Luke Gillmer

So today Jan 18th is day 1 of 5 days training with the NSW endurance and non drafting team in Orange NSW.  The squad is headed up by Mel Ashton who was one of Australia's top IM athletes in the mid 2000's and a good ITU athlete prior to that.  Day 1 down and it was a nice few sessions with a technique swim and a hard TT run.  This camp has come at a great time for me.  I have had a really tough last 8 weeks in Sydney and have been struggling with exhaustion.

I was not sure what has been wrong with me, however I think I have had some mental health issues and been a little depressed.  Being away from Meg over the past few months while she was in Melbourne and I was in Sydney was harder then I realised.  I feel I isolated myself from my friends during this time and was just really down and lonely, this lead to me losing motivation and feeling really tired.  I recently moved to Melbourne and things have turned around.  I recently visited a doctor to run a lot of tests and they all came back saying I am extremely healthy, so that left me knowing it is really a mental issue. After only a week in our new Villa in the nice suburb of Elwood I felt 100 times better, I am taking it slowly and my motivation to train and to be competitive is already returning. 

I didn't realise how much being away from Meg and the stress associated with moving and finding a new job would impact on me.  I now know it impacted me massively.

Thanks to everyone in Melbourne who have made me feel so welcome especially Stef and Brett, Eva, other Stef, Paul the brit, Gareth, Xavier and his group and Dr Mitch.

I look forward to my week in camp now and stay posted for my next diary entry soon.

Luke