| All about T-rex of Tri |
T-rex of Tri
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Location: Wellington, NZ
|
| Year on year totals |
2003
Swim - 650m
Bike - 1880km
Run - 531km
2004
Swim - 25125m
Bike - 4111km
Run - 1473km
2005
Swim - 139930m
Bike - 6244km
Run - 1510km
2006
Swim - 201462m
Bike - 7665km (A few k on rollers sadly an indoor cyclist now)
Run - 1683km
2007
Swim - 139339m
Bike - 8594km (All outside)
Run - 1494km
2008 - 25/8/08
Swim - 145349m
Bike - 7586km
Run - 1252km
Goals for '08 in distance terms.
None at all, do less mountain biking, stay healthy, have a great winter with lots of swimming and running and smack it hard next year. (Oh yeah, once I've got these pesky 2 Ironmen out the way first). I've seen enough evidence that if I manage to do what my coach tells me then I may be able to make it to the back of the front of the pack instead of the middle of the pack! |
 |
| Races |
2008 Races
Ironman New Zealand- Taupo, NI
01/03/08
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - S:1:13:08 B:5.20:14 R:4:04:02
Position - 257/1080
Happiness - 9.5/ 10
Great race, very solid result.
Challenge Wanaka Ironman - Wanaka, SI
28/10/08
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - S:1:11 B:5.30 R:5:06
Position - 57/119
Happiness / 10 - 8
Great race, not great result.
2007 Races
K2 Road Race - Thames, Coromandel
28/10/07
B192k - 2300m vertical
Time - 6:54:13
Position - not 1st
Happiness / 10 - 6
Blew up at 100 miles!
Scorching Duathlon
2/9/07
distance 5/20/2.5
Time - 1:18
Position - 8 / 25(ish)
Happiness / 10 - 6
Levin Half Marathon, Taupo
5/8/07
R21.1k
Time - 1:38:00
Position - 83rd Open Male from 300+
Happiness / 10 - 7/10
Not fast but great to finish in one piece.
Wellington Half Marathon
24/6/07
R21.1k
Time - DNF
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
Through 5k in 7 min miles then hit curb and ripped hand up again 
Xterra NZ
15/4/07
B40k
Time - DNS
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
No chance of starting with hand.
Odyssey MTB ride - 300k
8/4/07
B320k
Time - DNS
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
No chance of starting with hand.
R&R series MTB race
1/4/07
B40k
Time - DNF
Position - Last
Happiness / 10 - 0/10
2.5k in and cut hand to smitherenes, 4 days in hospital
Wellington Standard Distance Champs
Very Windy Day - 18/3/07
S1.5k B40k R10k
Time - 2:28
Position - 15 / 60
Happiness / 10 - 8/10
Ironman New Zealand 3/1/07
S3.8k B180k R42.2k
Time - 11:47:42
Position - 395
Happiness / 10 - 7/10
McMillan Memorial Du - 28/1/07
R2.3Mi / B4.6Mi
<30 Mins
2 / 12
9 / 10 - Hello Mr Hurtbox!
Greenmantle Dash Hill Race - 2/1/07
R2Mi
22:47
51 / 119
6 / 10 - downhill poor
Edinburgh NYD - 1/1/07
S400m B11mi R3.5mi
S7:40 B36.59 R27.07 - 1:13:51
23rd of 317 finishers (less some teams) S41, B25, R43
7 / 10
Key:
Distances
Time
Position
Happiness / 10 |
|
| Personal Bests |
Run
5k - 19.46 - 25/9/05 (Scottish Aquathon Champs)
5Mile - 32.35 - 26/8/05 (Kilmarnock Trail Race)
10k - 41.12 - 10/5/05 (Troon 10k)
10Mile - 72.21 - 8/5/05 (Deeside duathlon)
1/2 Mara - 91.32 - 19/3/06 (Girvan Half)
Mara - 3:41:21 - 2/10/05 (Loch Ness mara)
Bike
10 Mile - 24.12 - 13/10/06 (Old Loans Course)
 |
| Calendar 09 - 2010 |
< Sep, 2010 >
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|
| | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
|
|
|
|
|
Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:45 pm T-rex of Tri
|
|
Merry xmas to all my loyal devoted blog readers...
Tonight I'm off to Methven in the South Island, NZ, I love the South Island, there'll be hardly anyone about, which is great. I'm going to meet Maria's parents (insert nervous gulp emoticon) and so I'll get a family xmas again even though I'm on the other side of the world which is pretty exciting.
I can sense mojo coming back for training, it's a slow process, but it's getting there. Some of it thanks to Chris (edlscre) who has been reciting some of my favourite motivational sayings... the particular favourite is: "Anything worth having never came easy" and frankly that got me through a scabby 2 hour run last night.
Anyway, got to run, have a great xmas folks:
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
My name's Andy and I used to post on Blogs
Wed Dec 17, 2008 12:14 am T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Hey hey... a quick blogpost about things...
Life
Life is good 
Work
Work isn't 
Racing / Training
Lost mojo for training, showing distinct signs of being disinterested. I think it stemmed around the time of doing some cycle racing and despite not being in the front group that people were refusing to work to get closer to them.
In terms of racing, did the Rotorua Half Ironman on Saturday, my new pb for half distance (5:02:58 - FAIL). I've given up on comparing times on different courses as either English athletes are just better or they are mostly on short courses. Rotorua is not short (the swim is even advertised as 2k and is reckoned to be slightly long), the bike is lumpy and the run is lumpy / hilly off-road and hot. All in not ingredients for me to excel.
I was all set to break 5 hours needing to run the last 5k in 30 minutes to be under it and somehow conspired not to. The heat seemed to get to me and I think it may have been exercise induced asthma, I suddenly found myself very short of breath and struggling to go forwards and lost all motivation. It was grim, if Ironman NZ is hot it will again be a very long day, nothing seems to have changed.
(Apparently I have big boobs!)
Things doing
Weekends have been heaps of fun for a while now, been doing lots of things what with Taupo Cycle Challenge (Facebook photos) a great weekend. Rotorua last weekend was particularly fun on the Sunday mucking about in the warm blue lake on the Sunday was great.
Met Cobbie from the forum last night, he was passing through Wellington on the way to some more walking. Going to meet up with him again on Friday night for some tramping on Saturday... saying that I better get packing for that as I've not got much time down the line.
Previous replies
Thanks everyone, some things are very good
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tue Nov 25, 2008 4:06 am T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Well, it has been almost a month, guess I better post something?
What have I been up to in the last month? Stuff, that's the answer
Training
In terms of exercise I've been getting myself ready for the Rotorua half Ironman which is in 2.5 weeks time, been doing the same sort of things as I was doing on the way to Aberfeldy except the weather is warmer (not really nicer, just warmer). I guess I'm doing about 15 or 16 hour weeks at the moment although last weekend was a bit of a blow out for a couple of reasons... 1. Just being a bit "done" with cycling and 2. Having my crank fall off about 5k into my ride and not really being in the mood to get started again.
Since I last wrote I've been in OW swimming 3 times, we had one weekend with some serious chop in the water and that was great fun. Swimming in the sea is so much better than black line watching. It's certainly giving me a whole heap of swimming mojo.
In terms of races I took part in the Martinborough fun ride, a 115k sportive style ride in the Wairarapa with Maria. My task for the day was to take her round her first bike race. She did very well and only lost quite a reasonable group over the last 15k where the weight of the hills just took a bit too much out of her to hang on. We finished happily mid-pack with an average speed up around 30km/h which was good. (And it was sunny and I ate well at the post event BBQ and so everything I could want was all there).
This weekend I'm going up to the Round Taupo cycle race... don't tell coach though, he thinks that I'm doing a 6 hour ride on my lonesome... but the Round Taupo is iconic, 100 miles around the Great Lake, 10,000 riders in total. I'm hoping to easily break 5 hours, but who knows what will happen on the day, I guess some of it depends on what group I end up in after the initial hills, we can but see. (Don't tell coach, he (rightly) thinks it's dangerous and full of people who can't handle a bike but might have let me do it anyway as I should be far enough up the field to be with road bikers).
After this there is a short taper and then the half ironman, the goal remains the same as it was for Aberfeldy but the constituent parts will be somewhat different as the swim is 100m longer and the bike is somewhat easier (but still the hardest half in NZ!).
Life
In the subtopic of general / life there are many things afoot inhibiting time in the evenings, it's all good fun and isn't an inhibition but an extension of things, definitely all good.
Fantastic social events of late have included cinema and parties and an evening watching the Wellington Phoenix in the A-league (soccer) all of which could make entire blog posts. The cinema was "In Bruges" starring Colin Farrel, I was expecting Arthouse European and was entertained with some of the darkest humour I've ever seen, well worth it. The party was one of Maria's friends engagement parties and was entertaining on many levels.
Anyway, just a quick post, I'm still about, still training hard... and happily still  so definitely still
Previous replies
Sue - I think I'll let the grass get the better of me and just move somewhere else.
Poet - think this month will be quite similar to last, maybe a bit down on total biking but up on running.
Sav - things going very well.
Paul
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:53 pm T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
It's been ages since I've updated my blog, I've got quite a few photos but they'll have to wait, a texty blog I think for today. I've been a busy sporting boy for the last few weeks for sure.
What have I been up to:
Tour of Waikanae
Since I last posted I've done some cycle racing, first up was a 100k flat road race, race report as follows.
The gun went, everyone sprinted off and two groups quickly formed, I found myself in the second of these, getting to the first wasn't going to be possible as it was a crit start before it opened up to road racing proper. With my handling skills I was stuck in the second pack.
It was interesting, 4 laps of a 25k loop, no point in breaking off the front of the group as it would just be lonely and doomed to failure, no real training benefit in just sitting in, so did heaps of work up front.
About 10k's from home I broke off the front of the group and finished first of the 2nd pack in 14th overall (about 170 in field), a reasonable result, but I'm sure I would have been fine in the first group. If I hadn't broken that group I wouldn't have sprinted, so would have finished about 20 places further down.
Here I was introduced to the fascination that NZ cyclists have with the Round Taupo race / ride (100 miles round Lake Taupo) and was asked about whether or not I was doing it several times, I figure I need to do it sometime just to know what it's all about, 13000 cyclists for a weekend has to be good to be about?
Tri-goals Training Camp
A week (or possibly 2) after this was a training camp in the Wairarapa, about 90km's north of Wellington, lovely and quiet and a great place to train. Last year's camp meant that I met many new friends and really started to set me up in Wellington, I was hoping this year's camp was going to be the same. Last year's camp also saw me get kinda sick on the second day and not complete it, so that was important to get through this year too.
This was ran by my coach Kevin Nicholson and his willing assistant, Kona Champion (AG) and record holder Vicki Jones (who finished 6th at IMCA 2007): http://www.trigoals.com/
There were 4 days to the camp, it went as follows:
Friday - swim and then hilly ride. We swam about 3k's (I guess) and my neck got sore, something to do with my one way breathing and not engaging my core to breathe I'm sure, but hey, that's swimming and it's dark arts stuff if you ask me.
The bike was about 85k's and included about 1200m of ascent and Admiral Hill, a lovely thing. I was enjoyably dominant on the bike on this day and feeling fresh, that would change.
There was an hour's run in here too, everyone was a bit tetchy on the run trying to let each other go off first as we'd just had some food. I ran round with World AG duathlon champion Steph Anderson, I think she was being kind in not dealing to me on the way round, so an hour for me must be about 12k's as we weren't pushing it too much.
B: 85k
S: 3000m (ish)
R: 12k
Saturday - today was the big bike day, a 5 to 6 hour ride around the Wairarapa from Masterton to Martinborough then a loop and back to Masterton along a different road, about 150k all up. We all stayed together (mostly) on the way out, there were 14 or 15 of us in the group I think. From Martinborough we regrouped a bit and went off for another 50k loop. In this loop I went off the front and did a lot of work on my own, which has to be good for me in the longer term. Then after about 100k's riding we stopped and had lunch, it was great, I found a penchant for tomatoes when out riding, very strange, but yummy and juicy. I then bunched up and rode back with everyone else, it was good to chat with the rest of our group who were a diverse bunch but with quite a few tattoos.
Post ride we had a recovery swim, I think I covered 2400 or 2500 metres in the hour, it was horrible though, not really much fun, but swimming never is right?
There were 4 or 5 expat brits on the camp who consumed massive amounts of cups of tea through the camp!!
B: 150k
S: 2400m (ish)
Sunday - so we were a bit goosed from the last couple of days but much more to do, Sunday would see us do our long run.
First up a swim, must have covered about 3k  in the hour.
Next up the run, the weather was nasty so I underdressed  as ever. And off we went. Again I ran with Steph, no-one else on the camp was stupid enough to come along at our pace and went a bit slower. We reckoned we were through 10k in about 45 minutes and for the hour and a half it was probably about 19k's or so, I'm sure I slowed in the second half. It was pretty cold at times.
Then a recovery bike... a truly foreign concept for me. I wasn't allowed to ride at the front, I was told clearly to sit on the back of the bunch and never to raise the pace. This was surprisingly good fun, got chatting to more people as we drifted along with me in my little ring on the bike.
S: 3k (ish)
R: 19k (ish)
B: 48k
Monday - last day of camp and a bit less going on. 3 hours of biking with a further 15 minute run on the end. Kevin let me use his powermeter for this ride to try and get some handle on numbers. The idea behind this bike was to negative split, go out easier for 1.5 hours and then hit it hard coming back. Well, I tried that... but my going out easier was downwind and any time that I looked at the powermeter it was registering more than 300W. Coming back was into the wind and hills that I didn't remember. The powerbar I'd sneaked down was trying to come back out too. I just about made it back in an even split which seemed pretty good.
The run was horrible though, which was good, it reminded me what speed / level of effort that I couldn't go at for 90k (and more).
B: 97k
R: 3k
All in, a great training weekend.
K2 - Coromandel
A spectacular race this: http://www.arcevents.co.nz/k2cycle/content/
192k's around the Coromandel peninsula, stunning scenery, stunning climbs, 600 odd riders, just great to do. We were lucky and got some really got great weather. This made the huge descents a lot more manageable. I lost tens of places on the downhills which I mostly got back going uphill, but I was showing my lack of road racing class in both the downhills, cornering and general group riding where I seemed to do more work than most.
I also had a large hydration issue as on the first climb of the day, after about 5k's one of my 2 water bottles and cages flew off. A serious issue for hydration for the day, meaning that I had at most 5 bottles of water for what I knew to be 6 hours riding. Time to stick on a new bottle cage I guess as that one is lying in pieces just outside Tairua.
This extra work told on the last climb, the Kopu-Hikau (sp?) climb from Thames to Tairua. The climb is classified from 5k's out and is a long slog, I quickly found myself punted from the group that I had lead for a long time and going backwards at a rate of knots. I was in bonk territory and getting from 160k's to 192 seemed impossible. I got some gel down and some water eventually came to me at the last water stop on the climb and I was feeling a bit better but not 100%. My legs had been stuffed most of the way from the previous week's training camp and it was really telling.
I refused to join a group of 4 on the run in as I wouldn't have added to it, but caught on to a group of around 10 (with a Marco Pantani lookalike in it) soon after. They helped me through to the end and I dropped them coming into the finish, which showed maybe I should have stuck with the group of 4 up the road, oh well.
I finished in 6:16 and about 150th of 600 riders. Certainly a lot better than this poor chap in the first group, I couldn't watch when we passed the site, seeing a milk tanker and a strewn cyclist isn't a good thing in any race, thoughts are with him and his family right now: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10540630&ref=rss
Anything else:
Two things
Two things is definitely one thing now, I need to work out how to change that one thing in this current climate though, but I'm generally really happy.
Mighty Lions
Yeah, the mighty lions fell in the final to the nasty sheep of Cantebury. A 7-6 loss, some terrible refereeing, some borderline play by McCaw and Reid and they take the NPC title down south. I've really enjoyed the Wellington Lions season this year, we played very well throughout much of the year but were often exposed by those more ruthless at the breakdown (which was my fear going into the game). But hey, we have the Ranfurly shield.
It was great to see Cory Jane and Josea Gear get called up for the All Blacks to go on the UK tour, these two have been our most entertaining players in the loose, so well worth their calls, they'll do the jersey proud!
Coming up
I've still got some cycle racing to do, which could be interesting, I'll update that on here, but my focus for the next month is my B-race of the season, the Rotorua Half Ironman, I want to be in tip top shape for that and smack through 5 hours (assuming the weather isn't horrendous). It'll take some pacing but I think the ingredients are there to do it. It's not one of those false halfs that are so popular in the UK though, it's a proper beast, possibly the hardest in NZ.
October totals
Don't have my spreadsheet in front of me, but it reads:
S: 33k
B: 1350k
R: 130k
A bit low on running with little quality, but this will be rectified soon.
Previous replies:
Sue - still not sorted the gardening dlimena, tried some tugging but grass is a hardier beast than me apparently.
Cleo - there's probably less cryptic stuff now. Will try and put a picture of the bike at the mo in soon as it looks nice with the St Andrew's cross saddle.
Poet - my mother has a lovely sense of humour with the clippers!
Slacko - yep Wellington is pretty cool for cycling, Coromandel even better. Maria is from the SI, so not related to your football acquaintance of years gone by.
TB - yeah it's a long drive to the Mandel but definitely worth it. You started swimming in the harbour yet?
Savaloy - saddle not as comfy as the old lighter one but the effect is great (might just be the massive increase in miles though).
Paul L - my house has been getting a gradual makeover, there is less and less stuff in it (I was keeping stuff for a friend when the messiest of photos were taken).
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 weeks back... busy as...
Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:06 pm T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Well, the counter on weeks back is becoming slightly redundant, I've been here a while now and that's all we need to know. Life is settling down.
Sporty things
First up... triathlon blog, must discuss all things triathlon.
In the last couple of weeks (and assuming I do all my training today, and it's raining but I will) I have done about 17 hours training a week for the last two weeks. So all is good there, this is just the start really of some massive hours this year leading up to Taupo next year. I've generally topped out about 20 hours for Ironman and that has only lasted a week, on the way to the half at Aberfeldy I got to 20 hours for 3 weeks and that seemed to make a difference along with interval running and hilly riding.
With the K2 (192k) cycle sportif at the Coromandel penninsula in a few weeks http://www.arcevents.co.nz/k2cycle/content/ I've been getting some epic rides in lately. They've been epic in terms of weather and distance and hills, just everything really. Yesterday took the biscuit really doing 129k in 4 hours 50 (yeah, very slow) with 1300m of hills in there and what were reported to be gale force winds. The gusts were the real problem with having to unclip a couple of times due to getting blown all over the road. Really quite unpleasant. Doesn't help that I don't have full confidence since my slip when I was back home.
Anyone with an interest in route and those that know the hills will know this is hilly (that's mostly you Slacko):
Plimmerton - Paekakariki Hill Road - Moonshine Hill Road - Blue Mountains Road - Whitemans Valley - Silverstream - Ngauranga Gorge - Porirua - Plimmerton
It all seems to be going well and I feel in need of more which is good, don't want to go nuts and lose motivation later in the year.
Bikey things
Well, I'm now a 3 bike family (down from 5), but probably officially a 4 bike family with a 4th bike in Scotland in a shed (and Imelda is a pretty one too!). Sold a couple of my bikes on trademe, one of them I think I mentioned in the previous blog post, my folding bike.
My classic folding bike at uni was something else and something that my parents had given me for my second trip to uni to get me the two miles up and down to uni as they weren't going to use it. It was great, a Polish number about 30 years old, hadn't been ridden for about 15 years when I got it and I just did what you're meant to do on bikes, rode it into the ground. When I got out here I wanted something similar, so bought this one (Shopper MkII):
Which didn't really do the job, it was super-cheap and you could tell. The seat didn't go as high as it needed to for my height, I bent the handlebars when standing on the pedals one day (also had a crash that day) and generally it just didn't work for me. Thankfully a nice old man picked it up for $1 which covered my trading fees and he seemed really happy with what he had got. Hopefully he'll ride it sensibly.
The other bike that went was Greta, an Avanti Supersprint Triathlon:
Which kinda went for a few reasons: as I needed to have some cash this month with unpaid leave coming off, it was taking up room even though it was being used, if I was honest Dr Frankenhand the mountainbike with panniers was probably better suited to the role that it was playing and Dr Frankenhand would have needed a service to sell it and I like having panniers on one of my bikes so as I can do shopping if my car breaks down for any reason.
I bought Greta for $50 from a friend who had bought it for $60 from trademe. I'd upgraded the saddle as it had a women's saddle on it (think big and gel filled) to a Selle Italia Tri-matic 2. Somehow this $15 upgrade meant that it sold for about $90 more than it last had when on TradeMe, I think the right time of season, enthusiastic bidders and also a good description helped too.
So down to 3 bikes, it feels about right, I rarely use my race bike and my road bike is in almost constant use. I've just changed the saddle on that more for fun than performance as I've added 20g with my new saddle but I think it looks nice!
I'm getting bike serviced Monday so will get some blue bar tape on too to add to the look, it's going to be a cross of Scottish colours and my tri-club colours of blue and yellow. I may well race it next week at the Tour of Waikanae 100km "fun" ride. I'll take off the Campag Kamsims and stick on my easton wheels to at least feel like I'm racing!
2 things
The 2 things I talk of in this blog I think may well be down to 1... fingers crossed. With one of them solved it takes the pain out of the other, so very happy. For those of you following my facebook status I now appear to be "in a relationship" with Maria Kemp, who is a fantastic girl, this cheers me up a lot and she's pretty special (that was one of the 2 things).
Garden things
In tribute to Paul L I thought I'd consult the tritalk massive on what to do with my garden... it's a quandry...
My entire range of gardening tools is as follows:
And yet I need to cut out the following:
Yeah, that bit on the right is annoying me, otherwise my garden path looks lovely  What to do, I almost get the impression that my kitchen knife would do better... maybe I should just pull it out... I'm not sure that the grass will hold together on being pulled.
More from T-rex's gardener's world in future installments!
Reply-y things
Justin S - yep, for long periods of the day it doesn't get to me and then it does and I feel in a hole, I even moved my gnome back into the corner so as there would be some more happiness down there.
Poet - it's distinctly spring, we've got time till summer still.
Slacko - Paekak is actually OK for traffic, particularly from the Pauhautanui (sp?) side, I'd guess it is worse on the hairpins from the Paekak side, but it's not been too windy of late to do that side too often. I got overtaken on the downhill to Paekak last week by a fat bloke, I've decided I've lost my ability to descend purely based on that as he was hopeless up the hill!
Sue - I think we're down to just issue 1, so life is good and that can practically be forgotten about as issue 2 is pretty cool.
Paul L - it could well be the naughty corner, but as in the naughty corner at school I am even less productive there, so it is their own mistake!
John - it's OK, I think I'm sorting the two things, but if I was lost I'd happily PM you, you have many wise words.
Sav - the view sadly doesn't make me chuckle!
VickiCh - the view just proves that you can be in the best countries in the world and have a crap view, it'd be like working in our old Stirling office and having a view of the motorway and not the Campsies (as I had latterly in Stirling which was pretty sweet!)
Tabtri - yeah, there has been a bit less ranting since I've been in NZ for one reason and another, sometimes I felt it coming back when I was in Scotland, maybe it's good for me to be here.
Right, the weather looks to be clearing, time to get moving for the day... have a good week folks!
_________________
'Mon the Biff
~ Last edited by T-rex of Tri on Sun Oct 05, 2008 1:15 am; edited 2 times in total
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 weeks back... things is good...
Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:51 am T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Well, 2 weeks back in NZ, things have been fun so far. It's not all ups, but they certainly are in the ascendancy. I'll try to put together a summary.
Training
Well this is a triathlon blog after all. First week back "on the spreadsheet" last week. It was all fairly easy stuff to get started and about 16 hours training. I think this was eased into by not having much wind to contend with on the bike, which is far and away the biggest problem (and most strengthening) part of cycling consistently in Wellington.
Sunday was my only windy day and I climbed Paekakariki hill road to find that I could hardly stay on the bike at the top of it. Managed to get back down the hill safely and finish things off. Biking seems fine thus far although I'm going through one of those periodic replacement phases of worn out kit.
I took a wheel to the shop with a couple of broken spokes, basically the rim was in such a state that it would have needed a new build with a new rim, so I just picked up a cheap MTB wheel, but that was $160.
On my way home on Monday my feet weren't clipping into my pedals, so I'm currently trying to wrestle my old cleats off and hope that I have a new pair of cleats in my spares bag... I think there are. If not I've got a spare pair of shoes and could always go on my mtb again. The shoes are 4 years old so well in need of an overhaul.
My initial phase of training for next year's Ironman (which is this phase) doesn't include so much running, so hoping to stay nice and fresh for more cycling ahead of the K2 in the Coromandel. I really must enter these races that I'm saying I'm going to do.
Lions
The mighty Wellington Lions have been the best team in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) in New Zealand this year and on Saturday won one of the more quirky trophies in world rugby.
The Ranfurly Shield is a sort of passed around trophy which you win off the holders only by beating them at home. It makes sense and is a great competition as it's pretty exciting if your province gets a shot at it.
Wellington will be defending it for the first time on Saturday and I'm hopeful that I'll get to the game.
They also had a parade in town for their winning the Log, here is our mascot in the parade:
View at work
I've lost some focus since I've been back from my holibags... I'm not sure, but I don't think that my view is helping... when you're a developer and just sit in front of two monitors all day and don't get up and out much it really isn't helpful.
Leaving Nights
Saturday saw 2 leaving nights for me. One of my friends is off to Perth, Oz, she's becoming what Kiwis know as a statistic (kiwis who move to Oz for work are known this way), one of my tri adversaries too although I was just getting the upper hand on her at the end of the season (she's a top female AG-er).
The other leaving night saw Kirsten from the Moana lodge leave for a few months, I'll miss Kirsten, she kind of looks after me and will tell me when I'm being stupid, I need honest people around me. She'll be back in January as she, like me, got her residency this year, so it's exciting times for her.
I'm starting to learn that people come and go around here and to make the most of time that you have with people and enjoy your time, things move on, be appreciative that you met them and you'll meet up again some year as long as you make the right effort.
Two things
The two things... well some of you know others don't. One is going well, one isn't, that's all I'm saying. and probably Exciting times, I sort of thought that I couldn't sort number two without number one, maybe I can, maybe they are mutually exclusive?
Trade me
New Zealand has its own version of eBay which is called TradeMe, it's an auction site with much the same features and is pretty intuitive to use. Well, I've decided to get rid of some of the chaff that I've been keeping around my flat and am proceeding to go from 5 bikes in my flat to 3 as I think I can get by with just 3... I think... don't know.
The first to go was an old folding bike, well it wasn't old, but it looked it. I considered the heap or possibly http://www.freecycle.org which is a free trading site. I thought I'd try it on TradeMe first to give it away. I set a buy it now price of $1 on it and got it. The guy who picked it up seemed genuinely appreciative to pick it up, I hope he can use it.
I've got two more lots on at the moment, hopefully they'll go for more than a dollar each (the bids are already there). I've already been offered $100 buy-it-now for one of the lots but didn't take it as I'm fascinated by the auction dynamic and think that could make things exciting, so we'll see what happens there.
Conclusions
So that's my blog for another week, have a good week folks.
Previous replies
Sue - you're quite right in your analysis I think.
AndyS - A380 is cool, hope they roll it out to your flight by the time you go. I think I wrote to you about Ulva, if you need help with that let me know.
Poet - I hope it will be warm, and yes, Surf's Up is indeed awesome!
Sav - IMNZ is the 8th(?) of March, it's early March anyway, I'd love to go to Wanaka and Taupo again, but one Ironman and nailing it is this year's plan.
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
Back a week... spring is springing
Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:56 am T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Well folks, been back a week, it's good to be back and that's for sure.
I'll try and split this into sections so those who get bored by my random meanderings in blogposts can skip to what they want to read (the bit that says that's all folks).
Flights / Trip back - well the trip back was as uneventful as you really want, but I had great fun doing it. I had chosen to fly straight through on the way back with very little time anywhere.
Thankfully I had about 4 hours in Heathrow as that became about 2 once my shuttle flight from Glasgow was running late. Going to Heathrow was something I had wanted to avoid and flew into Manchester on the way out for that reason. But flying form Heathrow meant that I could fly one of these beasts: Airbus A380. It was a genuine joy even though I was only in cattle class and got a rubbish seat in the centre aisle. The women on my right was more than happy to let me out to walk which I took advantage of a couple of times.
The biggest cool think about these planes (to me) was the size of the seatback televisions, they must have been about 8 inches, maybe 9 (saying as I'm staring at my 12" iBook at the moment and comparing). I watched a couple of films on this flight, Surf's Up (which I've been telling everyone to go see, I mean Penguins and surfing, what could be better) and Run Fat Boy Run, which was a fantastic film with Simon Pegg... well the subject matter was good to me for lots of reasons, so cheered me up no end. I don't think I actually cried at either of these, cos clearly I'm much too butch and manly to do stuff like that... but I'm sure others might have if they got as into them as me (and were as tired).
Singapore Airport was fantastic again, I was there for about an hour, again I think that the flight from LHR was delayed slightly. I didn't need much in Singapore though, just a toilet and it was quite noticable that these were much better than LHR, GLA or anything in NZ airports. They've clearly invested in a lot of facilities there. Highly recommend going through Singapore if you're coming out this way.
From Singapore I flew on to ChCh (Christchurch) which was great, Christchurch airport is pretty small town and everyone is friendly, a 777 coming in is pretty much the big deal for the day. We flew in over the Southern Alps which are covered in snow at the moment and it was stunning. I had to awake the guy sitting next to me to show him the view (I'd seen his visa declaration and knew he was only visiting so needed to see).
For the first time I got to go in the NZ / Oz and Returning Residents queue at the airport rather than the "All Other Passports" queue, I don't think it was any shorter but it made me feel a lot more kiwi than I had before and a nice welcome back from the immigration staff was better than producing a visa and hoping that it showed on the system! So that was good.
The hop up from ChCh was cool as we flew in over Wellington on a really clear day and it was great to see the town from the sky and look out monuments. Gotto say that I was happy to see my lift but have to apologise to them for being a bit distant and generally "zonked" on the lift back to mine (I again apologise for the state of my place to them here, I'm trying).
Life
Well it was the acid test, was getting back to NZ going to upset me or was I going to be happy to be here. I'm pleased to say that I am happy to be here, things work for me here, there isn't a lot of the unnecessary stuff that you see in the UK, it's cool here.
Of the 2 things in my life that I want to sort... I'm trying... I guess watch this space, but I'm unlikely to say too much about either for a few reasons.
Training
So in my first week back I haven't had coach's supervision to guide me so I've just been doing what I've felt like, I managed a couple of swims, in fact 4 and a couple of times on my bike and a couple of runs. I did about 10 hours of training in all, it's not much. Had a good chat to coach today and we're going to get things going. First up is a 200k bike ride in the Coromandel, so a bike specific block leading up to that on the 1st of November, the race is pretty hilly but it's a gem, really must get my entry off soon. Anyone in NZ reading this, come on up: K2 Cycle website
We've got a training camp in October as well, a 4 day affair as I remember, should be a good way of making me tired. Coach has emphasised the need not to go nuts too early on in the lead up to Ironman and burn out as I would usually want to do, so I'll just follow his plans and hopefully we'll be fine.
Anything else - nah, that's about it, my car is back on the road, got the battery replaced yesterday, now I have a 2 yr warranty on it in case anything goes wrong with it. I don't use my car much, mostly cycle / take the train, but you do notice when you don't have that additional freedom to do as you want.
Previous replies
Pookey - yeah for sure, settled as I get anyway!
AndyS - Stewart Island is amazing, try the fish (think you get it from "the" hotel. Go on a nighttime kiwi watching expedition, that rocked when I did that... your trip to a smaller island off their sound cool too, I went to Ulva Island when down that way, they had cool stuff there. If you want to chat about anything let me know as I'm happy to help as much as I can.
Poet - about time too, it's not that good but it's a start. If I didn't need to run like a T-rex to keep my name going I'd be real quick!
Savaloy - cheers, yeah, the trip was positive in many ways, some positives were hidden as negatives at the time, but may well end up positives... man, I speak cryptically in this blog.
Dre - cheers Pal, nothing to compare to you at the Vit though!
That's all folks...
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
Going home, mission accomplished
Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:22 pm T-rex of Tri
|
|
|
Well, tomorrow I head off back to NZ, I think I've got what I wanted from this trip, not everything was perfect but heaps of it was good.
Things I know
New Zealand works for me, I rarely feel overwhelmed by the numbers of people.
Scotland is a great place, although sometimes the attitude of the people does rather get in the way. It's honestly not all doom and gloom here and everywhere else isn't better.
There are great people wherever you go and not so great people wherever you go.
Golf should be enjoyed once or twice a year and no more, any more and you start to worry why you're not timing the ball right. Not playing much means anything that you do do is a pleasant surprise.
Wherever I am I need to be happy in work.
Taking some time off after a big event brings some zest back to getting coached, I've enjoyed this bit.
What have I done?
On this trip I've done some cool things, I've raced a bit more than I would normally, did some races after the half ironman for fun and enjoyed them.
Had some good time with my brother up north, we went out hillwalking and bagged my 11th and 12th Munros: Photos
Had a nice couple of rounds of golf at Reay and Wick. Reay was pretty special getting a couple of 2's and shooting a 3 over the card 72: Photos
Met up with heaps of old friends, notably my Tri club (Ayrodynamic) and running club (Troon Tortoises), I've missed people the most when I've been away and there doesn't really seem to be the same zest of club life in Wellington that we are lucky to have in the Ayrshire clubs.
Photos spectating British Sprint Champs with multiple Ayrodynamic members involved
Photos of Straiton Hill Race ran with various members of the Troon Tortoises
In races over here I've had multiple PB and course bests which has been great, some of them were really just training runs and others I tried very hard in. These bests are as follows:
1/2 Ironman Aberfeldy - 5 hours 3 minutes - Aberfeldy - I was hoping that I might manage inside 5 hours and 10 minutes and get a PB, Aberfeldy is a much harder course than any of the NZ courses, with the bike being 10 minutes longer than most other places. I managed 5th fastest on the bike in 2:43 which says a lot for the nasty climbs. I ran really well in 1:42 and change and that was really where I made most of the PB there. Job well done frankly.
Brutal run photos (cheers Paul)
10 Mile TT - 23:32 - this was more a realignment job. I just took the bike to the dual carriageway a few days before the half Ironman to check it was working so wasn't entirely full out but wasn't too far out. Not bad for a road bike with only 50mm wheels on it (aero but more importantly light for Aberfeldy (cheers LeahnP)). Yesterday I won the club's first Autumn time trials in 24:41 on a sporty course which I was pretty pleased with, going passed the other 4 riders, making up the 2 minutes max lead out. That was fun.
5 Mile Run - 32:12 - OK, so this one is a bit random, I don't run 5 mile races normally and my only other 5 mile time is in this trail race a couple of years earlier. I ran OK here but backed off when it got hilly as had the half ironman 3 or 4 days later. This was done on the same day as the 10 mile TT best.
5k Road Run - 19:50 - this had been a long standing annoyance for me, I'd never beaten 20 minutes in anything but a triathlon / aquathon where the distances can be dodgy. I spent the weekend before eating chocolates and all the sorts of things that I can't get in New Zealand (Hob Nobs, Jaffa Cakes, anything by Tunnocks, Malt Loafs) and so wasn't coming in light but was pretty well rested. I was pleased to get through under 20 minutes, can certainly build from there.
What to do now...
I need to make sure that I'm happy, there are 2 main things that I've written about elsewhere that I'll not name here but I can sort them out in New Zealand. I'm generally cool with most things in life, I know that I want to be in NZ, my trip has proved that, it's cool here in Scotland but I like NZ, it's got a certain something that works for me. If I can sort out 2 areas then it'll be amazing, this is certainly one down on when I left for NZ 18 months ago, and probably hence less rants on this blog.
Don't know when I'll be back on these shores, could be quite a while, I need to see some of Europe on future visits too, being away has fired a certain travel bug in me.
Good luck to all doing IMUK this week, it's going to be spectacular, if I'd planned things better I'd have seen you there!
Previous replies
AndyS - PM'd you about this, thanks for your hints and advice. See you on the other side of the world next March.
Sue - yeah, need to take some of that on.
Paul - attacking children is wrong... I feel so bad 
Savaloy - yeah, I have this pessimistic nature that doesn't help things sometimes.
_________________
'Mon the Biff
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 36, 37, 38 Next
|
|
|
