Back on the Blog - Leaving for Spain in two weeks

Well, the adventure continues and since the last post a one or two boxes have been ticked....

• 2009 Tauranga Half Ironman
• 2009 NZ Ironman
• 2009 ITU World Long Distance Champs (Perth)
• 2010 Tauranga Half Ironman
• 2010 K2
• 2011 Tauranga Half Ironman
• 2011 NZ Ironman again
• 2011 K2
• 2011 Ironmaori (Half Ironman)
• 2012 Tauranga Half Ironman

So why start blogging again?  Three reasons.... 

Reason number 1:  Four words.... Spain in three weeks!  This year's ITU Long Distance World Triathlon Champs are being held in Vitoria-Gastiez, Spain and rightly or wrongly I took up the qualifying spot.

Reason number 2: The Spain qualification's a bit special.  The qualifying race was this years Tauranga Half Ironman on the 7th of January.  On the 29th of January my Mother lost her long battle with cancer.  News of qualification came through soon after... so Mum, this one's for you.

Reason number 3: Friends, family and nosey folk keep asking how it's going.  Now I can point them here.


This ITU World Long Distance thing.... what's with that?  Because it's there I guess.  To be honest, not my ideal event - that'd be something like a 1km swim, 200km cycle and a 2km run.  This year the distances are 4k swim, 120k cycle and 30k run.  Not quite an Ironman but not far off and to be honest, the training hasn't been that different.


It's a family trip too.  My wife Rochelle and daughter Isobel are coming along to be my support crew and to help cheer on the NZ Team.  We had a blast in Perth 2009.  Something tells me Spain and the ensuing two weeks traveling up through France and the Netherlands will live up to this.  Adding to the travelling Hams is my Dad who's coming with us as far as Barcelona on the way over.  He's continuing up to the Netherlands to spend a bit of time with family before he joins us on the return journey home.

Today in two weeks we're on a plane.....

Time to refocus after K2

Wow! What an event! K2 Cycle - 184km around New Zealand's Coromandel Peninsula. This one makes the ride around Lake Taupo look like a doodle. I guess it's not really the distance but rather the 2500m plus of hill climbing. Thank goodness I had a road bike and not my time trial bike.





The day started out great and after the first hill (Pumpkin Hill) I joined a large bunch of about 100 heading up toward Whitianga. This is about where my inexperience in bike racing dealt to me. I sat too far to the back of the pack so when we hit a hill at the 50km mark the pack disintegrated and I ended up with a handful of others who weren't that strong. My only saving grace was that 30km later it was the big hill over to Coromandel and from then it was a tail wind almost all the way home.


This wee chart will give you an idea of what the ride looks like in terms of hills and the variability of speed....also some other interesting stats from my bike computer....



It's no surprise really that when building up for something like Ironman one will take part in a few adventures along the way. Adventures that will consume you and sap a bit more energy then you expect. Then, when that's out of the way you run the danger of feeling a bit deflated and find it hard to focus on what you're really aiming for. It's like that this week. K2 was more than I expected - and in more ways than I thought - not just physically, but mentally as well. Sure the tanks were running on empty when I hit the finish line but in the days that followed it was like hitting a bit of a mental dip. It was like, 'hey, I've done it now...what next?' Then the thought of Ironman pops back into the mind and it all of a sudden feels a bit numb! You then start wondering why you're doing it....bloody good question really!!!

On the physical side, my training program this week included four swims, four rides and four runs...what was the coach thinking??? Anyway, come Wednesday I was feeling like crap so I emailed him and the advice came back to take a day off, then take it easy until I bounce back. It's now Friday and things are looking up. Tomorrow I'm cycling to Taupo where, somewhere along the way, I'll be picked up by the family heading to Rotorua for our ritual election weekend party. Just don't get me started on politics!!!

Less than a week to K2

In 5 days time I'll be competing in my longest ever cycle race...K2. It's a cycle race that goes around New Zealand's Coromandel peninsula. It's not so much the 197km that is the issue. It's the 2,800m of hill climbing involved. Sure, you get to go down the other side but you gotta get up 'em first. A few friends from Hawke's Bay here have done the event and are doing it again this year so it can't all be bad.

About two months ago I bought a new TT (time trial) bike for racing in triathlon. Unfortunately these bikes are not the best for hill climbing. There is one other thing...amongst a crowd of 'roadies' (road cyclists) someone on a TT bike is bound to be labeled the idiot triathlete and who can therefore do all the work at the front of the bunch. So, to avoid these problems I now have a new road bike. Certainly a different ride - more relaxed and upright - faster? No.

So, back to K2. The coach asked me to fill out a race plan. One of the sections discusses attacking - i.e. when are you going to attack? Attack? Hmmmm. The only thing doing the attacking in bike rides involving me are the magpies (birds that become quite vicious during nesting season - about now). Before begging with the coach I'd never done race plans before. It's a discipline he's got me into and it does help, especially on the day when things go a little wrong.

The quickest riders will do K2 in about 5hrs45min. They also have something called the sub-6hr club. Some how I don't think I'll be joining that one any time soon. As for the time I'm expecting? Who knows, I'll tell you next week.

Easy Weeks and Hard Weeks

I don't know much about other sports but in Triathlon there's this concept of periodisation. The idea behind it is that to grow stronger you much push your body close to its limits and then have a period of time to recover. A normal cycle of this runs over four weeks. You spend the first two weeks building up to the third week which is the hard week. Then, you get the easy week.

Interesting things happen in the easy week. The first couple of days you normally feel like crap and get a little grumpy and you need to try super hard not to bite everyone's head off. Late in that week on the other hand you feel like you can take on the world at anything. Well, that's what's supposed to happen. It's also a week to get a few chores done.

Here's a week by week chart showing how, after a bit of shaky start to training, things have settled into this.

But then, just when you think your into a build week, bang! Here comes 22 hours of training in the coming week. Ahhh!!!! I'm guessing this is to align this periodisation so I'm getting this "taking on the world feeling" come the start of my next race 1st of November....K2 (187km + 2800m of hills!).

Another interesting thing happens in the easy weeks. You get to enjoy some time-out from training. But just when you begin to enjoy it, bang your holiday is over and it's back into it.

So, with 2.5 hours done today, just another 19.5 left for the week.....time for sleep I think.

The Road to Ironman NZ 2009

Pressure has mounted to start a blog. So, here it is.

Back in the early 1990s I was into triathlon. Never having done well (or for that matter anything at all) in the way of sports at school I was keen to give triathlon a go. I enrolled myself in learn to swim classes, got on a bike and started running.

In 1993 I did my first Olympic Distance Triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run). Early the next year I did my first Half Ironman (2km swim, 90km bike and 21km run) and backed this up by completing my first Ironman (3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42km run) in Auckland, NZ...what a buzz!

Since then I went on to do another two Half Ironman races but after that lost interest and gained weight - about 25kg in the 10 years that followed.

Towards the end of 2006 I thought enough was enough and it was time to get back on the bike again and aim towards doing another Half Ironman. January 2008 was the target. Early in 2007 I took on a coach and it was all on. Mission accomplished - 5hrs 10min at the Port of Tauranga Half. Somewhere along the line the Ironman carrot started dangling in front of me and that became the next target. So, 7th March 2009 is the date.

Back in 1994 it was the 10th Anniversary of the NZ Iornman. 2009 will be the 25th Anniversary.

Bring it on!