winter is here...

Nothing too exciting on the training front in the last week - which is not a bad thing! Although I have been officially sacked as weather reporter/predictor. For two Sundays I have said "no long ride on the road - rain is coming". And twice it has been fine. There was rain, but it did not really arrive during the ride time! Of course if I had gone out, it would have poured down! I have been caught a couple of times in the rain - and it is very wet rain at the moment!

Winter temperatures have certainly arrived. Going to training in the early mornings is certainly cold now, with 4 degrees the lowest so far. Even had to bring the thermal gloves out for a run! I am OK with the cold - I just don't like the wet and cold! In fact I think I just don't like the wet. Minor aches and pains of training appear to become more than minor with the cold too - which I am not liking!
I have sort of missed a couple of sessions in the last week or so - mainly rides. A couple of school rides ended up being wind trainer sessions instead of road rides - so I get to yell instructions for an hour or so instead of sitting at the back of a bunch riding... It can be a tough life being a coach. Work got in the way of a couple of days as well - giving talks and going to events. Nothing too stressful at all, just time consuming and I get quite tired with lots of standing.
A few weeks ago James (swim coach) asked for a few harder swim sessions from us. I put forward one that was pretty solid, with some trepidation, as I figured it was probably going to pop up in the near future. The guts of the session was that you started at 50m on 1:30 (plenty of rest), and then you add 50m to each subsequent rep and 30 seconds to the send off, and keep doing that until you can't make the send-off time. So you basically have to start swimming quite fast to make the send-off times at some point! The time I got given this session (many years ago), there was then 8x100 fly after you didn't make the send-off time! I was first to start the fly back then! Friday rolls around and I start to receive these abusive text messages! It does not take too much to work out that my little gem of a session popped up on Friday (I was not there - I was doing run intervals). I arrive to swimming on Monday morning and I get greeted with "You Fcuk*#@ pri##! And you didn't even turn up for your own session" and a couple of other less friendly comments! There was no love in the lane - I can assure you of that! Dean Kent (Olympic swimmer) shows up on Wednesday - and we get introduced, and I get "Oh - you are the guy that made that session up on Friday!". It obviously affected people quite severely! James did alter the session slightly - from what I can gather - He started at 100 on 2:15 and I think they all finished on 500m which would have been on 6:15 - which is a solid pace (you have to average better than 1:15 per 100m). But they didn't have to do the fly! They all appear to be over it now...
I have been meaning to write a bit sort of loosely based on the swim squad experience - more along the lines of "Raising the standard". I have been swimming at the Glenfield squad for a few years - off and on, and it ha certainly been through a few changes. But most of the changes have been the people that have passed through. James (the coach) is pretty old school, and his swim programs are pretty standard. If you go on a certain day, you know pretty much what you are going to get. That is a good thing for me - it makes putting the sessions into a plan much easier. The current group in the faster lanes are mostly older athletes that "have been something" is their sporting pasts - at least NZ reps, and a few Olympians in there too. Everyone pretty much gets on, and the sessions get done in some shape or form. Negotiations are often enacted without much coach decision involved, and it all works very well. What has generally happened is that the standards have gone up and become the new expectations - and there is not really any complaints, it is just accepted that "this is the new standard". For example, Wednesday usually has a 1500m swim in it - not a time trial, just a swim. Sometimes people give it a good go, and it is usually a solid pace. I usually swim just under 20 minutes (pull) and get lapped between 2 and 4 times! Last week I was a bit over the idea of doing a 1500m - so I suggested 15x100 instead. Pretty much everyone was happy with that. A few years ago, that would have been 15 on 1:30 (send-off time), perhaps the last 5 on 1:25. But the lane leaders (not me!) quickly decide it is 5 on 1:25, 5 on 1:20 and 5 on 1:15 - and I just quietly gulp at the back of the lane, knowing the last 4-500m will be continuous! We did the same again this week. Many other squad I have swum in, with this sort of set there would be plenty of complaints - it is solid, and a challenge to get through! But there are no complaints (I don't think I said mine out loud anyway...) - and at the end, someone comments in an excited voice, "we should try going on 1:10 next month!!".

That is crazy!!! I have seen numerous times where good athletes have really worked together in training in a very positive manner to help each other become far greater athletes. I also had a similar experience cycling in Dunedin when I lived there. In many cases it is training with one of your greatest competitors - and helping them to become better - possibly to your own detriment at the next race. But if you are looking at the bigger picture and see that on the big stage you have to be far better, then that is certainly a risk worth taking. If you are only interested in being the big fish in your local (and usually quite small) pond - then perhaps it is not worthwhile. I have also witnessed training situations where athletes are competitive in training in a very destructive manner. Rather than try to help each other get better, they try to crush each other and break each other. The end result is very poor results on race day and the only results that count are the first 4 x 100m reps at swim squad on Wednesday (even if the set is 12x100). Not really helping improve the standards at all.

challenging moments...

A few things to report in! Woody and Tam are now married - very nice. The weather was great before and after, and we made good use of the roaring fire during! A very nice wedding, with no broken bones on the dance floor (apparently!). I also hear Nana Kirk (Reuben to most) made it past midnight at his stag do - most bets were that he would not last after 9! Well done Reub's (and you should be married by now too!)!  
I snuck in a bike time trial this past week. It had to be done - just to check where I am at and to actually practice doing the darn things. I pretty much knew where I was at - and I was pretty much right on. But it still needed to be done. It was around a minute slower than my best and around 30watts lower on the power, which I think is OK for current fitness. End result for 25km on the trainer - 30:28 and 337w average. 
A few days after the time trial I also have my first real explosion. Wednesday morning at the pool I was absolutely dead! Was a bit tired getting up (well, REALLY tired actually, but this is not that unusual on Wednesday morning), and the warm-up felt pretty average, but I don't usually feel good then anyway. Then we had the standard 1500m swim - which we usually do pull. I went out normal steady, and there was nothing there - not even vapours in the tank. I was lapped at 200m (usually I can hold off to 400m on these), so I stopped and took the pull gear off and thought I would just plod along and try to get a bit of recovery going (make the most of the session since I was there). Well, I was almost stalling in the water and was really just an obstacle in the lane. I could tell pretty quickly it was not going to get better, or even not "not get worse" - so pull the pin and went home and ate! You need to know when to cut your losses - and I am pretty sure staying in the pool would have just dug a deeper hole. Then post explosion there is usually a little bit of soul searching - a bad day is one thing, but when it is this bad, it does make you wonder what the heck went so badly wrong. I am pretty sure it was a combo effort - the bike TT on Sunday night, hard bike on Tuesday and not enough food on Tuesday particularly after the harder ride. 
The next bigger happening on the training front this week was the first cross country running race in many years. I think cross country is great for running strength - very hard to equal - however, they are also bloody hard work! You cant hide (eg mass start bike races), there are usually hills, soft and/or uneven footing, and competition - you will no doubt have you own little battles within the race, no matter where in the field you are! After really only one week of consistent run training, it was not going to be pretty - and I was really questioning the point of even doing it on the way there (not helped by the fact it was a 70km drive to get there!). I had convinced myself that even an hour on the windtrainer would be at least as beneficial. I was clutching at straws! I was not going to race in spikes for the first couple of races - so as not to risk injury - no need to blow a calf at this point. Of course a week of rain made it ideal for spikes, and not really that good for the old trainers. A very short warm-up, as every thing was pretty sore and I felt I only had 8km of running in my hamstring, so a 1km warm-up would leave me 500m short of the finish line, plus I did not want to start out fast. the plan was to start out slow, build a bit and then survive, with no hard charging finish if it came to a sprint. The gun goes, and so does everyone else! I think there were still a couple behind me at the first gate, but most were in front, although it was still pretty crowded. Then step in something a bit squishy - oh that's right, you have to look out for cow patties when running cross country - forgot about that. The rest of the race was reasonably predictable - build through the fast starters a bit through the middle, and was quite thankful to pass at least a couple of 60+ vets. On the last lap (of three), the hamstring and calves started to tighten up a little, so eased back a fraction, but still kept a solid pace. Down to the last 500m and a couple of "runners" sprint past, but they can have their glory - this time at least! One down...
Some days you wonder why you got out of bed - or you should have just gone back to bed and forgot about the training. Sundays longer ride was going to be a tricky one - the weather forecast was terrible, and I had the school team time trials on early - so the long ride was scheduled for a bit after that (30min later than usual). Just as I woke up it was pouring down, so at that point I decided there was no long ride on the road option (although it was 5am and the ride would be starting around 8am). Do the team time trial coaching thing (which went VERY well), and the road is very wet but it is calm and blue sky (although there are a few clouds and no doubt there will be a couple of good showers). No gear with me, so I have limited my options to a windtrainer ride at home. Later in the day, hop on the trainer, and after 15min the effort feels quite hard for the speed, check the power - OK that is quite high. Which means the tyre is going flat... Two punctures and two pieces of glass removed from the tyre and we are back going again (should have looked for that second piece the first time!). 20 minutes later and the tyre is going soft again. OK, I think it is time to call it quits! It was just not meant to be!
Next week better have a few less hiccups in it!


Here is the cross country. There is a nice hill in there - 3 laps so you got to do it 3 times! I tried to keep the effort mostly even. The HR fell off slightly in the last 10 minutes, as the hamstring tightened up quite a bit and the achillies was protesting on the up hills - but in a good way.

Here is the 25km TT - started off a little conservative, and finished with a little bit in the tank - which is a little unusual - as I usually have little left at the end. So perhaps a little left to give - but not too much. All good!

phase two...

Had the New Zealand secondary school triathlon champs last weekend. I was there officially as the Dio team coach, but also had a couple of other athletes competing that I coached. I really find these events quite scary - from the aspect of there being SO much talent in young athletes - but that hardly even seems to kick on. My guess is the boys find beer and the girls find boys. But I digress... The school racing is quite varied and the younger generation have to cope with a variety of racing styles, courses and pressures - particularly if they are good. They have drafting races, non-drafting, and team events and no doubt many are roped in to other sports too. To add to that - this season had the athletes required to be in peak shape in November, February and at the end of April for the "big races". Not really feasible, and quite poor planning if there was any planning going into the race calendar.



watch out here comes Bex - that is all the start you are getting!!

It was a pretty good weekend. The water was a bit "crisp" I have to say - and my recommended early morning "check the course out" swim did not feel like a great idea in the cold drizzling rain at 7:30am. In hind sight I think it was a good idea (when in the van with the heaters on full!). Some great racing, and I think even a good time was had by some. From my end, young Alex did well, but was probably not quite the race course for him. He probably wanted a better result than what he got - but he raced the best he could, and I don't think he could have done anything better. Horses for courses and all that. Bex had a great race - also for fourth - from a runner who could survive the swim and get through a bike to start running - to carving up the bike and pulling through strong on the run! The Dio Team also did fantastic - 2 wins and a 5th for the senior girls (few to many injured athletes!).

This week sees a new phase in the training for me. I have moved from school triathlon coach to school cycling coach. So two mornings per week on the bike for the next two terms. I have had the first week of training - which was a little better than expected after the training camp. I got a little lucky and ended up taking the better group of the senior riders. They know pretty much what they are doing and you just let them go to it and sort them selves out (at the moment anyway). There is also some healthy competition to get into the A team - so I think that will help motivation. I did end up being tail end charlie on the way home on the first ride, which was a little less fun - I am not sure how they manage to go so slow and not fall off their bikes! Add to that early morning Auckland commuter traffic and the last 2km takes about 15 minutes with a few sets of lights to negotiate...


The training implications are now that I have more cycling automatically added to the program, and less opportunity for swimming. This month (May), I need to move from recovery and introductory training (all pretty easy) into some more serious training. So the training is going to hopefully turn into something along these lines:

Swimming: Monday and Wednesday morning squads, and I need at least one other swim, preferably two, even if they are just an easy 2km plod. That is one of my challenges to sort out this month. Swimming is definitely going down with the very erratic and low amount of sessions being done. What I do get done is good - it is just not enough!

Cycling: I have two spin classes to take - so that is a hard ride and a reasonably easy one. Two early morning rides (most weeks) with the school girls. These will no doubt involve some solid efforts now and then (well - they better do!), but will be easy-ish overall. Long rides are sort of back underway for Sundays but these too are under threat from a few sources. There are a few early morning school team time trials to contend with on Sunday mornings - but I think I will just ride a little later. There is winter weather to cope with too. A little further down the track I also want to do a few long runs in the waitak's on a Sunday morning instead of long rides. I probably need to add in a steady/strength ride at least every second week at some stage for "my training", which might be tricky to fit in. That will also mean probably more cycling in a week than I have done in a very long time. I am sort of interested in what will happen in this regard!
Running: I have been doing stuff all! Friday morning run intervals and one or two other very short easy sessions. That was sort of the plan - get the strength training going and then slowly get into the running. Well the strength training has been sort of there (not perfect, but getting done), and now I think it is time to start running a little more. This year I do want to get some running form back. I have signed up for the cross country running season - which starts next weeks (eek!). I am sure the first few races will be very sorry affairs, but hopefully will build some form a little down the track! I think the first step is to get in at least 3 hours of running in a week and build that up to 4.5 to 5 hours in the next 4-5 weeks. The long run needs to get up to 1hr30min pretty quickly too. Then hopefully I can survive a Waitak's run or two.

Weights: have been doing them, and I am getting stronger, and I am still getting sore muscles after - darn it! I have missed a couple of sessions here and there and I think that is what is making the muscle soreness worse.



No mucking around - go big or go home (oh my poor legs...)...

I do enjoy getting into a routine and ticking off the training and seeing the results that that usually gives. It can be easy for obsessive personalities to let training become the single focus in life - to the detriment of other things in their lives, and usually then their training too. Life often throws a few curve balls just to test you, and also opportunities pop up that may never pop up again. I have a few which can probably fall into the latter, coming up - as weddings. Young Woody is off up the Isle this weekend, and my dear friend Pete from Germany has just invited me over in June for his wedding.

back to school camp...

Another training camp done - this time 5 days (Monday to Friday), for the Dio school cycling team. I guess the main idea is get in a week of solid training to bring the fitness up and to teach everyone a few new skills (or remind a few who have been there before - and who are a little rusty). I was one of three coaches - Vanessa is head coach and Scott is the other coach there. It quickly became apparent that there were two distinct groups for the school girls- those that had hung their bikes up at the end of last season and done little else between the end of last season and the start of camp - and the others who had done a good amount of training and were in pretty reasonable shape. Unfortunately there were a few were sick and/or injured too.

The first proper ride was full of complaints and there was some pretty slow riding. The pushing had already begun (fellow coach Scott and I pushing the slower riders back into the bunches). While the average speed was pretty low, the coaches efforts were not so! The next day involved a couple of time trials, one 8km and one of around 2km, but mostly up hill. Sort of seeding TT's for the first few races of the season. Of course the complaint level escalated, as plenty did not want to do TT's - especially those that were very unfit! Those that complained the least generally did the best - probably because they had a better mental attitude that a huge physical benefit. At the end of this day it was time for the coaches to have a bit of a growl - and tell a few to "harden up". The next day was the bigger ride at around 90km, and to be fair, the attitudes had improved a heap, and all were riding a lot better. Having said that a few had left camp as "sick" or sort of thrown in the towel. Some were genuinely sick, but some were just giving up. The last day was an easy ride (33km), and all went very well for the front group, which I was taking, and Scott got the short straw, having to push the slower riders along...

From my perspective most of the rides were very easy overall (average HR for the rides were between 109 and 118) - but there were a few harder aspects, and they did tend to be quite tiring overall. Probably just been on the bike seat for so long! The back was pretty sore each morning too - and that was no doubt from all the pushing! Scott and I had to do the time trials - which were a bit of a blast - but you had to make sure you weren't beaten by the girls! The power graphs are below - 8km with an average of 374w and the hill climb (just over 1km) and an average of 444w. I went out pretty hard in the TT to try to catch Scott, and made a big gain initially, but then "popped" a bit and had to try to hold on to the end. The spike toward the end is a little hill - just for when you are getting tired. I was not that enthusiastic for the hill Climb, and went out hard to get speed up before the climb actually started - then just survived it really. Should have probably been over 500w average, but that was not there! Ended up one all for the coaches bragging rights and not beaten by any school girls! Whew! Probably not too bad a result for where I am fitness wise either.



8km road TT...




Hill TT - getting a bit tired now...


One thing that was a little bit of an eye opener for me was being "on camp" with girls. I certainly don't claim to know too much about the other gender and this just added to that mystery! Each night the girls organized a few games - in a guys world it would be called "team building", but here I am pretty sure it was just high school girls entertaining themselves. I maybe scared for life from these experiences, as the coaches did get roped in to these events. First Major was the marsh-mellow game. The contestants line up and you have to put a marsh-mellow in your mouth (not eat it) and say "fluffy bunny". Add another marsh mellow and say the words. At some point you fail and lose the marsh mellows! Pretty gross really. Three groups get through this game and I have to say it was amazing how many marsh mellows fit in a mouth and how disgusting it is when they come out! Then the call comes for the coaches to have a go. Gulp! OK - I am not moving and if Scott says no, we are safe (Vanessa is not doing it!). Scott cracks and we are lined up with bowls in hand and someone handing up marsh mellows! We get a few past 20 and Scott cracks and off to the kitchen to remove the marsh mellows, and I do something incredibly stupid - eat the marsh mellows! I then proceeded to feel VERY sick for the next hour! Next night is "here is a waikato times newspaper - take a coach and dress them in this - in some cycling theme". Let's just say that standing around in my short shorts having newspaper sellotaped to me by 15-17 year old girls is quite scary. I am not sure I have all the sellotape removed yet either! The only redeeming fact is Scott looked like a bigger Dork than I did! The last night was sing star night - pick a song, dress up and do a dance/sing in your team. Coaches are judges (I am no singer or dancer!)! This actually went OK, and I did not mind being the "Simon Cowell" judge either. The girls really got into this. I can't imagine boys doing this sort of stuff! The judges retired and the girls continued the dancing and singing outside (9pm ish). One of the parents then come in and tell me I may have to rescue girls from the pool - the singing dancing has progress to in the pool... oh dear...
There is photographic evidence of the weeks training and "Team building" - but I am not sure they should ever be published! Far too scary!

Getting scared...

I have started easing myself back into some training. It is certainly a little up and down, but I am trying to remain reasonably low key at this stage. On the swimming, I can really only fit in 2 squad sessions, and have not quite sorted out another time to swim yet. I can get to 4km if I try, but I can feel my fitness slipping a little. I am pretty sure I need 3 swims a week to maintain or perhaps not slip away too much. The 3rd swim does not have to be that special, it can be pretty easy, so I suspect it is a muscle memory thing - perhaps the muscles are more forgetful at the moment. I can get through the sessions I do OK, I just notice the times are getting a little slower each week for the same effort, and I "hit the wall" and get just plan old slow after around 3km.

Cycling is OK, probably the thing of note is that the HR is getting a bit higher than usual on the harder efforts. Power output is down a little, but I am also not really pushing it either. An effort and output that would usually give a 166-168HR is now giving 172-174HR. Pre Ironman, any thing over 170HR was making my eyes water. At the moment low 170's is just "pretty solid". The first few easier rides back post Ironman were pretty pathetic as far as output were concerned. while that did not worry me, I was a little surprised at how much and how quickly the basic aerobic fitness had fallen away. Just to show how my basic fitness has changed, the table below shows my last longer "easy aerobic set prior to Ironman - a little over 2 hours, average power 211 watts and average HR 124. The final column is the ratio of power to HR - just to quantify the bodies efficiency. The subsequent rows are the easier rides I have done post Ironman. The "2:02" ride is perhaps an aberration - it was on the road (the others are indoors), and it is really in a different training zone to the others, so perhaps should not be included. You can still see reasonably clearly that the power output has dropped off, and while it has come back quite well, still a fair way off what it did get up to pre Ironman. Given that it is actually a bit cooler now that at the end of February, the difference shown is perhaps slightly less than in reality. It will be interesting to see how this trend changes over then next few months, as I do work more on basic aerobic fitness.



Running is very low key at the moment. Prior to this week, it was a 15-20min run with the Dio Tri-squad and Friday morning "not sure I should be going this hard" intervals. I am hoping to do a couple of 20-30min runs this week also. Hopefully the weekly run volume will go from 50min to around 2hrs. I have started back doing weights, even though I tried to go very easy, I still suffered major muscle soreness after the first 2 sessions. Now I just have general aches and pains! Nowhere near as bad. Strength is already improving quite a bit - after 4 gym sessions!
This year I have become far more involved with junior athletes - especially as Triathlon coach at Dio school, and assisting with the school cycle coaching too. This is on top of what I do RRwith the athletes I coach personally and with the triathlon club. Coaching the younger athletes can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride I have to say. They can be absolutely amazing with what they can do and achieve and can be very frustrating with lack of focus and drive ("don't you realize how good you could be!!!"). It has also proved to be a bit scary!
Last Monday I was at the Auckland secondary schools Triathlon Champs - which was a great day of racing. Capped off very well with young Alex winning the senior boys race in a very mature execution of a well thought out race plan. My observations were that there are very talented athletes that can already go very fast at a young age. As you go through the age groups the athletes get better overall - ie have less weaknesses. The younger athletes tended to have a weakness. They are also a little less skilled at hiding nerves, and are a little unsure how to handle those nerves and why the heck they were there in the first place! It was great to see so many just going out and having a good time - especially the younger age groups!
Then last weekend I was away for the weekend helping with the "introductory cycling camp". This is a prerequisite to go on the schools "main cycling camp". So making sure that these young budding cyclists can clip in and out of pedals, start and stop OK, brake, and ride in close to a straight line. To be fair I was quite scared, and probably as nervous as I have been for any race! There was a good chance someone I was in charge of making a competent cyclist could send me off the road and down a bank! Images of broken bones and angry parents were swooping through my mind. In the end my nerves were only slightly frazzled and those that had the least skills to start with (could not ride a bike AT ALL) made the greatest improvements and were riding along quite nicely 24 hours after not being able to get on the bike and ride at all. End result - a quiet calm feeling of a job well down! Whew...

For the next month:
Sort out a routine that will get in more than two swims per week. Two good gym sessions per week, and a 3rd lighter session every second week. I want the overall intensity of training to be reasonably low. I will get back to doing the bike and run intervals quite hard, but make sure I have most of "my" training sessions done at an easy or very easy pace/effort. Cycling I will have a couple of bike classes and will do a couple of easy rides on top of that - even if they are quite short. Will try for at least one week with 5 rides. On the running front, I don't think I will be doing much, as I still need to sort out a niggle in my leg. It is OK, and I will build up to an hour, and try to get in two runs of 50 minutes to an hour (including the interval session) and a couple of 30 minute runs. I don't want to push the running until I have made some good progress on the strength and flexibility. But one week with 5 runs in it would be good too (2-3 of those runs are 25-35min).

Post Ironman blob...

Well it is almost a couple of weeks post Ironman now. I am just contemplating getting back into some training - but nothing special for a while. Basically I will do what I have to class/coaching wise - so a couple of spin classes for the bike, a couple of run sessions, and will sneak in a couple of swims, as I actually quite like them for some reason! Weights will be the main focus for the next month or so. I got an introductory weights session in this week, and then will do 2-3 sessions per week. The introduction back to weights took all of 10 minutes, a couple of sets of calf raises, leg extensions, dips, and lat pull downs - at around half the weight I was doing just before Christmas. I tried Hamstring curls, but the calf/hami (IM injury side) was in no way interested in doing that and let me know in no uncertain terms! Weights will be primarily an injury prevention/ minimization thing, but it will help performance as well. 

On the calf injury I managed to get in ironman, well it did get better very quickly. And the actual injured sit now seams fine. However, I do have a bit of an issue just around the corner which is very niggly - sort of side of calf and into the hamstring. A good stretch is making it a bit happier, and just getting some flexibility back (mostly nerve) is first order of business.   
The first few days after Ironman I certainly had very sore legs, and the arms were a bit tired too (bicep muscle one of the worst for some reason). I thought that this had to be the worst ever post race soreness - but oh how we forget! I have had worse in hindsight, really struggling to get off the finish line the legs being so hammered. After my first one, cramps were so bad I couldn't sit or lie down and had to continue to walk around transition (with help) for almost an hour, until they subsided enough to sit. And we convince ourselves during the race, that if you push to the finish, the pain will stop after we cross the line. In many cases the body even believes this crap!! I still had a few flu symptoms as well, and was VERY tired. Certainly caught up on some serious sleep, although the mental functions were pretty average at best the week after (and the best did not last long either!). 
The grand plan moving forward will be World Long distance champs as an age-grouper. This is in Perth at the end of October, which might fit in quite nicely. Anything else between now and then will be hopefully aimed at helping optimize that performance. Cross country running is the most likely candidate as semi-regular racing. 

Just a bit of a note on the others that have done Ironman - mostly those I have been involved with (usually as coach!). It is always a bit nerve racking as coach, especially when those you coach have high expectations and have worked really hard to get the result they want. Sometimes your own confidence gets undermined when they become unsure of themselves, and start to have doubts. "Coach I am so tired - is this right"? Of course in the last week or two you have to say it is right, whether it is or not, because you can't change much at this stage. To say it is all wrong in the last week will just end in major disaster! A couple of times I did have to think back through, and go through other options, just to make sure in my own mind I had done the right thing. This year I was confident I had got the run in pretty well spot on for most, and those that I were not sure on, fell in to the "I am taking a bit of a guess because you haven't given me much feedback" basket. But I think everyone has a few moments of doubt, even if it is just to reassure yourself. I think if you have prepared well, that doubt then becomes strong confidence. After the initial stress, it is entertaining watching people go through their own roller-coaster ride of emotions to get to the start line.

I will pick on Ant Gardiner here (all you others are off the hook). Ant's is a good athlete, and if he prepares well he goes well. He had put in some great races (particularly half ironmans), and done some great key sessions. He was spouting off about not being as fit as usual - new baby in the family and all that goes with that (no time and no sleep were the main problems I heard about!). I did manage to put him on the back foot once at the training camp, but really he was in great shape. His swimming was the best he has ever been, bike a strong as usual, and maybe slightly under on the run, but he had done some very good sessions, and really not that under-done. My feeling was he was in for as good a race as he had ever done. It would hurt a little more in the second half of the run, but if he gritted his teeth and got a bit of mongrel going, no reason why 9:15 was not possible with all the planets aligned perfectly, and 9:30 if he put a very good race together. He had a PB swim (when the averages where 1-2 minutes slower on the day), quicker than he had ever done on the bike, and around 10 minutes off his best ever run (which was pretty storming), to get his fastest ever on the course and win the age group. Really the only bad thing I can say about his preparation and racing is that he was still spouting out negative comments half way through the run! The main moral of the story is that there is more than one way to skin a cat - or to have the best race you can. Good job Ant's!

Quite a few of you have been asking if I will continue with the Blog. The answer is yes. I was contemplating starting a new one, but might just continue on with this, and perhaps a little less Ironman 2009 focused. Of course if you have an opinion on that - let me know! 

A note to Hamish; Raewyn has informed me of your cycling exploits, and I thing the weekend ride should be TWO loops, not one, and you should ride the long way home at least once per week (ie 12km does not cut it all the time!). A note to George - well done on getting the gold medal in the weetbix Triathlon in Christchurch!! Looking forward to seeing you at the 2024 Olympic games!

The big day...

Friday afternoon before the race and I am feeling a bit better, so there is hope that I can at least start. Friday morning I don't think I could have made the swim. Race morning rolls around and I feel better than I have, but still not great. I lay in bed and contemplated my options for around 10 minutes. I felt good enough to "do a swim", and eventually decided that was good enough to pack the gear up and at least start. So into race morning preparation it was.
I had a couple of small bowls of coco-pops and a couple of small cups of coffee (still around half of what I thought was "normal" - you have to love motel kitchenettes!). I put the gear I had set aside as "race gear" the day before into the car, and a slightly nervous toilet stop and we were off to the race start at just after 5:30am! Went into the first tent and got numbered and dropped off the special needs bags. I had a few gels as "top-ups" and a few extra salt tablets for the run - in case I made it that far. Into the main T1 and pump the bike tyres up and put drink bottles on the bike. Tyres up to pressure and first hiccup of the day! No drink bottles for the bike - they are still in the motel fridge! Damn! OK, no panic, Liz runs off to get her Sister to whip back to the motel and get them, and I pump up Liz's Tyres. As a back up I put the bottle of drink I was to drink in the next 45 minutes (pre race) on the bike and fill up a spare drink bottle at the transition aid station. Find Liz, and the drink bottles are not going to get here - technical difficulties with cars. No problem... Last nervous toilet stop to go and down to the start. Not too many porta-loo's and the queues are quite long - I don't need that, so off to find a "secret loo" that not too many know of. Perfect, nice loo, and 3rd in line! Down to the start with 30 minutes to go. Plenty of time, and I actually feel quite relaxed - but still pretty unsure about what I can do or what lays ahead. Liz is also pretty relaxed for her, and we get into the water, wish each other luck and head off for our warm-ups. There are a few waka scooting around and you can hear a bit of chatting going on too. Then the Pro start heads off - so that means 15 minutes to the start for us age group Plebes! 
I lined up as far to the right as I was allowed - basically hanging on the right side start line buoy! I have Brodie Madgwick on my right, who is a similar swimmer to me, look behind and there is Deno with a big grin on his face, and Hannah lurking just beside him. He better not try and come over the top of me! The cannon (literally!!) goes off, and we are off for the 2009 Ironman New Zealand! I started strong but a little less than normal, and I am swimming beside Brodie quite comfortably - so I decided to just stick there rather than try to find a bunch and get in to the thrashing crowd, as we were the outside right swimmers. After a hundred meters a bit of a bunch started to form on the right side, so I jumped on some feet that presented themselves in front of me. No one was bashing me for them, so I sat there quite happily. I think at this stage there were a few off the front and this was the first "main bunch" so that was a good start. I hung there quite happily for around another km, and felt the pace drop a bit so started to pay a bit more attention to what was going on. All seemed OK, then I saw a bit of a split from the main bunch, so I scooted around the two swimmers in front and got back onto the back of the bunch, and felt quite comfy again. Then not much later I had a big slow down - just me, the body just slowed down! I was then promptly dropped! Oh well, it was good while it lasted. I plodded along and then a green cap came along beside (a female I presumed!), and I though, I might as well just on her feet, so I did. That was all good until the turn around, and we were still only 30-40m off the back of the main bunch, and she put a burner in to catch up, but I was firmly in first gear, and the gear lever was very jammed! So back to on my own. Next group of 4 cam along, so I jumped on to them, that was good for another km, and then with around 500m to go I just had a really big tired-on, and though I was almost gong to stop moving! So managed to watch all in front really zip away and tried a few mental games with the buoys to try and make time move slightly faster, but it dragged! Hauled my sorry ass out of the water, and started running. The clock said 1:08, which I figured was the Pro-time, so that should be a 53 minute swim - which is fine. The crowd was pretty awesome so that lifted my spirits quite a bit. I rolled through transition with not too much fuss, until I realized that I had left my arm-warmers at the motel along with the drink bottles. The vest would have to do for the warmth factor! Grabbed some food and got my bike and headed out. As I was doing the transition I did hear a few other names of note, so the swim was probably not too bad.
On the bike and I cruise past a few early on, but kept the effort quite controlled. This included passing Creampuff - and managed to give him a good slap on the ass as I went past - I know he appreciated that! After around 10km I saw a group of 3-4 a few hundred meters up the road, and decided to put a little effort in to catching them. So with those guys and the ones I had dragged along there was now a group of 6-7 riders. There were a few handy athletes in this group, so I decided it was time to sit in and conserve energy as much as possible. There were were two in particular pushing the pace, and I was happy with that, and I sat at around 4th position. at around 35km the guy in front of me let a gap develop (50m or so) while he was eating/ drinking. He then struggled unsuccessfully to close the gap over the next few km. I sat and watched. Someone behind then came through and tried to close the gap, struggled, and again could not close the gap, which was now growing. I waited a little longer, then pulled out and put in a strong effort and quickly closed the gap in 20-30 seconds, making sure I took no one with me. So there was now 3 and around 6 chasing. At the turn around at Reporoa, there was still around a 200m gap, and we could see a few age groupers still ahead, but mostly riding alone. I continued to sit and watch, and eventually the chasing group caught up again. We swallowed a few more of the faster swimmers. The group started to get a little scrappy from around 60km, with riders coming up and chopping in, surging and dropping back, which was beginning to annoy me as it was making the effort more difficult with the changes in speed, but I kept patient and sat in and conserved, eating and drinking as much as I could. At around 70km there is a gentle climb with a reasonable pitch for a few hundred meters then a gentle/steady again, but you have around 10km or so or false flat or somewhat up hill. The group was starting to get pretty messy at this point, so I decided some of those that were hanging on and riding far harder than they should be, needed to be dropped from the bunch. On the steeper part of the climb I put in a solid effort, still controlled, but went from toward the back of the bunch to the front and kept the pace solid. I kept the pace up until we turned of at the motor racing circuit and headed back down hill into town. The group of around a dozen was now down to 3, although one was a female Pro (Meshi Holt who had punctured), and was not sure if she would be much use. So I kept the pressure on back into town and along the flat, and continued on back up the hill out of town. I felt pretty good at this point, while I was going at a solid effort, I still felt well within myself. Climbing back up out of Taupo we passed a few more of the leading age groupers, but they did not hang on. By the time we were back on the road out to Reporoa, it was now two of us - and young Michael Kelly was keen to put the pedal to the metal! I was not so keen on doing half the work for the next 90km, but thought that was better than in the group of a dozen that was getting pretty messy. We also passed Fossy, who was the leading age grouper, so now we were in the front of the age group race! We rode very well together, doing nice long laps (5+ km at a time), and keeping a nice steady pace. I continued with the eating and drinking. The main hiccup being the gels that I put in the flasks for easier consumption were way too thick to get out through the lid! After the turn at Reporoa for the second time, young Michael realised we were leading age groupers, and that we had a couple of minutes on the chasing group, and again wanted to wind it up for the journey home. I tried to calm him down a little, as I was feeling a bit of a pinched nerve in my butt - which was worrying me a little, but felt comfy with the effort and pace we were holding. We pretty much kept is steady all the way back, and it was just a matter of knocking off the km's and keeping the food and water going in. With around 10km to go, youthful enthusiasm informed me that we were going to do a "cracking time" for the bike, and wanted to push the pace home. It was around this point I started to feel a bit average. It was pretty much all down hill back to transition, so getting there was fine, but I was feeling a bit fever-ish and I was having major chaffing issues on the under carriage which was not helping! So I spent the next few km's pondering my options. Go to the medicals and see what they think, call it a day, or bolt out on the run and see what happens.
We rolled into Transition 2, with a bit of hype as leading age groupers, which was all good. I decided to make myself a good goodie bag to take out on the run and see if I could chip off a few km's at least. Even if I walked 42km, I have plenty of time to get to the finish. I just needed to be careful that I didn't have a strong fever coming, and that I avoided dropping dead from the effort and the bugs putting too much stress on the old(ish) body! A quick chat with Jerry and Liz in Transition, and then Greg Welsh as I went over the over bridge on to the run course (until he told me to move my ass). I kept the running as easy as I could. I definitely felt a bit flu sick and my left hip/glut was killing me. "just get to the next aid station" was all I focused on, and keeping the HR as low as I could. Just before the aid station I dug a gel out and a few salt tablets, down some water and cola, and decided some vitamin C was in order as well - so downed oranges like they were going out of fashion. A few deep breaths and off running (sort of) again. The crowd is pretty impressive through the first 3-4km, so you do have to be careful not to get carried away! Neil yelled out " I thought you couldn't run" and I replied "I can't - this is obviously not running!". Nothing like a few laughs to lift the spirits a little. I managed the slower jog to aid stations and walk the stations, plus walked a few of the up hills - just to keep the HR low, out to the first turn around (approximately 11km). The flu/fever feelings were getting a little less, but my left achillies was starting to tighten up, which worried me, so at the next aid station I got someone to swap the timing chip from my left ankle to my right (I was not bending down unless I REALLY had to). 500m after the aid station, left calf goes -DAMN! It was very unhappy, and was not going to be run on at this point! So we are very much down to walking!
At the next aid station I got a compression bandage on my calf, and wobbled off. On certain camber and slight down hill I could start a bit of a shuffle going so ran when I could. Any up hills and the calf protested in no uncertain terms and walking was the only options. Did not really like a right sloping camber either, so when that arrived a walk often did too. That is pretty much the way the run continued until back to the far turn-around again (around 32km). Then the legs were just stuffed! I saw Reuben as I approached the turn-around, and he had passed me at 1km, and he was running, and had only put about 400m on me in 10km! So I threatened him, and carried on - perhaps anger was also an option here. The mental battle then became "if I walk from here it will take around 2 hours - that is a long time on these legs" verses "if I run, even stride is agony but I will be there much sooner, and the pain will be over far sooner". That was quite a delicate balance, so to get running when I used the maths option - to work out that if I ran around half the way back, I could still get in at around 10 and a half hours! Still pretty respectable. So I carried on with the running where I could! That was also helped by seeing half the athletes I coached breathing heavily down my back as well!
Finally got to the finish line in 10 hours 36 minutes. Just over my upper time bracket of what I thought I could do. But with all that had happened, I really felt that that was the best effort that I had in me. I would not have done anything differently in the swim -that was all I had. The bike actually worked out very well for me. It felt like the most conservative ironman bike leg I have ever done, and still came out with a good result. The calf popping in the run was a pain, literally and figuratively. Overall happy to get finish number 10 at Ironman NZ, although after, that did not feel like a big deal, and before, that was what was mostly driving me. I am a bit disappointed I did not get the chance to see and show how fit I had actually got. I think I was actually in quite good shape.
I still probably need to do another - just to see that I can still put out a good time - next up will probably be world long course champs in October...