Now that I am back into a full training program I thought I would share with you my weekly program, especially since I am often asked what kind of training I do and how much I do per day. Because of the fact I want to keep playing for as long as possible and also that I am now 30 years old, I feel it is important to keep my body in the best shape possible as to not break down or find myself unfit and struggling to keep up with the young members of my team.

Monday

am- aerobic run- 45 minutes

am- upper body weights - chest and triceps

afternoon- leg weights- strength and power

evening- hockey training - 2 hours

Tuesday

am- recovery run - 30 minutes

am- upper body weights - back and biceps

afternoon- interval running - 6x 3 minute intervals on treadmill with 3 minutes recovery in between each one.

evening- hockey training- skills

Wednesday

am- aerobic run- 45 minutes

am- upper body weights- shoulders and legs- legs is plyometrics which is lots of bounding and jumping including jumping over hurdles on the athletics track

evening- hockey training- 2 hours

Thursday

am- recovery run - 30 minutes easy

am- leg weights- strength and power

afternoon- interval running- either 12x 400 metre intervals or 6x 3 minute interval running on treadmill.

evening- hockey training- skills

Friday

am- aerobic run- 45 minutes

pm- afternoon rest in preparation for club match on saturday

Saturday

am- walk one hour to warm up body for club match this afternoon

pm- club match in brisbane

Sunday

light walk and rest day

This is my weekly program that keeps me in top physical shape and enables me to be fit and strong for my season. I find the running is a good balance between aerobic and anaerobic which provides a good fitness base and helps me perform to my optimum when playing with the national team. If you have any questions about any of my training programs then please email me and I will be happy to answer your questions

The club hockey season is well under way and having just come back from successful hamstring surgery I have now played my second club hockey match with University, my club team in Brisbane. I have been playing with University for the past 4 years and I must say we have spent the majority of the season at the bottom of the table, but this year things will be different!!!!!! Last year the University club executives decided they wanted to get a lot more professional with their approach to hockey, so they employed my partner Ian Jennings as coach of the women's team. Ian or Jenno as he is commonly known is a world wide recognized coach having coached the English women's team to a silver medal at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 and also more recently he coached the Fiji men's and women's national teams for the world cup qualifiers held in Fiji last year. With his professional approach and high expectations he began coaching the Uni women last year and with his patience and knowledge of the game we have started to play some very good hockey and this year we are a force to be reckoned with. We have some new players on board who have made quite a lot of difference to the team and I will name a few of those girls...... Louise Symmonds who is a very athletic and fit midfield player who has made a big impact on the field already this year. Candice Oliverie another athletic midfielder who at only 16 years of age will one day be a very successful hockey player and someone whom I think will play for Australia at senior level if she keeps progressing like she is. Also we have maintained the services of up an coming player Marnie Hudson who is another midfielder and she is playing the best hockey I have ever seen her play. She is quick and skillful and knows how to turn defenders inside out. I think this year Uni have one of the fastest, fittest and most skillful Midfields in the league and I think we will shock a lot teams who will turn up to play us thinking they will thrash us like they have in previous years.

Results so far this season have been very positive with one loss, a draw and two wins, the last win being last weekend when we had our biggest win ever recorded I think by beating Bulimba 10-0. The Uni girls really are a fantastic bunch of girls and not only is their approach to hockey one of the most professional I have ever experienced at club hockey but also their enthusiasm and "never give up" attitude make them very unique and a pleasure to play beside. The reason we are so professional is that we have a coach who is treating us like an international team rather than just a club team. We train two nights a week for two hours each time and after each match we have a proper debrief on the match so we can look at how we can improve and analyze our result. I am really looking forward to the year ahead with Uni and also all of the social activities that are arranged outside the hockey to make Uni such a friendly and fun club to be involved with. Our first social activity is this Saturday night with the club organizing a pub crawl around various pubs located throughout Brisbane. It should be a fun night and lots of memories to look back on......

I think one thing that seems to be making the headlines recently is the amount of skin cancer being detected throughout Australia and for this reason I have decided to share something with you in the hope it may encourage everyone to have regular skin checks and to encourage others to do the same.

In August of last year I decided to visit the local skin cancer clinic to have a full body examination as I thought I had noticed some changes in some moles on my back. After thoroughly checking my entire body the Doctor then looked at a spot on my face beside my right ear and he said he thought it looked a bit suspicious so he decided to take a biopsy to check it out. A week later he called and said they wanted to cut it out and send it through to the labs to have a more thorough check so I went in that week for minor surgery to have the mole removed. I went home with about a 4cm long cut from where the mole had been removed and I was now waiting for the surgery to contact me to let me know my results. A week later I received a call from the surgeon to say the mole was clear but they would keep an eye on it. I felt relieved. The next day I got a call from the surgeon once again but this time the news was not so good. He told me they had another closer look and in fact it was a grade one melanoma and I would have to have more infected cells cut out as soon as possible. This call took place the day before I was to fly out to America on tour with the Hockeyroos and I began to panic that it would get worse whilst I was away. The surgeon assured me it would be fine to wait for my return in three weeks.

Two days after my return from my tour to America I went in for more surgery to remove some more sun cancer tissue and on arriving home and viewing the area that had been operated on, i must say I was very shocked at how long my scar was and could not believe such an small sun spot could result in this amount of surgery. I was told by the surgeon that I would need regular check ups every three months for the next five years and after that I would need to be checked every six months for the rest of my life. He has told me I am extremely lucky to have found it when I did and my advice to everyone is please book in every six months for a full skin check as the Australian sun is very strong and brutal and skin cancer is killing more and more Australians every year. Although I may have left it a bit late, I never leave home for my run without a hat and 30+ sunscreen on my body and face. Please be careful and don't for one moment think it won't happen to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week I was invited by one of my sponsors, Lexus, to come along to a movie night for new car buyers. The night was held in Brisbane and the movie showing was "Becoming Jane". I thought the night was a thoughtful idea for Lexus customers and shows the high level of customer service that Lexus offers all its clients.

We were greeted at the bar inside the cinema complex by the friendly Lexus staff who offered us a glass of  wine and also told us to help ourselves to the small boxes of fish and chips they had put together. The clients then made themselves comfortable on lounge chairs scattered around the area and chatted about the quality of Lexus cars and how they would never drive anything other then a Lexus. I was asked about my IS250 sport by a gentleman who currently drives a IS200 and I obviously spoke very highly about how beautiful a car it is as at the conclusion of the conversation he told me he was going to take one for a test drive and then perhaps upgrade to an IS250. I am very proud of my Lexus and always highly recommend anyone interested in purchasing a new car to visit your local Lexus dealer and take one out for a test drive and after you do this you won't want to drive anything else!

We then were given a Lexus gift bag to take into the cinema and I was very excited to find a bag of popcorn and bag of maltesers inside the gift pack!!! What a lovely surprise for a chocolate lover and what made it an even better surprise is that it was a GIANT BAG OF MALTESERS!!!!!! We proceeded into the cinema to watch the movie and I must say I really enjoyed the movie and certainly recommend it to any romantic in need of a good laugh.

Thank you to the team at Lexus for making the movie night enjoyable and also for your unique and friendly service in making all Lexus car owners feel valued.

On friday the 30th of March Jenno and myself were lucky enough to be asked to compete in the annual Oakley Golf Day at Hope Island Golf Course on the Gold Coast. It is billed as a very fun and social event with many corporate guests and Sporting Stars sponsored by Oakley.

It was a magnificent day to play golf and when we arrived at Hope Island we were greeted by the friendly team from Oakley and on registration we were all given an Oakley backpack which was filled with goodies including the latest and greatest Oakley sunglasses. We started the day with a long putt competition, hosted by my good friend Ex- Brisbane Lions Superstar Richard Champion, and Richard certainly had everyone laughing with his "taking the" out of each person that attempted the long putt. After Matt Rogers attempted the putt and only managed to putt the ball about five meters, Richard then proceeded to ask Matt if he had borrowed his Auntie's putter, to which the crowd had a good giggle!!!!! The winner of the putting competition won a $3000 watch which is worth listening to Champs give you a hard time for!!

I was then asked by the local paper, the Gold Coast Bulletin if I would mind posing in a photo with Tennis great Pat Rafter. What sort of a stupid question is that!!! I answered "only if he wears his bonds and a grin for the photo!" I had a quick chat with Pat to find out how he is to which he told me he spends his days surfing and can't get enough of it. Good on him and what a truly great Australian he is, and also a genuine nice guy.

We then began the official business........playing golf in groups of four. We played a four ball ambrose and i was lucky enough to play with three really nice guys. My buggy partner was a guy called Mark who is the general manager of the Noosa Springs Golf course and I hope one day in the near future to have a game at Noosa Springs. The other two guys were from the Grand Golf Club here on the Gold Coast. The boys played very well and with some encouragement from them I actually think I played my best golf game ever! We felt confident with our score and later that night after some social drinks and laughs at the antics had by all on the course they had the presentations for the day's play. I came second in the longest drive competition, but before you ask if I was upset at being beaten let me tell you that the Lady who beat me is Female golf sensation and Pro Nicki Garrett. So no, I was not upset at being out driven by a pro! They named the third place getters and I heard my partner Jenno's name called out. I was very excited for him, especially when he was presented with a big handful of the latest best selling CD's and a nice bottle of Penfolds red wine. They then called out the names of the second place getters and I was more than shocked when I heard my name called out. My team and I gave a loud cheer and I must say I poked my tongue at Jenno in jest to say " I beat you!" For coming second we were given the latest pair of Oakley sunglasses, they are called Thumpers and they are running glasses with an MP3 player built into them. They are by far the best invention I have seen in a long time and I have already downloaded some great music on them and use them on my runs.

A very big thank you to Sheridan and all the friendly and fun staff from Oakley and also Alan and Judy from Hope Island who all made the golf day both memorable and lots of fun.

In February we were lucky enough to attend the Gold Coast sports awards which were held at Southport sharks league club. The event is held yearly and showcases some of the exceptional sporting talent that is located on the gold coast. I was lucky enough to be nominated as one of the woman vying for the award and that was a great honour for me as the other female athletes I was up against for the award are all world class sportswomen and also world champions in their chosen fields. Unluckily I did not make it to the top five but to just be in such company was a great thrill for me. The winner of the women's award was my pick, Triathlete Emma Snowsill whom I consider to be one of the world finest and most dedicated athletes. I was very happy for Emma to win the award and when she walked up on the stage to collect her award I think the entire audience noticed how athletic she was and you could not help but notice the fantastic shape of her calves. I have vowed to get myself a set of calves like Emma's and can I say the intense pain I feel in my calves at the gym in trying to look like Emma is not a good thing. I might just have to stick with my own calves!!!!!!!

On the night I was lucky enough to meet some very nice athletes whom I hope to keep in contact with and follow their careers quite closely. I met Sharon Anyos the world champion female boxer and she is a really lovely and friendly person. We had a bit of a chat about various bits and pieces and I will definitely go to watch Sharon fight her next big bout on the gold coast.

We were also lucky enough to sit beside World champion surfer Mick Fanning on the night and he is a really nice down to earth guy. It was great to see him beat Kelly Slater in the surfing championship held recently on the gold coast. I am sure he will continue to have much success in the surfing world. He laughed when I told him I don't surf for 3 different reasons...........the fear of getting eaten by a shark, the fact that I am not a good swimmer so I would most probably drown when being dumped by a wave, and the third reason being the most serious of all.....I hate getting my hair wet!!!!!!!!! As far as I am concerned the ocean is something that is there for when I am sunbaking and I get to hot and I use it to splash myself and cool off!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone involved in making the gold coast sports awards a memorable night and congratulations to all the award winners.