Spring is in the Air

It has been nearly 4 months of cold, wind and rain but the signs of spring coming to New Zealand have been very prominent this week. Lots of sun, warm weather into the 20's in some areas and little lambies in the pasture is very promising.

I have decided to make the most of this lovelly weather and headed up to Auckland for the week for a big training week. What was to follow was 5 days of some big miles in the hills South of Auckland and the Sea Bird Coast a favourite area of mine and yes Kirky I actually did see some this time.

I am 3 days in now and have just got back from 18Okm ride through the Hunua ranges. Tommorrow I am off into the country side again for 2.5 to 3hours run, so I am busy packing in the Calories and Leppin Endurance products to get me ready to hit it all guns balzing in the morning.

The weather has been fantastic so far I have even managed to get myself bit of a cyclists tan, lets hope it stays this way for a while.

Watt the!!!

Now alot of us will identify Triathletes out on the road, they will be the ones with the latest blinged out time trial bike generally from Cervelo, Scott, Giant or one of other the big bike manufacturers. This is all is the quest for more speed come the next big race. .However this quest for speed does not stop at bikes. It goes on to expensive deep dish carbon race wheels, fancy carbon aero bars, special aero dynamic shaped helmets and even specially designed aero drink bottles and holders. This is known as a training buddies wife says "Tri Bling".

Now I am not going to say that these things do not make a difference, because they do and when you are racing for the top these are very important things to have. They are all investments into speed, In that way I am very fortunate to have the support a fantastic bike sponsor in Jamis Bikes who kit me out with the latest Xenith T1 tri bike.

However I have just recently acquired the ultimate so called "tri bling", or as I see weapon to unlocking my potential on the bike, A SRAM SRM Power meter. This is built into the cranks and chain ring (as pictured) and mounted on the bike. What it does is measures the force going through the crank on every pedal stroke I take and sends the power in Watts to a Powercontrol computer (pictured above) I have mounted on my bars. It allows me to see the effort that I am putting in during a training ride or race and then control this power within a certain zone depending on the type/intensity of training I am doing that day. When I get home I then upload this data to my computer and can analyze my training in a way that helps me understand what my strengths are and what I need to improve on. Its like having your coach with you on the bike all the time.

I have been using it for 3 weeks and I would have to say outside a good bike, this is the greatest investment that one can make into going faster.