I had a very inspirational night yesterday, sharing a meal with two world class swimmers.

Ben Treffers competes for australia over 50 backstroke.

Jennie Johansson is a top Swedish 50m breaststroker who already swam her A standards for London.

We concluded our training regimes were of a slight different character.

When they get tired they back off.

As their training is all about maximum power and perfection of details.

I wouldn’t know what that feels like. We just keep training and take the body through the various levels of tiredness.

If the rumor is true, and eskimos have the most amount of words for “snow” in the world.

Triathletes for sure would own the word “fatigue”.

But then, I rarely push my body up into the world of 18mmol of lactate.

And I’m not sure I’d like to on weekly basis…

But I did get some very useful tips.

And I’m thinking someone might be out of the blocks a helluva lot quicker this year…

Hopefully the next picture of the three of us will be snapped somewhere in the Olympic Village in August. Not a too far fetch thought really.

Signed an important paper today.

Butterflies…

Christmas has come and gone.

A nice little break from the quiet Canberra city.

I swapped the murky waters of Lake Burley Griffin for the salty surf at Malua Beach.

Two night with good friends and amazing food. A different environment, a beautiful place, lot of laughter and good times.

Then I drove my little borrowed Mazda back over the mountain.  To reality, routine and hard work.  And I was looking forward to it.

It is good to go away. But nice to come back.

We decided to celebrate New Years together with a big dinner. Instead of our normal lycra dressed sessions this one turned out to be a bit different. And definitely a bit more fun. A potlock dinner with an amazing display of dishes, a warm australian evening and a very relaxed atmosphere.

We started 2012 in style.

And I think we all shared a similar excitement over the year ahead of us.

Happy New Year to all of you!

If you want to see more photos from my holiday have a look at my flickr album.