New Zealand Javelin thrower Tori Peeters training in isolation at her home due to the coronavirus lockdown on April 23, 2020 in Te Awamutu. Photo / Getty Images.
Every morning when Tori Peeters steps into the shower, it's a bit different to you and I.
The New Zealand javelin exponent, who broke the national record five times earlier this year, turns the tap to the cold setting - and leaves it there.
For five excruciating minutes. It's been even sharper lately, with winter temperatures and the occasional frost.
"It's something I find clears my head, allows me to focus on my breathing and relaxes me each morning," Peeters tells the Herald.
"It's really good for my body as well but it is mainly the mental side. It is mentally challenging to get out of nice warm bed in the morning and into a freezing cold shower. I love to push myself and it's a different way to test myself mentally."
It's not fun, but a small example of what 26-year-old Peeters is prepared to do in pursuit of excellence.
She's also not afraid to think outside the box, as shown during her training regime during the lockdown period. With no access to her gym, or an athletics track, Peeters decamped to Te Awamutu and completed a six week training block on a vast dairy farm.
Before you wonder, there were no spears thudding into hay bales, or cows dodging javelins – "We were tempted to get [the javelins] out and have a bit of a run around but the ground was a bit uneven and I thought the last thing I need is a rolled ankle, out in the paddock here with these cows" - but there were some novel elements.
Peeters set up a gym with some borrowed equipment, but also roped in partner Cameron to replicate some exercises, including hauling him around on lung busting runs.
"In the gym we normally do this trap bar deadlift run, running lengths," explains Peeters.
"But we didn't have it. So, the next best thing was Cam (92 kilos) on my back." Peeters would complete three 40 metre runs each day, as part of her weights circuit.
"It was the one that we both dreaded, it got the lungs going a bit and the pins got a bit sore, but you always felt really good after it." Peeters also completed various jobs around the large farm (1000 cows) as part of her recovery session each day. It was a period she found highly beneficial.
"It was the first time I had thought of myself as a full time athlete," says Peeters, who works five days a week at St Peters College in Hamilton.
"I didn't have to go to work. There was nowhere to go, no one to see, nothing to do. I set a routine and had downtime to rest mentally and physically."
This consolidation phase, as Peeters puts it, came at the opportune time after a spectacular summer, when she advanced her existing national record by a staggering five metres in the space of a month (for perspective, across the previous six years she had gained 2.5 metres).
In Canberra in February she broke her personal best (57 metres) with each attempt, topped off by a 59.25m hurl.
Two weeks later she launched a career defining 62.04m throw in Sydney.
She had arrived in the New South Wales capital a little unsure. The event wasn't part of her original schedule, she was there without her coach and had a niggling heel complaint.
"I needed to show it was worth it," says Peeters, who managed 55m on her first attempt. "I didn't want to make [my heel] any sorer," adds Peeters.
"I need some more padding in my boot but the best I had was a hair scrunchie, which padded the heel a bit."
Next came history. "I grabbed the javelin and thought 'I am going to put it all out there," recalls Peeters. "It felt so effortless, as soon as I had done my transition, I was moving really fluently."
And she noticed the javelin was airborne for a long time. 'I thought Geez - that might be 60," says Peeters. "I was shocked when they said 62. I was so excited."
It was a breakthrough years in the making. Peeters has toiled since 2012 in her solitary sport, and endured some tough injuries, including a stress fracture in her back, and periods of self-doubt.
"Javelin is quite a technical event so although you always believe you can improve and get to a certain level sometimes you wonder," says Peeters.
"When I was hovering around 55-57 metres for a long time I thought; Am I capable of throwing far, or is this me? You grind away, you know you are strong, but you are just not sure." "It wasn't until threw over 60, and a few others close to it, I thought 'yeah actually, I am a javelin thrower'. And I'm not just a javelin thrower, I'm going to be one of the best in the world and that's my mindset now."
A native of Gore, Peeters lived in Southland until she was 18, when she moved to Dunedin for university.
She had played numerous sports growing up, dabbling in javelin before focussing on the sport exclusively from the age of 18.
There were steady gains, but the quantum leap has been achieved since she relocated to train in Cambridge in 2018, after missing qualification for the Commonwealth Games.
"I had finished my studies so needed to make a change and put everything into achieving my goals."
Working under Athletics New Zealand high performance throws coach Debbie Strange, Peeters has remodelled the technical aspects of her throw and gained a greater understanding of furthering flight.
"I used to just think if I get stronger in the upper body the further I can throw but that's not it at all," says Peeters.
"Of course strength is important but I tapped into more of a rhythm on the runway, something I had never really thought about much."
Peeters also increased her physical resilience of her body, to cope with what she describes as a "violent event."
"You come in at 100 miles an hour, slam your left foot down, your body comes to a complete halt and sling your arm through like a slingshot, and it's all generated through your lower body. It's brutal."
The final piece of the puzzle was a change in mindset, with Peeters admitting that her expectations had created too much pressure.
"I wanted to enjoy myself, to have fun," says Peeters. "A little piece of me [had] stopped being the real Tori."
H er 62.04m would have been good enough to qualify for the medal round in Rio in 2016, but Strange believes she can go much further, pushing towards the magical 70 metre mark (the world record, set in 2008, is 72.28m).
"Tori still works but is very professional," says Strange. "Everything she does, she does with purpose and intent. She has come a long way, rebuilding her technique and strengthening her body. But she has also learnt to understand the javelin."
Like many New Zealand athletes, Peeters' schedule was completely reworked after the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. "Originally, I was really gutted," says Peeters. "I was tracking well and a shot for qualifying. [But] now I look at the situation and think I'm going to be in Tokyo, and I reckon I am going to be on the podium'. I have a lot more confidence in my own ability and where I am."
Peeters isn't due to compete again until December but she'll continue with her demanding weekly schedule, which includes four gym sessions, four rehabilitation/recovery workouts, two throwing days and a couple of shifts in the pool.
She also maintain the monk-like morning routine in the shower, even if partner Cameron isn't overly impressed.
"He said to me 'I hate that this has become a thing – why do you do this?," laughs Peeters.
"Now he feels like he has to do it...but he doesn't."
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