Races on the Horizon

In 19 days I will be lining up in my first Tri since IMNZ, yippee, its about time! It has been far too long between drinks and I cant wait to toe the start line again. Since the last post I have only raced once, the Counties Manukau 40km TT Champs. This replaced the scheduled 2nd big weekend I had envisaged. Instead it was off to Auckland where I had a Bike Fit with "Coast to Coast" Champion Gordon Walker and a weekend of training with Andy Mackay and Cam Durno. I was on my spanking new CD01, the latest speed machine from Quintana Roo. Having only been set up on it the day before I wasn't expecting too much but was looking forward to racing again. The course was a 2 lapper, flat with some reasonable winds to contend with. I couldn't get my SRM working so was racing blind, no Cadence, no Heart Rate and no Power. Although completely useless the SRM looked really cool and was definitely the most expensive dashboard accessory there;) I went as hard as I could and finished up 4th overall in 56mins. Commonwealth Bronze Medallist Gordon McCauley took it out 5 mins ahead of me and Aaron Strong was 2nd 3 mins ahead. I was really happy with my effort to be this close to top elite cyclists. I had done zero speed work and was riding a new bike in a totally new position so was far from being tip top. The bike was magic, it is my first Carbon Frame and I have to say I cant see myself going back to Titanium and certainly not Alloy after this. It is super responsive and according to the stats, more aero than the P4.

Since then training has been sporadic at best. I have had 2 bouts of illness, one of which I'm sure was Piggy Flu although they are no longer testing for it. I was in bed for 4 days, never before have I been affected by a flu that badly and it ended up causing me to miss 8 days training. The last 2 weeks have been much better and although cold, the Taupo weather has been reasonable so I have been able to get a few laps of the lake done.

Helping my training of late has been my new Garmin GPS watch. This is without doubt as good a training tool as my SRM (when working!). It is a very motivating piece of kit, seeing exactly how far you have run, at what pace, over what elevation etc is great data. It is especially good for helping to nail quality run sessions at a certain pace. There is no hiding, you are either running the prescribed pace, or you are not. It is also very good for holding me back a little on the longer and slower runs to ensure I'm no overdoing things. I especially like downloading the data after a long ride to see where you have been that day, round the lake rides are especially cool to look at when you pan back to get a view of the entire Nth Island and how far you have been comparative to the size of the country.

I fly out to Aussie on the 12th of August for the Capricorn Half Ironman. I'm using this as a lead up race for the World Long Course Champs which are in Perth in October. The Capricorn will be interesting as I usually have a few shorter lead up races but I am going into this one a little underdone. I think I will be fine though, especially on the bike where I have started to feel good again. Then its a matter of doing my best Cameron Brown impression and getting around the run as efficiently and quickly as possible! I am travelling with Andy MacKay so it should be a good trip and hopefully a little warmer than Taupo's winter.

I thought I would include my plans for the rest of the year and into 2010. Coach Mark Watson and I feel I need more hard racing this year so its a busy calendar which I cant wait to rip into so here goes.....

August, Capricorn Half IM

September, Cam Browns training Camp Noosa (1-2weeks)

October, World Long Course Champs

November, K2 Elite cycling race, Round the Lake Cycle (Classic), Rotorua Tri Series race.

December, Tinman Tri, Taupo Half Ironman, Surfbreaker Sprint Tri

January, Mt Half IM, Geelong 70.3

Feb, Kinloch Tri

March, IMNZ, Auckland Half IM.

I will update again after the OZ trip, be safe y'all, big ups to Julian Dean and Hayden Roulston for inspiring me so much over the last month, respect.....