Julie Derron, one of the stars of Swiss triathlon, is blogging about her experiences in Yuxi as she prepares for the 2024 season.
At the beginning of January I packed my bags and made a big trip to China where I would spend the next 3+ months training for triathlon. Why China you might ask?
My coach Brett Sutton is also the National Coach of the Chinese National Triathlon Team and is based in Yuxi, China for the start of the year. Because 2024 is a very important year for me (upcoming Olympic Games in Paris) it is important to me to be under the direct and daily guidance of Brett and therefore I decided to join the team in China to prepare for the season as best as I can.
The Chinese team is very welcoming and the facilities in Yuxi are great. It is a mountainous region at about 1700m of altitude. The scale of everything here is much bigger than what I am used to in Switzerland. In and around our training base there are about six running tracks and the pool has a 25m pool AND a 50m pool both with ten lanes. But what makes me happiest is the riding. There are mountains and this is almost essential for a climbing lover like me. The nature is really impressive too and I was lucky enough to have a couple of easy rides to explore the area around Yuxi.
The training is not very different from what I am used to. When I first got here, we put a big focus on the swim with several 2h swim sessions per week. And I do feel these sessions pay off and see improvements in the swim. Another aspect we have been training is swimming with the wetsuit. A couple of times per week I would put on my Apex Flow at the start of the session and after 500-1000m I would practice taking the wetsuit off (which is pretty lightning fast in the Orca!).
On the bike we focus on strength and the run training is a mix of speed and endurance with regular build runs thrown in.
The food here is excellent. Of course, it’s been an adjustment to eat noodles for breakfast and my rice consumption has increased massively. I also miss Swiss cheese and good bread but luckily I brought a big storage of dark chocolate. This past weekend I started my season at the Asia Triathlon Cup in Putrajaya, Malaysia. I decided to race a lower-key continental cup to get back into the routine of racing and blow out the cobwebs. I had a great experience in Malaysia. It was very hot and humid but I had a great race and executed what I aimed to do. As a bonus I won the race which is a nice boost to start the season 🙂
At the beginning of March I will race in Abu Dhabi for the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) which will be an important race for my Olympic aspirations. I am happy to have had the chance to race in Putrajaya and build up my confidence through racing.