During a visit to the New Zealand Rugby offices in Auckland I noticed a digital clock counting down the days to the Olympics.
Every aspiring athlete should have one of these in their bedroom. I'm not even going to the Olympics and it inspired me to get out there and train hard, compete to my utmost ability, and do the little things well to get that important edge over my opponents - time is of the essence.
The clock made it loud and clear - just over 70 days until the Rio Olympics. In the grand scheme of lifelong dreams, that must feel like a blink of an eye.
Think of all those athletes who are trying to make the cut, reach their potential, peak in time - some will be willing the clock to hurry up and others will be praying for time to stand still.
Athletes such as Lisa Carrington and Valerie Adams look like they're on track with their Olympic clock, demonstrating resilience, positivity, and determination recently .
Carrington won her 12th consecutive major title in the K1 200m discipline in Germany but lost to Hungary's Danuta Kozak in the 500m final.
You can often tell the substance of a person's character by the way they react to a loss, and if that is the case, Carrington is a champion. She didn't apologise for the loss, she didn't throw her toys, she didn't shrug her shoulders and say "oh well''.
In fact she embraced the defeat, acknowledged the quality of her competitors, and vowed to learn from the experience.
At least that is what we saw.
Behind closed doors, she may be more devastated but she at least portrayed a willingness to rise to the challenge laid down by Kozak. Close competition heightens the anticipation of a mighty showdown in Rio between Kozak and Carrington. I can't wait.
Valerie Adams' performance at the Diamond League meet in Morocco was just as inspirational. How strong is she? She has overcome injuries many athletes struggle to recover from to produce her best throw in top-level competition for almost two years.
Her training videos are inspiring and the intensity with which she lives life and gets the most out of her body and mind is truly amazing.
Very rarely do we see images of women in sport in which they're grimacing, sweating, grunting, and lost in the moment of competing. We see lots of images of female athletes smiling, celebrating a win, hugging their babies or partners, gracefully moving through space and time.
As a woman, I prefer to see images of Carrington and Adams being totally focused, lost in the moment of competition and physicality, where for a brief moment in time they can forget about how they should 'look' and concentrate on how they can be and what they are capable of doing.
Unlike the digital clock counting down the seconds and days, time seems to stand still for these athletes as they will every atom of their body, and every synapsis in their brain to give 100%. I wish we could see more women in sport this way, and in just over 70 days perhaps we will.
