Next stop Kona

Well after 6 months the time has finally come to head off for Kona and get ready for the World Ironman Champs.

Tommorrow morning I head off at 8pm, and have just finished the final pack of my bike into the box and am now sitting baack relaxing with a bowl of banana and frozen yoghurt at my uncle Kens and Aunt Judies up in Auckland.

Bring on tommorrow.

Thrilling Taupo

Last weekend i headed down to Taupo for a weekends training as a guest Jamis Bicycles who were sponsoring the Day Night Thriller 12 hr Mountain Bike race. I love Taupo and with the weather we have been recently having was really looking forward to getting back down there. Unfortunaltly the sun dissapeared for the weekend but i didn't take the shine of Taupo at all, the place is great even if it is raining.

I was put up in a gaint holiday lodge in the center of taupo with most of the Jamis team and a number of there sponsored Mountain Bike riders who were competing in the event. This place was cool, along with being huge it had 12 beds , 400 couches thats styles looked like theyed gradually evolved through the years and a spa. This is would be the ultimate place to stay for an ironman training camp.

After training I did manage to get down to the event and check out the race. I must say I was blowen away with the skill these top guys show on a Mountain Bike, the Jamis elite team who won there section were pumping out lap times of a 9km twisty forest track in around 21 - 22minutes in the light and not alot slower in the dark either, thats about 26km p/hr avg. Dam thats fast, hats off to them.

Also I have to make a shout out to a friend of mine Phill who won the 12hr Enurance solo, that was a solid effort 10.30 am to 10.30pm on a Mountain Bike non stop. Good one mate, must of been that Leppin Enduro Booster.

Thanks to the team at Jamis for the invitation and a great weekend. I might have to get out there next year and give it a blast. I hope you enjoyed the tab.

The Icing on the Cake

It is just over 4 weeks till the big one in Kona and over the next couple of weeks I will be finishing up putting the icing on the ironman cake. I say icing because a training program for an event like an Ironman is like a recipe, where a number of ingredients are put in over a number of weeks or months and is finally topped of with the icing, the hard work that is the final stages of an ironman build up.

This past weekend a large layer of icing was spread on, with a solid couple of days up on the beautiful Coromandel. Day 1, Saturday, myself and Craig Kirkwood headed off with bikes on the roof to Whangamata for the Whangamata Half Marathon. We were greeted with a lovely Sunny day but the presence of a bitterly cold strong southerly made things interesting. This race was always going to be used as a tune up for Octobers World Champs and things went really well. On a tough course made a little harder by a strong head wind on the way back to town i managed a PB of 1:19 good enough for 8th Overall. Well done to Craig for winning and in a course record 1:10.


After a 90 minute spin later in the day, and some great pizza from Lerenzos thanks to Kirkie, we bunked down for the night at a local backpackers for some much needed rest. Because the next we had a bit of ride around the Coromandel to worry about. 192 km with about 1500 - 2000m of climbing around the Coromandel Peninsula or K2 as it as known.




We were greeted with a fantastic day, and fantastic views all around the peninsula. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand to be on days like this.

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.

KONA PREVEIW

Check out this cool video. This is what the World Ironman Championships and the ironman itself are all about.

90 more.

Its 90 days to Kona and the Ironman World Championships, that means its time for some big work to go into training.

This last week has been a chance for me to have a break from training, relax and re charge the batteries before the big work starts. The break has really been the trick as I am now itching to get out there again and build on a good base i have built up over the last few months. Come monday morning I will be firing to go again.

Then its a case of let the countdown to Kona begin!!!