Winter Night Riding - July 2013

The winter months this year have been pretty busy with young family and work, however in an effort to keep things ticking along I have kept up the running as well as having some fun night ride missions on the MTB. After investing in a new night light it has made the riding a whole lot brighter!! I picked up the "Glo Worm X2" and it is one awesome light!!! Coming up is the Dunedin Mazda 6hour Adventure Challenge and the following weekend the Dunedin Marathon... more on that here soon. And back into a summer of events and adventure!

Naseby 12hour MTB April

There has been a little void in updating some o my recent missions... The Naseby 12 hour in April was a good day out. Having raced in this previously in teams I thought it was time to put myself out there and ride Solo!! I set myself some goals to keep me focused and motivated by positive thought. I completed 165km in hte 12 hours and had a great day. The most challenging would have been lap 14 when I ran out of battery and rode the last 10min of the lap pretty much bumping along in the complete dark. Lap 15 was saved when Gavin lent me his light he wasn't needing. All in all a great day and a bit of a sore lower back and legs for a few days after this one!

R&R Sport Motatapu Multisport Race 9th March 2013

Matukutuki Paddle - I'm the 3rd Boat in the line up there!

It is always great heading up to Wanaka for a weekend - the weather always seems to turn it on when ever we head up and this weekend just been was no exception to this. We loaded up and headed off to Wanaka on Friday lunchtime. The Motatapu Multipsort race is a new one for me. Last year I raced in the Xterra Tri which was the Swim/MTB/Run option, this year new for people to enter after being trialled last year was the Multisport Race option which consisted of a 15km Kayak stage down the clear braided waters of the Matukituki River and then onto the MTB for a 55km MTB through the Motatapu Station and onto Arrowtown for the final run stage made up of a 15km run up around the "Miners Trail" - this run was still pretty clear in my mind form last year as it had a massive hill climb that went on and on, the run course reaches a high point some 640 metres above the race start before a steep descent back down to the finish in Arrowtown.

MTB River Crossing

How it all went for me - The paddle was fantastic I really enjoy getting out in the Kayak and this paddle down the river was a great way to get going for this race - the river level was quite low so it was a bit of a slog at times but my trusty UFO slid through the water nicely - I came off the water 10th and felt good, the paddle time was around 1hr15min maybe (no watch on the wrist) onto the MTB it was straight into a wee pinch up and over a hill to join the Motatapu MTB track that would later have hundreds of MTB racers coming through, It was good to be on the trail before all of these bikers! After quite a few relentless little pinches up and down it I came to the 16km to go mark and from here the course is pretty much all down hill with some super quick descents and river crossings. From this part of the course you catch up with many of the Marathon runners. It is always a little nerve wrecking coming blasting down hill at full speed passing by runners on the left of the trail trusting fully that they are not going to cross over to the right of the track which wouldn't be pretty to connect with them at full speed! As always quality gear from R&R Sport had me biking through here comfoartably with the Giant XTC 29er rolling fast all the way - perhaps the only limitation being my leg muscles tiring!

Miners trail Run Descent

Off the MTB and onto the run, we there was a bit of walking as it is straight into the climb - all uphill for a long time - up and up in the heat I went until reaching the top, super views and then into the descent down over the slippery tussock grass before joining back onto the trail and river crossings to the finish in Arrowtown. I finished in 6hrs 59min and finished up 10th Open Man and 21st overall. Once I had cooled down and recovered a little it was time to catch up with Cherie, Oscar and Charlie, a steak Sammy form the BBQ tent, a trip to the Arrowtown Bakery for a well earned Pie and that was that! A great race and well oganised event. Thanks to Mat Woods for being my support person with the kayak drop off and Pick Up logistics at the start and to R&R Sport for the continued sponsorship and support.

Rail Trail Duathlon 23-24 Feb 2013

Well a solid weekend of sunshine, dust and heat on the rail trail over the weekend. This was the 4th time I have raced in this event and I was hoping to hold my 3rd Place from previous years or better it... this didn't happen this year a strong front end of the field had me working hard all the way. The duathlon run over 2 days consisted of 150km of biking and running. I had some solid bike stages and the run stages were quick but these dealt to me a little more than the bike stages! I finished up 6th individual open man in a combined time over the 2 days of 7hrs and 32min. All in all a great event, next up for me is the Motatapu Multisport race on the 9th of march followed a few weeks later by the Naseby 12hr enduro MTB as a solo rider!

Challenge Wanaka 2013

Well my Start into Challenge Wanaka involved completing a challenge to get the entry to line up for the challenge. Making a super large sign saying “Pick Me for Challenge Wanaka” and heading out to Doctors point with a mate to abseil off a 75m cliff and holding this above my head for an action photo! Anyway with no other competition for this challenge my challenging pic had me score the entry thanks to Lake Wanaka Tourism who put the entry and this challenge on!

Anyway the build-up in training for an iron distance triathlon involves some hard work and quality sessions in order to have the body trained and ready,  as well as to minimise the pain and suffering on race day if you are poorly prepared. The training for Challenge Wanaka proved to be a challenge of time management for me, having a full time job and a young family with Oscar 3 years old and Charlie 1 year old you have to maintain balance and make sure you don’t become centred around training and totally absorbed in the event preparation. So for me to be a good Dad and Husband as well as pull off work well I had most of my training complete very early in the day. With 5am starts done at the pool and long cycle and run training underway at similar times allowing me to fit in a good 5hour ride for example and be back home mid-morning and still have quality family time for the rest of the day. With the exceptions of shorter run sessions and open water swims during more normal hours of the day.

Anyway with all of my training and preparation complete Cherie, Oscar, Charlie and myself headed off to Wanaka on Thursday prior to the race and started to enjoy the weather and surrounds that Wanaka has to offer. Friday was registration and briefing and this is when you start to feel nervously excited about the event with the bustle of many athletes in town for the same purpose.

Anyway the night before there was quite strong winds blowing and we had Oscar our little 3 year old not so happy about the winds and had me up to him 2 times in the night, broken sleep is something I have become very used to over the last 3 years since having little ones!

Saturday morning arrived and I was up early in order to get some breakfast into the tummy before heading down to the lake for the start of my first crack at the Challenge Wanaka full iron distance race.

6.40am and we were away 10minutes behind the pro field into the water for the 3.8km swim. There was a small chop on the water from the wind. It was important to get stroke and breath timing right to eliminate any big mouthfuls of water. I had put some good work into my swimming and enjoyed the swim course, the biggest challenge of this was seeing where to go on parts of the swim loop as the sun made a glare across the water. After 1hour and 30min I exited the water and felt good about having one of the 3 disciplines for the day ticked off. 

Into the transition change tent, cycle kit and sunblock on and I was onto the bike for the 180km cycle stage. The cycle was the part of this event that I had anticipated to be the one that could make or break me. 180km is a long way to ride before having to run a marathon! The bike ride proved to be challenging with lots of undulation and small hills/rises along with a few parts of the 2 lap course having head winds just to suck a little more sting from the legs. Anyway when you break the ride up, firstly into 2 laps of 90km and then take into account that every 25km there is an aid station the ride becomes very manageable mentally. The ride pretty much involved just spinning away and grinding into the head winds when present while ensuring I was taking on plenty of food and drink at each aid station – I ate enough Bananas and Bars on the bike to kill any craving for these for a while to come! The cycle stage took me 7hrs and 5min which I was happy with and I felt I managed my energy and fluid consumption well as I came off the cycle stage not feeling destroyed at all.

Onto the run… 42.2km - business time, there is a common saying with triathlon that you “Swim and Bike for show and run for dough!” I wasn’t going to be running for any monetary dough with my speed or lack of rather the only dough I’d be running for is that of the bread dough of the Subway Sandwiches in the finish tent! 

The effects of having exercised for just under 9 hours before taking on a marathon distance run starts to shine once you get going into the run. All along I had known that the run would be very slow and hopefully not too painful. I headed out of town and ran the first 2km looking good ( you have to run this bit looking good as there are so many people watching you don’t want to look soft in front of too many people!) Once I settled into the run it became apparent that the heat and wind were/had sapped me of energy a little and the run became a mission to consume enough fluid and food as the tummy would allow to get me through this run. A fair bit of running and walking was on the cards, I think this was common for many, anyway near the end of the first lap of the run I came across Cherie and the boys there cheering me along, form here it was down the main street before taking on the second lap of the run. 

Onto the second lap and I started to feel a little better than on the first as the temperature had dropped a little. My muscles were feeling fine and at no stage did I encounter any cramps it was more the lack of ‘spark’ due to a bit of fatigue I guess. Anyway coming up to the 40km marker on the run I thought I would use all the reserves that I had to blast out the last 2 km of the run  - surprising myself I managed to run 4min30sec kms for the last 2km – a whole lot faster than any other part of the run. Coming down the main street to the finishing area is a real buzz with all the supporters and the sense of achievement that floods through your body as you cross the finish line an realise that you have just completed and iron distance triathlon all under your own steam!!14hours and 30minutes was my finish time and one I am very happy with. 

From the finish line it was into the finish tent and the first thing the race officials do is have you jump on the scales. I weighed in prior to the race at 84kg and in the finish tent clocked in at 78kg – so 6kg of weight loss equates to a lot of fluids. In the finish tent it was time to rehydrate and eat in order to start the body’s recovery of energy used throughout the day. From here it was onto the massage table to have a few tight muscles relieved with a good 20min massage. From here home to a refreshing shower and then bed. 

Waking up on Sunday other than the obvious fatigue from a big day out on Saturday I felt pretty good, surprisingly good which has me reflecting on parts of the race that in a future attempt I could push a little harder on and make improvements to other things such as nutrition to slice some more time off another crack.. I know form having been involved in triathlon and multisport endurance events for many years that they become very addictive and there are many intrinsic factors motivating future challenges.

So after the event it was a great week relaxing in Wanaka for the best bit of a week, a great little place in the world to chill out and spend time in. 

Massive thanks must got to R&R Sport for sponsoring me in my adventures with quality gear and support along with Lake Wanaka Tourism who put the challenge out there and sorted the entry into this event.

click below to read the Pre Race Article in Otago Daily Times on me and this event
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/multisport/242269/multisport-teachers-fire-shared-pupils