Win Team Timex gear - Kona picks

With the Ironman World Champs in Kona, Hawaii coming up in a few weeks time I thought it would be fun to give my top three picks in the men's and women's races.  See below.

For the closest pick of those who post it on my blog I will give away an awesome Timex thermal cycling vest. You will also need to put down a time for the run split of the 1st male in case of a tie. Put your picks and times below in the comments section. Entries have to be in before the gun goes off - which will be early in the morning of October 9, NZ time.

Mens

1. Andreas Raelert 2hr42min
2. Craig Alexander
3. Frederik Van Lierde

Womens

1. Chrissie Wellington
2. Miranda Carfree
3. Mary Beth-Ellis

Raelert Vs Alexander

Complicated

I just read the below quote and think it is a great example of how to many coaches and athletes over analyse everything. Keep to the basics, you don't need to over analyse, x watts, heart rate to the nearest beat, cadence 89.67, 21 grams of carbs. Over analysing causes a lot of lost training and most of all recovery time when you could be resting your brain and body from triathlon, because that is when you are actually getting fitter

I have highlighted my favourite line



Lydiard got back from a European tour in the 60s, while he was away he was introduced to the physiology of what was actually going on. He introduced to his squad the concepts such as anaerobic and aerobic exercise.

He "lost" his squad almost at the outset. Bill Ballie (world record holder 20,000m and 30,000m) chirped up saying "You mean fast stuff and slow stuff, coach?" Olympic Gold medalist Murray Halberg was even more to the point "Coach, does this change anything we are doing in training?" "No, not at all" said Lydiard. "Good, So we can cut the bull shit and get on with it!" replied Halberg.

What does a beginner need to do to complete a half Ironman?

2k swim, 90k bike, 21k run

Well the basics are like what Arthur Lydiard devised in the 50s and 60s to produce multiple gold medalists and world record holders in the form of Snell, Halberg, Magee and Baillie etc etc….
What you need to do is to build up the stamina and strength to complete the distances. And remember it is a triathlon, not a swim race, bike race or run race. If you have not trained enough on the bike it does not matter how good a runner you are, you will not be able to run to your potential if you are not fit on the bike.
The swim is made up of approximately 1 stroke every meter of swimming so approximately 2000 strokes. In order to be able to do this on race day you need to show your body what it is like to swim 2000 strokes, so at least once per week you should build up to swimming a main set of 2000 strokes. One of my favorites for developing athletes is 10x200m on 20sec rest done all as Pull (pull = paddles + pull buoy)
The cycle consists of 90 kilometers. Again you need to build the strength and endurance to be able to complete the ride so you can get off and run. This involves a longer ride each week, and then several shorter rides focusing on building strength. For example another favorite of mine for developing athletes is simply to jump on the Turbo or indoor trainer, and do a 10min wup/dwn and 15x1min in a big gear at a very strong intensity. So you get nearly an hour worth of aerobic work and build strength at the same time.

You can check out the rest of the article here http://www.debihazelden.co.nz/what-does-a-beginner-need-to-complete-a-half-ironman/

Me at the New Plymouth Half Ironman

Back Home, New arrival, Cambridge Half Marathon

So I made the flight home from Copenhagen with no Dramas. A slight headache from the beers from the after party but that disappeared by about the time I arrived in Hong Kong. I found some nice seats in Hong Kong airport which don't have any intermediate hand rails and had a real good sleep.

I arrived into Auckland Airport with Tracy to meet me, and she has changed quite a bit since I have left. Someone has been growing quite fast inside her. I am not allowed to post a photo of Tracy so its first bike will have to do :)

I had the first week off any real exercise, one bike, one swim and a cycle to catch up with some athletes to check on their form etc. The second week was about the same until Saturday when I decided I would go out for a Ironman brick session with Erin and Candice, two of the girls I coach. So we had 3+ hrs on the bike with some 50min efforts to keep things interesting. Then we where lucky enough to have the inaugural Cambridge Half Marathon starting at 12pm so we finished the ride, and got straight into the run. I just about missed the start by time I had packed the bikes in to the car etc.
The legs on the bike didn't feel to bad, but the heart rate felt like it was through the roof. Onto the run and I have to say Candice's and Erin's form is a lot better than mine after 2 weeks off!, the first 10k where not to bad, but after that it was all downhill :) my left leg started cramping badly so it was a slow jog in to the finish. Quite a good session to kick start the body, even though it was not very enjoyable last 40min at all. I don't think I am going to try a IM a week apart or two weeks for that matter unless I trained through the first one and got rolling very quickly after the first one.

So I am back into the training this week, time to build a bigger engine for next season

Challenge Copenhagen

So I am just back to New Zealand after Challenge Copenhagen on the weekend. Three flights and just over 40hrs door to door and it’s good to be home.

Some positives out of the race, but a few big negatives too...

Race day started with me just about false starting the entire field, they had some music playing and I knew it was very close to start time when a little bang went off on the song playing and off I went. I only got a couple of steps and there was a lot of yelling and I realised we hadn’t been given the cannon. So quickly back to behind the line and only about 10secs later and we where off with the proper bang.  Bayliss and a few other swimmers quickly opened up a gap from the start and I settled into the second group where I remained the rest of the swim. I had a quick look at the watch and read 49.30 so I knew the damage would not be too excessive to front.

Onto the bike and a group formed containing all the strong Danish guys + Bastie + Dejan. We picked up Berkel and Jimmy at about the 30k mark. Bjorn Andersson was starting his demolition of the cycle course and continued with it the entire ride.

At the 40k mark I picked up my first every drafting penalty. I thought our group was riding really clean, we had a motorbike with us the nearly 90% of the time. Then next thing I know a marshal on a motorbike  who I hadn’t seen all day came up to me when I was rolling through some corners. I had to do a double take and look behind as I wasn’t sure if it was for me or someone else. About 1min later the same marshal gave Berkel a penalty, I am not sure his was for either as he definitely wasn’t in the draft zone.

Rolling in to the second loop I tried to put some pressure and split the group but everyone seemed to be riding about the same and after about 40k of trying there was only a couple that had been popped . And then with about 25k to go my legs started to fall apart! Not exactly what I wanted to happen. Bastie and Berkel then rode off and I lost some time coming into transition with Jimmy and Dejan. The next part was very hard mentally as I knew I had to serve my penatly, so I stood around for the 4min trying to keep positive. I was little relieved to see about 50 numbers on the board so knew I wasn’t the only one with quite a few numbers from the top 10 seeds.

Out on to the run, and the legs felt pretty good and I settled in to a nice rythum, a couple of toilet stops on the first lap and I could also see the damage to the front which was a lot to Bjorn but I was still in the mix with the rest. I was running along at about 2.42 pace and was feeling good. I caught Bayliss midway through the first lap, and the next 18k ticked over nicely picking up a couple of guys. I was on the coke and gels. At the 26k mark I had a Red Bull which within a couple of minutes I knew it was a big mistake. If anyone reading saw the video of me at Challenge Wanaka it was quite similar, everything started coming out and my stomach was in knots. My stupid mistake in using something different, so a good lesson. So I ended up having a little sleep on the side of the road and a couple of IV drips later I was feeling a lot better. A DNF besides my name, not the best way to finish my trip to Europe. Jimmy and Tim had a great battle for the win which was a super exciting race for the spectators.

Big thanks to the Challenge Orgainsers for putting on another great race and Angela for coming over to watch from London and looking after me.

Next up for me is a little down time then time to work on getting stronger before a big New Zealand season.

A few photos and update from copenhagen

So I arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday night to some stormy weather. A little trip on the metro and I was at the very nice Bella Sky hotel. You dont get many building like this in NZ!

Yesterday I got registered, had the press conference, a trip to the supermarket, a few movies and not much else :)
Today is pretty much the same, a little exercise, the race briefing and some more movies. Saturday will be the same again and then it will be game on Sunday morning. The past year has gone super quick and it definitely does not feel like a year ago I was on the startline to Challenge Copenhagen. 

Check out some photos below

Inside room

Orbea ready to roll

#2 this year

Staying in the very nice Bella Sky

Press conference

Some photos from Hilpoltstein

This could be very dangrous, BIG party this weekend in Hilpo

Me on the Orbea

Driving and photography not reccomended

One of the many quiet country roads to ride through

For my farmer friends, harvest time in Germany this week