The underlying mentality of the stock market is simply to
buy low and sell high. Well, if as an athlete, I were a company’s shares, and
you were an investor with a 12 month investment horizon, your most profitable transaction
would have been the following: you would have shorted me at the end of March,
and bought me back at the very end of April. If you were a long-only, I would
like to think that my current value also represents a good buying opportunity,
with plenty of upside over the next 12 months… but the greatest gains would
definitely have come from buying at the bottom, which hopefully, will not be
revisited until the inevitable lows of my next end of season break.
The above analogy represents what has been the last
couple of months and aligns basically with my level of fitness: the conclusion
to my summer season at the end of March, and consequent end of season break,
followed by the steady recovery and build back into the offseason. As a result,
in just a few short months, it feels as though my fitness went from its peak,
to the absolute depths of… well… it basically ceased to exist in any form, and
finally now, I am starting to see signs of it re-emerging.
The end of season break is a sacred affair. In one sense,
it is the key to your upcoming season. Initially, it presents a detox from the
season that came before it. And then, in its second phase, it refreshes you, equips
you with the mental and physical strength to face the demands of the season
ahead. What you do with your break determines how useful it is. I take my break
very seriously! And to that end, I thought of no better place to spend my break
than my favourite city on Earth – the concrete
jungle where dreams are made of that I WILL call home one day – Manhattan. What
better place to escape the triathlete in me than the home of high fashion and fine
dining. And then, as if to say “enough now”, I returned to the West Coast in
time for the San Diego ITU World Series, to snap back into “triathlete” Sarah
and remind myself that the 3 weeks prior were now over. It was time to ease
back into it.
Audrey Hepburn once said the beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears or the way she
combs her hair. Whilst this may be disputed on some level, I took comfort from
this quote as I returned from my New York holiday, only to be greeted with a seemingly-eternal
“swim block”. The accompanying scent of Eau de Chlorine, awful goggle marks and
perpetual frizzy hair are always, sadly, collateral damage of needing to work
on my swim. This year is arguably my first proper swim block, having only
commenced full time training mid-way through last year’s block. For me, with my
newly diagnosed “abnormal” shoulders, this swim block also demands weekly
physio treatment as we progress my poor, pathetic upper body into one that can
form an actual streamline position and ultimately, catch the water effectively.
As our coach reiterates almost daily, swimming is a skill. It takes time to
learn and it takes an absolute eye for detail. Just as Giorgio Armani preaches,
to create something exceptional, your
mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail. – And who said
fashion and sport don’t mix?...............Well, certainly not Funkita
swimwear!
The last couple of months have seen me formally align myself
with a small but vital group of brands that I have come to love and rely on. Funkita
Swimwear is one of these brands. I am completely obsessed with their amazingly
extensive range of feminine and fashionable bathers and am loving being able to
swim in them every day. Of course, triathlon is (luckily for me) not just
swimming, and so, I also have tried and tested (and fabulously colourful)
running shoe brand, Saucony on side. The third and final leg of a triathlon,
cycling, finds me recently teaming up with 99 Bikes, Malvern (there is also a
store in Port Melbourne). I am not one for passing on praise unless it really
warrants it, but the team there certainly does warrant it. I have been so
impressed by their pure passion for the sport of cycling and their eagerness to
learn about and support my triathlon endeavours. Customer service here: A++. Throw
in being fuelled daily at training and in competition by Dextro Energy Nutrition
(I swear I’m actually eating a cheesecake when I have their lemon cake bars –
serious yummmmm), and I think I’m definitely in very good hands for the season
ahead. Thus concludes my shameless plug for four brands that I really am quite
chuffed to represent.
For now, it’s a gentle nudge on the accelerator, slowly
but surely increasing the hours and the kilometers. It’s focusing on the one-percenters
that often get neglected in the craziness and intensity of the racing season. It’s
the discomfort of focusing on your weak points. It’s the constant battle against
the winter weather, the war against the alarm clock at 5.15am for swim squad.
But it’s also the satisfaction that every day is another day further away from
that dreadful day, your last on break, that you hit the absolute depths of
unfitness. Every day is another step forward…..even if some days it feels like
ten steps backward. My stock very much remains in its development phase, and it
may or may not outperform the market this year. But on an absolute valuation basis,
only one month back into training, I can already say that there is a lot of hard
work that’s going to be invested, hopefully leading to as much capital
appreciation in my stock as is possible over the next 12 months.
