Jared Tallent's bid for Olympic Games gold got the perfect boost yesterday when he claimed his seventh Lake Burley Griffin Classic title despite having ''the biggest training day I've ever done'' last week.
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Tallent won the open 32.2-kilometre event in two hours 18 minutes at Weston Park for the sixth consecutive year.
He held off fellow London-bound athletes Chris Erickson, who finished second, while Regan Lamble was third.
Lamble smashed the previous women's record which was held by two-time Olympic medallist Kerry Saxby.
Tallent has ramped up his Olympic training and increased his work load to almost 200km every week.
''To do that time, I was pretty surprised with it because I was feeling pretty flat and tired,'' Tallent said.
''I think my fitness is just starting to improve and it's all looking good for London.
''I've been getting through a big block of training.
''Last week was 200km, this week was 170km and I'm just trying to get a good base behind me.
''I'm training harder than I have before.
''Last Saturday I did 40km in the morning and another hard 10km in the afternoon and that's the biggest training day I've ever done.''
Tallent will leave Canberra on Friday to fly to Europe to watch wife Claire race at Sesto San Giovanni in Italy.
He will then remain in Europe in the lead-up to the Olympics and spend three weeks training at alititude in St Moritz, Switzerland.
Tallent won two medals at the Beijing Olympics - bronze in the 20km event and silver in the 50km race.
This year he hopes to better those results and hopes his heavy training load pays off when the Olympics begin at the end of next month.
''Hopefully I don't break down and I can win a gold medal,'' Tallent said.
''I've still got a fairly solid week, but I'll ease off when I first arrive overseas.
''I'm pretty lucky, I haven't had any injuries since 2009 so hopefully that keeps going.''
