A Week In The Life Of Liv!
My name is Olivia Lefoe and a few weeks ago I was selected on to the Australia A swim. The team is competing in Irvine, California from July 26th-29th and I am so excited! We have a staging camp for just over a week in Laguna Beach, California before the competition. There are also other F-Teamers with me on the trip including Mikayla Smith, Max Giuliani and Jamie Jack.
I thought I could take you guys with me through a week in my life while preparing to represent the green and gold! I’ll be competing in the 100m and 200m Backstroke events.
Monday: Mondays are always distance focused, trying to get lots of kilometres in early! Monday morning typically is around 7km of aerobic work with about 3km of Backstroke and then followed by a gym session. After gym finishes, I head home to prepare and recover for a big Monday evening session usually around the 6km mark. In between the sessions I try to have as much protein as I can. My go-to straight after training is a banana and raspberry smoothie with protein powder.
Tuesday: Tuesday mornings could be my favourite session of the week! With my Nunawading squad we head to the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) to do our filming session and recovery from Monday. Luckily I am on University break at the moment so I don’t have class so I get to go and recover before the Tuesday afternoon session. Before the afternoon session we have a quick Pilates’ session for dryland before we jump in. Usually for dinner on Tuesdays I really like to have a pasta of some sort to get any extra energy I can for the next morning.
Wednesday: Every Wednesday morning we suit up for race practice efforts. This week we are doing lots of 200m pace work which is painful but worth it. I love to wear a closed back Apex Predator suit as I really think it helps my body position in the water especially when I begin to get tired. My squad and I then head over to the VIS for our big lifts in gym for the week. After Wednesday morning we have already done 5 sessions so we have a nice Wednesday night and Thursday morning off to recover for the back end of the week.
Thursday: On Thursday’s I get to head into the Funkita office to help in the shop (come and have a visit if you are in Melbourne!) and do some social media work. This week I also got to try on and test some new Funkita suits coming soon! Make sure you keep an eye out as I’m sure everyone will love them! After work I head to the pool for an anaerobic power session for 2 hours. After the session I really like going to do a super light Pilates session to really stretch out my muscles. I have salmon and rice poke bowl for dinner because it is easy to prepare and yummy!
Friday: Friday is a double session today as well. Very similar to Monday with some more kilometres in the morning. I usually do around 6km. When I get home, I love cooking a bigger breakfast such a eggs with avocado, bacon, spinach and tomato to really fuel myself for the night session. This week was also very exciting as I got to unpack my Australian Team Uniform which was a special moment! Friday nights we have a tradition in our squad to do a 30x100 best average set and this week was no different!
Saturday: Last session for the week in the morning! After I finish swim and gym I head into the Funkita shop for a few hours. I love getting to see everyone’s pictures in their Funkitas when I monitor the Funkita social media accounts! After this, I use the rest of my weekend to re-energise and see my friends before we head off to the US! That’s a week in my life leading into my first big international meet representing Australia.
Olivia recently competed at the Pro Series in the US as part of the Australian A team, where she competed in the 100m and 200m backstroke. Although her performance didn't reach her expectations and fell short of her personal best, she loved the experience of racing in the US. The 100m backstroke saw her finish 10th with a time of 1.02.35, while the 200m backstroke yielded a similar result, also in 10th, with a time of 2.14.30. Liv now plans to take three weeks off before resuming pre-season training to build her fitness back up for the upcoming season.