A year ago Emma-Kate Lidbury was training in sweltering temperatures on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.

So conditions could not have been more different for the Oxford triathlete as she prepared for her 2010 season at home surrounded by snow.

But the 29-year-old Oxford Tri member has no regrets about her choice of training base as she bids to put a frustrating 2009 behind her.

“As much as I would love to be in the sunshine in Australia, I also realised it is a really long way away,” she said.

“When things go wrong and you need the help of your coach and support network, you simply don’t have it out there.

“Over here, you can manage training in the snow – and you are not 12,000 miles away from the people you need.”

With icy roads and even icier pavements, all of Lidbury’s recent cycling training has been indoors on her turbo trainer.

“The turbo trainer is definitely becoming my best friend,” she said. “A lot of triathletes will moan and scream about doing turbo training sessions, but I don’t mind them.

“I have been doing three to four a week since November and even more in the snowy weather.

“I have picked a few running routes that I didn’t think would be too dangerous, but other than that I have been on the treadmill.”

She is, however, heading out to Lanzarote at the end of this month with her boyfriend, Ian Osborne, who is also a triathlete, to get in some warm weather training.

Lidbury went full-time as a triathlete at the end of 2008, but a succession of injuries meant her first year had limited highlights.

And it ended with a dislocated shoulder, after falling off a mountain bike, which is still affecting her swimming.

However, the former Oxford Mail reporter is determined to get it right in 2010.

Lidbury said: “I went to Australia in November 2008 and from then through to April, I pretty much just smashed myself.

“Although it was brilliant to train with world-class triathletes, I was playing keepy-uppy all the time.

“By the time I returned to the UK in April I was burnt out, really toasted.

“I didn’t have any desire to race hard. I think I left my best races training in Australia. That set me up for quite a frustrating year.”

This year, she will focus on half Ironman events – a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run.

“My big goal is to remain injury-free after 2009 being a really frustrating year and to be able to train consistently,” she added.

“If I do both those things, then I will get closer to achieving my potential. That is something that certainly didn’t happen last year.

“I want to be pushing hard against the top professionals in several events.

“I didn’t have a great start in my first year, but that is the challenge to improve on.

“I certainly don’t have any regrets about going full-time and following the dream.

“I race for Team Wiggle, but am also still a member of Oxford Tri.

“I have been with them since I started in 2005 and I will be swimming with them again in the summer.

“I wouldn’t be able to do this without the support of Wiggle and Morris Owen accountants.”

The Olympics coming to London in 2012 is a major pull for Britain’s top triathletes, but Lidbury is setting her sights elsewhere.

This is particularly because cyclists are allowed to ride in packs over the Olympic distance – a practice known as drafting.

“Although it is putting to bed one dream, it is opening up another one,” she said.

“If I could go to the Olympics that would be great, but to me Ironman is just as appealing.

“Drafting on the bike really doesn’t play to my strengths.

“I have become so strong on the bike that a 56-mile half Ironman course, where you have to do it all yourself, is my thing.

“Of course a chance to be in the Olympics in 2012 is appealing, but from the races I have done I feel my strengths lie elsewhere.

“I ended up doing all the work on the bike and people who are strong runners came bombing past me on the run.

“That just left me feeling frustrated. At Blenheim last year I had the fastest bike split, but ended up fifth.

“Some of the girls who finished one to four had sat in behind me on the bike.”

Lidbury may consider stepping up in 2011 to the full Ironman distance (2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run).

Those longer disciplines are gaining in profile, with Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington, from, Norfolk, named Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2009.

“Chrissie Wellington is the trailblazer,” said Lidbury.

“I don’t think it will be too long before triathlon starts to receive more coverage.”