Birthday Blog

Well the time has flown since we got home from Europe, I have been getting back into the training after a break and been busy painting, re tiling and renovating the house.
I had my birthday the other day and gave myself a good thrashing before the customary cake

So the day went like this
 5.30am,  alarm goes off, get to the Te Awamutu pools for a swim with the TeA swim club swim session was 1000m alternate free/back, 30x100 free, 1000m alternate swim back so a good solid aerobic set

 8am,     Get home, have breakfast, check some emails

 9am,     Drive to Porrit stadium run track with Candice, Erin is cranking out a big run session and  looking strong. I do a short warm up then 25x400 which hurt a lot even though the pace was not on. It was the first time for some quality in a while, so its always a wake up call

12pm,    Get home, have lunch, get motivated for my afternoon session at the gym.

4pm,     Jog down to the gym, and meet Elliot, Candice for some rowing on the erg. Candice has wanted to give me a birthday session ever since she swam 10k for hers last year. So the plan was to do my debut 2k erg test. After a little bit of warm up and technique advice it was all on. Me vs Candice and the 100kg New Zealand men's 8 rower they had invited to show me how it was down.
Well it hurt pretty bad, the  thighs where already sore before the erg, and they where definitely pumping after it :)
Well we got a display in how to do it, nearly 1min ripped out of me in the space of just about 6min!
but i did beat Candice best ever time from her rowing days so that was a consolation prize

Then it was time for the good stuff, cake.....

Some photos from Challenge Copenhagen and Europe

Good sausages in Germany

A lot of world history started here

Our babysitter Junea

Getting a massage

Packing!



Uffe, homestay in Denmark, Challenge registration

Swim start - Challenge Copenhagen

Tracy checking timing mat

Jimmy, Tracy + Me

Pizza after the race! all home made, Tracy's sister Ange

Ava sleeping in suitcase

Challenge Copenhagen Race Report

The aim going to into KMD Challenge Copenhagen was to get to the finish line no matter what. After a couple of past rough races I really needed to get to the finish line. The day ended well with a 4^th place which was a bonus.

The swim was a beach start, a few strides and into the water, on my second or third dolphin dive my googles flipped up , I had the split second thought of just continuing without them, but being salt water I decided against it. So I was off the back of the first swimmers from the get go, so I settled into the main 2^nd pack. The rest of the swim was pretty uneventful in my new blue seventy helix.

Out onto the QR bike and the plan was to ride conservatively for the first 90k and try and pick up the pace in the last 90k, the course is quite rolling with a few technical sections so you can pick up a lot of time if you are riding well.  I thought I was riding easy to start, but at the 140k mark the legs started to fall off, and I grovelled into transition 2, so I was pleased to get off the bike and looking forward to getting some coke into the system. 

Once the legs came around, I felt like I was running quite well for the first 15k, I was quite surprised to see I was in 6^th or 7^th coming off the bike after a few guys sat out some drafting penalties at T2. It is a 4 lap course with big crowds along the length, Tracy, Ava and Angela where waiting for me at one of the aid stations, so it was always good to run past them. With about 15k to go, I came past Berkel who was obviously having a tough day, Aaron who destroyed the bike was miles up the road, and Jimmy and Mads where also out of touch unless they had a big meltdown. Joesph , my ex Team TBB German team mate was 5min back so I just had to run steady to keep my place. Running into the finish line was a good feeling, a big crowd + Ava and Tracy waiting for me.

So I am very pleased to be back on the scoreboard and back moving in the right direction.

We had a great homestay Uffe and family, it always makes the trip and race so much easier when everything is relaxed and taken care off. We are currently in London for a few days then head back to New Zealand. Check out some photos below

Whats been happening

Well post Roth I basically spent the first week in bed, watched a lot of Tour de France and movies. I am back moving pretty well now and looking forward to KMD Challenge Copenhagen in a couple of weeks time.

I had a interesting ride yesterday, a planned brick session, 3hrs on the bike into 90min run. I could write a whole story on it but the short story is, I was doing a long effort, and completely missed my turn off, thought I knew where I was but ended up extremely lost. Then to make matters worse I double punctured and only had one spare tube, so the last 90min was spent riding the rim home. And to finally top the day off, about 45min from home I started bonking badly, had no money to buy any food, so I arrived home just over 5.5hrs from when I left in a pretty wrecked state.
The next hour involved eating just about anything that I could get my hands on, so moral of the story, ask for directions earlier, take money, take a phone and more than one tube!



2yrs ago in Denmark

Challenge Roth

Not quite the blog I was wanting to write from the best race in the world. I woke up on Sunday morning feeling pretty lethargic, got in had a little swim warm up. Got hammered at start of swim and was on struggle street the hole way, but tried to put it out of my mind once on to the bike.
So I tried to get going on the bike but the body felt very empty, the small hill out of Heideck I was just about in the granny gear, and then soon after the women started riding past! So I called it a day after the first loop of the bike.
Time for me to get the health back and rolling again.

Highlight of my day was seeing Tamsyn taking 45min off last years time and I know there is definitely another big junk of time to come off once she gets some more miles in the tank and resistance in the legs

Challenge Roth - What do i do on the wednesday before

Well Challenge Roth is fast approaching, plenty of athletes around, all the signs are up and I am nearly ready to go.

So on my agenda today was;

 - Get up about 6.30, check the emails
 - Have some breakfast, oats and yoghurt
 - Head out for a bike on some super fast smooth roads, ride some time at a solid pace
   Then run of the bike for 20min
 - Get home, have 2nd breakfast with Dominic, the home stay, he likes to sleep in :)
   Had some nice bretzels and toast
 - Had play with Ava, then a nap, which ended up about a hour long!
 - Lunchtime, yes I do eat quite a bit!
 - Afternoon, a quick swim in the stainless steel pool
 - Quickly back home to pick up Ava and Tracy,
 - Go to Roth, have a massage with Andy
 - Go to Autograph session in Roth, need to improve my signature
 - Back home, catch end of Tour De France, Super motivation to see Greg Henderson smashing out a 
   great lead out for Greipel who took the win
 - Write this blog
 - Dinner
 - Bed 9pm

A few photos from the flights to Europe

So it was a 40hr door to door trip to get to Hilpoltstein, 3 flights and a couple of car trips. We had a bit of time to kill in Singapore so I managed a jog at the airport gym, and then we had some more time to kill as our 2nd flight was cancelled.

Jog in singapore airport

Ava having a sleep in Singapore airport - me playing sudoku

Same babysitters I found in the 2nd flight