Been missing

Well what a last few weeks I have had.

After having a quiet week after the Taupo Half it was then back into training again.

Then along came Xmas & a 2night trip for the family to stay at Arkles Bay Whangaparoa with my sister in-law & 5 nephews. We all had a great time & I didn't drink to much & managed a couple of runs.

Home from that holiday & straight back into training, with some good runs & a long weekend bike ride round the Rotorua loop from Tauranga.

New Years eve soon passed & we tripped on down to the Blue lake in Rotorua New Years day for a swim across the lake. Awesome swim.

Then we packed the car again & headed to one of New Zealands holiday hot spots Whangamata to stay a couple of nights with one of Kathy's clients. It also was the time of the Contact Triathlon so got to watch that. Another awesome time away from home. Did some more running whilst away.

I then had the normal week of long run & swimming then it was the Tauranga Half & I was a Technical Official for this event. Stinking hot day in the sun. The following day it was a long bike ride out to Matata & home, a good 168km.

My long runs were now getting upto about 30km & I was starting to feel really good about them.

Another long ride followed the next weekend then it was time for the annual family camping holiday. This was the make or break period for me. I had a very long bike ride & 3hr run to do whilst I was away. Could I resist the cold beers ????

Well for the record & drank maybe a dozen beers over 2 weeks, I also cracked a 3hr run covering 32kms & did a 227km bike ride to Whakatane & back. I also feel off on this ride on the busiest round about in Tauranga. Luckily the only damage was a bent rear wheel & bruising to body & pride.

The camping holiday had it's moments also having to cope with 2 Cyclone which blew across the Upper North Island bringing heavy rain & gale force winds. We survived them both to tell the stories..

Whilst on holiday I also managed some good runs & bike rides & enjoyed the fact I could just sit down & do nothing afterwards. No work, no long days standing!!

So for the month of Jan I managed 1000km on bike, 175km running, & 20km swimming.

After camping it was off down to Kinloch the following weekend for the Erin Baker standard distance tri. This was not a race just a brick at race pace.

I had a ball & really enjoyed my stay in Kinloch. I'll be back.

Now I have just finished a long weekend in Taupo training on the IMNZ course. friday saw me do a 87km bike in 2:42 followed by a 21km run in 1:45. Was absolutely stoked with this.

Saturday was just a 4km swim in the lake 1:20. Then Sunday we covered the whole bike course & I managed 5:53 & did a 3.5km run off the bike.

Had an awesome weekend training & am feeling really good about where I am training wise with only 19 days to go.

Will try & write some more before the day.

This is a very short brief of the last few weeks but that's all life allows at the moment.