had done the whole course on my own twice, so I knew I could do it, and how it would feel. Now that I am a bit more experienced, I just do my training, keep stretching and exercising to keep the injuries away, and I can relax a bit more on race days.
Time saving tips:Change your sleep pattern – go to bed early! Then getting up early is easy and it’s the best time of day to train. You can also be adaptable – if you’re away and can’t ride or swim when your program dictates, swap a run session – you can run anywhere.
Tips for improving: Coaching – often you can’t see what you’re doing wrong and a trained eye will see it, it’s also great to hand over the training plans to someone else. Training with more experienced athletes – lots of them are waiting to mentor beginners, once you’ve passed the beginner stage you can challenge yourself against them! Reading – there are so many great books and websites with loads of information. Physiotherapy – I’ve learnt so much about how my body works. My last tip would be to actually do the stretches, drills and exercises given to you by your coaches and physiotherapist – they really help!!
Racing Tips: Just to be organised and be relaxed. It’s hard to have fun otherwise, and
that’s what it’s all about. Get your gear ready the night before, study the course maps and know that everyone else feels nervous too! And the race – take it easy at the swim start; people tend to sprint off at the start and you’ll end up out of breath. And if you’ve practiced transitions beforehand, then the rest is just putting it all together!
Future Goals: I’d like to represent Australia at an ITU World Championship event one year. Hopefully my son, Jack, will qualify this year and I’ll be inspired to do the same. A few commitments prevent me from travelling to qualifying events this year, but who knows, maybe next year…
Why should women participate in Triathlon? The health benefits alone are a great reason to participate, and training in three different disciplines means there’s usually at least one you can do in case of injury. Training in groups is a great social event – and I can train with swimmers, runners, cyclists and triathletes! Also, a lot of women I know support their kids in their active pursuits, but neglect their own fitness. I think it is important to be the active and fit person you want your kids to be.
Other comments: I did not participate in any sport at school and never imagined I would ever be doing anything like triathlon. So I’d just like to say, if I can do it, anyone can!!
