ATHLETE OF THE MONTH – JULY 2013 

Congratulations to Ian Fabian on being selected as Reddog’s Athlete of the Month for July 2013. Well done!!! 

He wins the award for hisoutstanding effort at the Gold Coast Half Marathon. He has been training with Reddog since March 2011 and never missed a social event, single handedly taken the RTT tent to and from races and is the only member to have never missed the Thursday morning tough laps TT. 
 
A big thank you to Fusion Cycles,Endura and the team at No More Knots for donating this month’s prizes.

 1. Reddog AOTM, how do you feel about that?

I look around at training and see all these athletes who have won national championships and even world championships, so I am quite humbled.  This is going straight on my CV.

 2. What attracted you to the sport of triathlon?

After thinking about doing a triathlon for more than twenty five years, I entered Kingscliff in 2011 a few days before I turned fifty, and came last in my category by three minutes. Afterwards, I contacted this guy I’d seen on the deck at the Valley Pool running a lunchtime squad and he looked like he knew what he was doing. Two years later after some great coaching and support I was able to return to Kingscliff and win my event by three minutes, so I definitely made the right choice.

 3. If you were Reddog coach for the week, what would you do differently?

That would be like taking over Bart Cummings stable in Melbourne Cup week.  However, if I was able to gain access to the Reddog discretionary expenditure account, I’d take the squad up to PNG for a week of dawn to dusk training through the mud, mountains, torrential rain, streams and unbearable humidity on the Kokoda Track.

4. How much training do you do at the moment?

I’ve got some tough events in the next couple of months, so currently around 15-20 hours per week and mixing up the swim/bike/run with some cardio weight sessions, rowing machine and other gym work.

 5. Least favourite session and why?

 I generally enjoy all sessions but there are some swim drills (okay, most swim drills) I find a bit challenging.  Trent once told me that if my stroke count gets any higher that he’d bring his dirty laundry and throw it in my lane to get his washing done.

6. If you had one wish, what would it be?

I'll use this one to wish a previous Reddog Athlete of the Month and inspiration to many, Danielle Raynor, all the best in her recovery from a serious bike crash.

 7. Favourite motivational quote?

It’s more than just a quote - Al Pacino pre-game Inch by Inch: a speech in Any Given Sunday has some great lines about rising to the challenge that can be adapted to any sport, and many other tough situations.  

 8. What advice would you give to other Reddogs who would like to be AOTM?

I think it helps if your attitude towards training reflects the symptoms and characteristics of obsessive compulsive disorder as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

9. What are your goals?

For now, I'm just preparing to do the best I can in World Championships next month and then I'll start to focus on a few long course races and Ironman Australia in Port Macquarie in May 2014.

 10. Who would be your ideal training partner?

Former Equatorial Guinea 100m swimming legend Eric the Eel Moussambani .

The match race would be a promoters dream, though I think he's got me covered :-)

 11. What do you do outside of triathlons?

Until recently, I had been coaching junior basketball for around ten years and that was a lot of fun but training and work commitments put an end to that.  I can, however, sit up and play Texas hold ‘em poker all night.