Bring on Summer

Now the last few weeks have just been wet, windy & wild. I'm over it & just want warm summer & daylight savings.

In saying that I have been able to get out on the bike the last 2 weekends & clock up over 100km each ride without getting very wet.

The new bike feels fast & easy to ride. I do struggle a bit on the hills but just means I've got to work harder. ( Yes I'll get round to the photo one day ).

Once again my running has been a little slack over the last couple of weeks with only totals of 26kms. I really need to build on this but the old leg has been abit sore recently. I think this has to do with the aero riding straining the butt. Starting to feel better now though, so hope to see the distance increase again over the next few weeks.

So in total I've only been putting in 10 - 12 hour weeks. Bit slack.

Not long now till the Tri season kicks off & the Taupo Half Ironman so these times will be increasing. I also have the small task of the Taupo Cycle Challenge 160km bike ride. My way of thinking for this years race is that I will start near the back with the 7 hour starters & just TT the race. That way I hope to miss all the big bunches of idiots that can't ride sensibly.

Just had the weekend away with work at the Jamis Day Night Thriller & it was a long couple of days so this week i'm going to have to be onto it or I'll just be lazy. Also busy week at work with a number containers to unload , so it's going to tough.

Onwards & upwards though. Plenty of things to look forward to on the training front with a Half IM camp, a trip to Broadlands Rd for a training ride & I'm going to compete in the City to Surf 12km fun run.

Train safe & hard.

A good solid week

Firstly I went back to the physio this week & he's real happy with the way my right leg has strengthened up with the exercises & now is happy for me to steadily up the running. Great news.

So once again there hasn't been much running this week ( only 15km ) but time to ramp it up a little. The swimming has got alot easier this week & with good numbers turning up to the squads this week we real have started to push each other.

Now unfortunately the weather was cr@p this morning & I still haven't got out on my bike. I did instead do a 2hr 12 min hard out ( AVHR 143, MXHR 164 ), windtrainer session in the garage with another IM in training. That help bring the total hours on the windtrainer to 3hr 40min this week.

So this week I would have to give myself a big tick in the box of doing all the programme & each session was constructive.

We have the last of the Tri Cub's winter Duathlon's tomorrow & hopefully the weather is good afterwards, as I hope to take the bike for a ride up & down the Toll Rd.

Tonight the All Blacks will hopefully win the Tri Nations & the Warriors beat Manly.

Time for the business to start

Yes I went to Taupo ( pronounced Toe paw ) & set about achieving my 1st goal of the my season, the Half Marathon.

As I had planned I came in with my worst 1/2 Mary time of 1:54:22. My PB is 1:39:13 & back in 2008 I ran 1:41:43, so you can see I had a goal of pacing myself & did just that. Finished the race feeling fresh & wanting more. We also had a great fun filled weekend with our friends & training buddies.

I had the following week as a rest week, then on the Sunday I competed in the North Island Inter Club Duathlon race at the Pukekohe Raceway. This was a 5km run, 20km bike followed by a final 2.5km run. I didn't go there to break any records & certainly didn't , but had a good fun race. That's what it's all about isn't it ????

During this time I finally dragged myself along to the physio to see what might be causing the pain behind my knee. Physio's thought is the glute injury I have had for about 15 years is playing up ( & not firing ) & as a result the hammie has been doing more work & has now become inflamed & sore. So 2 weeks into treatment & the glute is already much stronger. I can only look at this as a positive thing & not something that has slowed my running down to only 30 minute runs for the next few weeks.

So now with just over 6 months left till that gun goes off for Ironman I have sat down & nutted out my training schedule with my wife / coach. I now feel that it's time to start doing some real serious training & not just going through the motions & just getting the job done. Each training session from here on in needs a purpose & a goal.

It's taken a couple of swim sessions to get back into that & I haven't been outside on the bike yet but did have an excellent windtrainer session in the garage in the weekend. Did the Spinervals 24.0 HILLacious DVD. Awesome workout !!! The running is obviously taking a little while to get back into but hopefully I'll be stronger.

I have now taken possession of my new Jamis TT bike but haven't been out on the road yet so that is going to take a bit of time getting used to. I also have a new pair of K-Swiss Konejo 11 running shoes to try out so all very exciting times.

So for now it's just head down & get training. Will post some photos of the bike as soon as I take some.

This weekend

Only 48 hrs now till the start of the Mizuno Half Marathon in Taupo.

I really enjoy doing this race & halfway through the year it comes at a good time, giving you the motivation to keep training through the winter months. Now as I've said before this run is not about a PB, it's just about finishing feeling strong & fit. My time I'm looking for is between 1:50 & 1:55.

The weekend should be abit of fun also as we have a group of 12 staying at the Huka Falls Resort & we have other friends who are in Taupo but not staying with us. Might even watch the All Blacks kick the Wallabies on Saturday night.

I'll let you know next week as to how it all went.

No I didn't do the fun ride last weekend. I chose to stay @ home, save some money & time & did my 6 monthly gardening instead. Was worth it.

And lastly , hopefully I will get my new TT bike on the road in a few days time. I've had it sitting at work for a number of months now but haven't had it built but very soon it will hit the road. Can't wait !!

Might see ya in Taupo.

26 more days to go

Yep that's right. Only 26 more days till I seriously start my journey to Ironman & the Cameron Brown Award.

Sunday August 1st is the date of the Mizuno Taupo Half Marathon. My plan for this race is to try & run to my Heart Rate ( will probably be a bit higher due to it being a race ) & not worry to much on my time. I know it's not going to be a PB so it doesn't bother me. I just want to finish strong & feel like I could keep on running. My hopeful time for the race will be around 1:50 - 1:55. That's about 10 mins slower than my PB but who cares.

Now to get me there in top form I have been putting in some long runs over the month of June & are really pleased where I am right now. I managed a 2:05 hr run doing 22.70 kms which is the longest ( time & distance ) I have ever done. My total running for the month of June was 140.75 / 12:41 hr.

Now all we hope for is a nice Taupo winters morning.

I have 1 other event which I'll do before the 1/2 Marathon & that's the Okoroire 70km FUN ride. Yes fun ride, it's not a race !!!! Yeah right. I did this ride last year & had great fun. It was the race which kick started my journey to the 320km Enduro. This year it's just something to do during the winter & to get you out training before the Wattyl Cycle challenge. So this month I've managed a total of 245.5 kms / 9;45 hr of cycling & 100km on the windtrainer.

My swimming just keeps ticking along doing 20 kms this month.

Once again it's more than last year, with the running especially being heaps more & I'm even enjoying the running. So down to Taupo we'll go in a few weeks with a group of us staying at the Huka Falls Resort. Should be fun.

Triathlon Tauranga have been running a Duathlon series over the winter & we had another great race on Sunday. Now I haven't been doing them just organising them with another guy who's training for the Sprint distance Worlds in Budapest. We have had great fun & some great feedback from the people competing, so if you read this & can get down to Tauranga, we have 1 more race left on August 22nd. Otherwise you'll have to wait till next year & we hope to do them again.

So onwards with the month of July. I have 2 weekends away with the family over the school holidays which isn't the best for training but luckily things taper off towards the 1/2 Marathon.

Where is the year going ???

With May now behind us we head ourselves into the deep dark winter.

Na really our winters here in Tauranga aren't that bad. We may have just had a whole lot of rain but it's still not that cold. So that's meant I've had some reasonably good training, but have had somethings like a kids Cub Camp to attend & organising the Triathlon Tauranga's Duathlon Series get in the way of training. The Duathlon went off just great the other weekend so I don't mind doing that stuff & you always have got to have time for the kids.

So for May I managed, Bike - 213km, Swim - 16.5km, Run - 101km, Windtrainer - 70km

I also managed a few core & weights sessions. Very happy with where the running is right now. Need to work on the bike k's & also the same with swimming. Now overall for the year I'm ahead of the same time last year so that's a good thing considering I'm heading towards Ironman.

So the month of June will just be more training with the Mount Joggers 10km run the only event I have planned. Will only do this if it's not rubbish weather.

Yes I'm in

As alot of you would know by now IMNZ has reached it's 1500 person capacity & is sold out for 2011.

So this is a small piece of history for IMNZ, We all know IM races in the States sell out in hours but not down here in good ol NZ, so for most of us this is quite a shock & has meant we have had to fork out the entry fee 9 months in advance. Anyhow I'm in & have atleast 10 other people I know joining me in the experience.

So my jouney has started with some good weeks of training under the belt already.

My main goals for the year ( next season ) are to complete the Cameron Brown Award which is given out to people who complete the following events in the one season. This starts with the Taupo Half Marathon, Taupo Cycle Challenge ( only 1 lap this year ), Kinloch Triathlon, Across the Lake swim & finally Ironman NZ. You don't have to do them fast, you just gotta finish.

I will also throw in the Taupo Half Ironman & no doubt some other smaller events to keep my mind off the hard training miles.

So that's the plans & from here on in I'll try & keep you all informed of how things are going. I'm happy with where the training is at right now, with my long run upto 15km & biking 70 +km for my long ride. Have been managing 2 swims a week for a total of about 5km & throw in some weights & a windtrainer session & that's about the week full up. My biggest challenge will be to stay injury free & not over do the running.

On the event front I've had a busy last 2 weekends with being team / company manager for our teams we had in the Moonride 12 Hr MTB in Rotorua, just last weekend at the Kaimai Classic Multisport event in Tauranga. Two great events & our teams had some good results.

Hopefully for me the next event will be the Okoroire fun ride in late July.

Train safe & be cautious of crazy drivers.