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All about T-rex of Tri

T-rex of Tri
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Location: Wellington, NZ

Profiles
Below a couple of profiles on different sites: Hill Running Athlinks Twitter

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 Doh

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


Swimming is cheating... Tue Mar 31, 2009 1:48 am T-rex of Tri

Well, I'd always thought it, my suspicions were confirmed, swimming is most definitely cheating. Last night I went to a swimming lesson with a local coach who was very quick out the water at IMNZ and had my "technique" rubbished. Which was what I was looking for. To be fair it wasn't that it was rubbished it was just pointed out that it was massively inefficient, I was taking way too many strokes per length and just wasting energy, it was amazing that I could swim even mediocre with my technique. So I have a few months of working on technique to go, do some actually rolling of my hips, high elbows and making an actual catch and pull through the stroke. I couldn't tell you if this is Total Immersion or any other form of swimming, what it is is something that makes sense to me and something that I can work on. I'll report on all this stuff in this blog as time goes on. With going to the world long distance champs as double olympic distance in 6 months time it's rather important that I'm not dead last out the water and fighting not to be last for the rest of the race. Makes we wonder if there are similar secrets to running that I've been missing... it's a lot to take in but I guess drills are going to do it for me for a while. Of course if this doesn't work then I'll just become a time triallist, who needs swimming and running? Previous replies Paul - if I'm asked to do butterfly I might as well give it a try, but much of my swimming looks like drowning with little style. Sue - yeah, she's great! Savaloy - fully recover? It all depends on how hard your ran, probably 8 weeks if you've gone to the hurtbox, I don't think I got there. Cenzo - your summer is much like our winter though! _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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3 weeks have elapsed... Fri Mar 27, 2009 1:22 am T-rex of Tri

So we're 3 weeks since Ironman New Zealand, I've kinda forgotten that I did it, it's another one in the list of how many Ironmen I've done but don't think I'll be too happy to look back on it. Post race blues haven't really been there to be honest, I suffered big holes last year as I had achieved a lot and had a great race, this year it just hasn't happened, guess it's cos there is a lot of other good things going on this year and Maria looks after me I've started planning for later in the year already and am excited by the prospect of going to Perth for the world long course championships in October... this will give me some great focus for the winter and as something to focus my mind on swimming too. Meeting up with a swim coach on Monday for some video assessment and so I will have something to focus on when in the pool instead of blindly going up and down. There is a promise of some butterfly in there with this new swim coach... I guess I'll have to learn at some point. Other plans I have are for some extra races, some half marathons, possibly off road ones, I'm not so concerned about times at the moment, they'll come I guess, I'd like a good time at the Christchurch half in late May but it's not a be all and end all... but if I'm going to enter a half marathon that is advertised as one of the world's fastest courses, maybe I should try and go fast there? Nothing much else to report... I'll try and put a photo of Maria's new bike on here once she has her race wheels... I'll admit a bit of jealousy that she has a much nicer race bike than me... maybe I should have left her with her Avanti Previous replies TB - Harriers sounds good, I'd love some XC, I think I'm generally just going to run some races like the Moonshine half, the Pentcarrow half, the 3 peaks and do the Welly and CHCH half marathons. Sue - it was worse than man flu... that would have cleared 3 weeks down the track! Poet - quite right it's time to look forward... and the introduction and arranging of the first international qualifying TTman (The Wellyman) will be another thing to think about... qualifying for Market Bosworth, who'd have thought? mdh - yes, it's time for a change, the Slackos seem to be racing heaps... it's a good way of having fun I guess... it's getting to races and using them for training that will be hard (i.e. not going too hard in them) JamieMcP - it's not a good time and that's what's important, back to drawing board! PaulL - thanks for the kind words... I met JC the other week after the race and we talked about you, that was funny. Slacko - already entered Wanaka for next year, there will be a mass of races next year Carlito - I don't know about battled but I got there in the end. I guess more work needed? Pete - your advice resonates well and is what I'll be doing. Savaloy - my next long race will be the worlds, I'm just trying not to be last in my AG, and that will be a task!! _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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Ironman New Zealand Race report - 2009 Mon Mar 09, 2009 11:14 pm T-rex of Tri

Report This won't be long... I'm trying to forget... Pre-race - got a cold on Thursday, well it came on on Thursday and did me in, sore throat and start of sniffles. Weighed in at 83kg's which is about 4kg's more than I had been for a while but would have been well hydrated and loaded with food, all was good... apart from a cold. Friday - woke up with sniffles and worse sore throat... 10 min swim, 10 min bike, 10 min run was prescribed by coach, I avoided the 10 min bike to not get mine wet. Sniffles got worse... Saturday - breathing mostly out of mouth. Swim - it was rough for some reason, breathing an issue, 1:15 official. Bike - was taking it easy but still getting out of breath, lost rear bottle carrier due to the roads being so bumpy, will need some nuts to hold it on in future. 5:25... man I had such a quick bike in me if I was healthy, probably 5:15 holding back if not less. Run - not breathing and running weren't going to work... couldn't hold my hoped for HR of 150... couldn't hold my reserve HR of 140... couldn't run and do 130... much of the first lap I gave up. Maria gave me a gee up at half way into the run and was really positive. Ian Beattie (a West Highland Way runner friend of mine) had told me a while back that it's important to have positive supporters and any time I support I try to be really positive. This is where Maria came through, she was ignoring what had gone before and just gave me some positive comments, I was so down at this point and it just perked me up... helped heaps... I stuck to as low an HR as I could but still run which by the second lap seemed to be about 140 and ran as much of it as I could for about a 4:40 marathon, utter pants... but hey it would have been much worse if I didn't perk up that little bit for that second lap. Now the truth is that it's my second best ironman time, but I'm not happy, I was in such good shape and in such perfect conditions (overcast and cold) I should have flown to a low 10 hour race... I'm not happy though. 2 Ironmen next year at least, that way I can avoid some of the possibility of basing a whole season on one race... I'll review a lot of other things about my training... things like how to get excited about swimming (just been going through the motions for a while), how not to get a cold... honestly, I don't think I was far off... Oh well, at least Paul L won't need to post this to the Epic race report list! _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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But a few days to go... Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:09 pm T-rex of Tri

Week Who knows how long it is now... Ironman New Zealand is on Saturday... this is the bad half week in work when I'd rather be at location Ironman rather than sitting in an office being pressured into finding solutions to people's problems. I guess at least this year I've only got the tritalk peeps updating me from the course and not so many Wellington mates who are doing the same as me and waiting the half week till we need to go up to go. I hope it's going to be exciting in Taupo! Worlds Since my last blog I submitted (thanks Maria and Free Willy for toning down) my appeal to the TriNZ I received confirmation that I got one of the wildcard slots for the NZ tri team to go to the World long course championships in Perth this year as a Kiwi. Fantastic, I'm very pleased about this, they thanked me for my informative appeal and I hoped it'll be used in the future as a benchmark for selection from the half distance races in NZ, particularly if they continue to use the fastest of the NZ half ironmen for their selection race. This means that me and Maria can spend the winter training up for this, I think I'm going to have to learn to swim a bit better, double olympic has a big emphasis on the swim part, so do this Ironman, then do an Olympic in New Plymouth in early April and draw a line in the sand on swimming and start doubling up swim squads and do some duathlon through the winter to get into tip top shape (and one half marathon and maybe some adventure running for kicks). Well that's the plan I think (I've just made it up, but it sounds good to me). Ironman So, heading up to Ironman on Thursday, I have little idea of how I'll perform this year, a lot of indicators say that I'll do well, good form and fitness and such but I just don't really feel "Ironman-y" I don't know why, it's odd, hopefully this feeling will keep me nice and slow in the early stages of the race and I'll finish really strong passing lots of people as I'll have gone off nice and slow. Predictions for times.... ha, you don't think I'm falling for that old chestnut, hey? Number 1 is a finish and enjoy the day, anything else is a bonus! I don't think I'm in the shape that I hoped for with early bold predictions... but I'm in shape, and should be going in 3 or kg's lighter than I usually do to Ironman, so that's got to help somewhere? So, race kicks off at 7am NZ which is 6pm Friday night for UK listeners and you'll be able to get coverage somewhere between http://www.ironman.co.nz and you'll definitely find me on http://www.ironmanlive.com I think there are two Andrew Kerr's in the race and I think I'm number 399. I'll update if I'm not for tracking purposes. Hopefully AndyS will be doing some live updating of photos on this site somewhere too. So, not all set yet, but getting there. Previous replies Rooster - I started to investigate the GB team, and the president of Tri Scotland was going to back me for the team but it isn't needed now, get my colours of choice and a 2XU kit Sue - out of system now... rocking on! Poet - they seem to listen to weight of evidence, this is always good, in fact they've impressed me with a couple of things of late. Slacko - I don't want to miss out on that road, but it'll take time to go over it again, it's fantastic climbing! Cobbie - we've chatted about this and from my understanding it had nothing to do with residency qualifications more to do with relative merits of races. Thankfully they listened to the appeal. And for those on tritalk wondering what we chatted about I think I stated to Pete that either way a Scottish person has to have a flag of convenience (GB or NZ, it's not strictly our "home" anyway. Why not take the one you're comfier with! Savaloy - all good with the appeal, saves me going to try to qualify for the gold coast Paul - cheers, all is good now in the run up to the race... _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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The best laid plans o' mice and men... Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:21 pm T-rex of Tri

Well you make plans and I guess sometimes they change, so a roundup of the last couple of weeks. Most things seemed to revolve around the selection for the World Long course tri champs, for which I wasn't selected for the NZ team. I don't doubt that there are 18 people capable of faster times in my age group in New Zealand, the group that were selected however didn't include many of those 18 people. I've submitted an appeal. Now they delayed their naming decision by 3 days and yet still seemed to take the easiest selection method available to them and this meant that the selection came out on Friday. Now when companies make people redundant they announce it on the Thursday so as they have the Friday to get over it and it doesn't ruin their weekend, Tri NZ in their wisdom announced their team on Friday and thoroughly ruined my weekend. I missed most of my training on the Saturday, did 50k's on the bike but wasn't in the mood. Then on Sunday, barely in the mood I went out on one of my favourite 120k rides, up into the Akatawara range and round, it's practically epic. After about 20k's of climbing and just on the descent I met a car... literally. We were both tending towards the middle of the road and didn't get out of each others way in time, she hit my toe (which is bruised) and then muntered the back wheel which may or may not be able to be fixed and knocked me off. Falling off broke a helmet (a cheap but comfortable one that I loved dearly) and my wheel but thankfully as far as I can see not my bike. We sat on the road, well I did and argued that she was totally in the wrong, it was probably a no fault accident and then when I realised that I needed a lift of about 20k's to get anywhere near a lift I started being nice to her. So she drove me the 20k's to civilization and even to a hospital to get checked out. I have a couple of bruises, one on my head but generally I'm OK, feel a little beat up as you would from falling off a bike, but nothing too serious. So, anyway, submitted my appeal to triathlon New Zealand, Free Willy from here helped me a bit and a big hand came from Maria to remove some of my raw emotion from it (but I'm still mad about their myopia). We'll see what happens on appeal for the world long course champs, I hope they take me as a wildcard, but it really shouldn't have come to this. Maria has been selected, which is great and I'd love to go and support, but the stubborn bugger in me says that I can't go and be seen to be supporting a team that I disagree with their selection process (even if it is only for my age group). So I wait with baited breath for their decision. Anything else... nah, life is sport, sport is life right now. Previous replies Poet - I'm qualified, easily... but the cost is a bit prohibitive to me. Sue - indeed roll on IM, but just hope that I'm in one piece! Pete - there really was a pothole, they weren't going fast enough to leave me. Slacko - there is a tropical storm forecast for the weekend, not all roses, as you know. Lizzy - heat isn't all its cracked up to be, I'm missing the lure of the 6 nations and the cold wet wind and winter training bike rides... I don't know why Savaloy - 13k along dual carriageway sadly isn't pragmatic, otherwise a top idea. _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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Practically regular blogging... Wed Feb 11, 2009 2:46 am T-rex of Tri

Two weeks since last post and here we are again... Life The issues reported about renting our house have been wiped out and we now have a year's lease in Maungaraki. It's only 13k's from work so some discipline is needed to tack on suitable bike miles to make bike commuting worthwhile, it's definitely better for easy days when you're not faced with a 60k bike into a gale force wind to take it easy. So that's all good, hopefully save some cash this year and look to buy next when hopefully the housing market hits about the bottom... who knows might even get a bargain somewhere?!? Work is work is work and as many people find the month leading into Ironman it isn't quite at the forefront of your mind. Sport All go again on the sport front, a couple of 20+ hour weeks so far accomplished and a 3rd one (I think, could be 4th) on the way leaving 3 weeks to taper and get ready for the race. Highlights of my training have been the training weekend that I spent up on course over last weekend. Friday we did a 4.3k swim or something similar, it took me forever but it's miles in the bank, then a 50k ride and an hours run. The 50k ride involved a spot of tyre changing for one of the girls which was excellent practise for me and highlighted a few things not to do when changing tyres, most notably trying to take the tyre off at the valve. Saturday was ride the course day so we did a 30 minute swim first and then out onto the course. All sorts of stories from this one. Coach took us out at a slow rate and then a group from Auckland came passed us at high speed, we decided to jump on and rode at about 45kph for much of the way out to Reperoa (turn-point)... I hit a pothole just after a bridge and lost the group as I had to fix a puncture. I did my best Chrissie impression and dispersed a gas canister before sorting my act out and using a different more trusted gas pump. I only used gas to practise for ironman, normally I'd just use my pump. At half way I stopped in at the bach that we had rented and picked up my iPod and some additional drinks, but 6 bottles was a bit short for the 29 degree heat so I struggled in the second lap and the ensuing headwind we had to fight on the last 45k. My 15 minute run after I finished was tough but I got through it and it was fantastic to jump in the lake to flush out the muscles a bit. On the Sunday it was long run day and we started at 0630 to avoid some of the heat. I decided to stick to HR and ran a bit slower with some of the guys who I might not bike with. Great company for the day they were. 3 hours and around 33k were really good for me. I pushed it a bit at around 2:20 and the legs responded slightly but generally they were messed up from the previous 2 weeks training. Anyway, that was all good, this week is a bit more normal, but still much to do, not long to go now at all! Previous replies Poet - double woah, it's 3.5 weeks now! Wanaka for sure althoug the Epic length of New Zealand has a huge tempatation! Vics - yep, 12 hours for rest, intensity was very low though. Slacko - we had a particularly lean spell of wind when I first moved to Wgtn, it has changed since and much of the summer has been rough. You stayed on top of a hill in Karori, a bit of an oxymoron isn't it... Pete - 20 hour weeks isn't 30, so it's all good. Savaloy - my intensity level isn't as high as yours, the way you swim you'd get my 1 sessions done in 20 minutes. Sue - thanks Cenzo - I wish it would sneak up on me... but there is still work to do. Paul - thanks for the tips... no more bikes in the bedroom... am I to lose my freedom? _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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Blog update Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:08 am T-rex of Tri

Well it's the best part of 3 weeks since I blogged, as ever at this time of year a lot of people furiously update blogs as they have some new year enthusiasm in the UK so I'd fallen down to 74 in the bloglist... the lowest I think I'd been. Life Well in the time between writing my last update and now I've moved in with my girlfriend into a really cool house. Just one problem, it's sort of on the market. Now this would normally say don't go renting it for a year without significantly reduced rent, however the landlords had said that they weren't going to sell it. All well and good we think and then a few people have came in this week and put offers on the house. My sensible head says that anyone offering on a house at the moment offers way below market for any house due to market conditions. We'll hopefully know next week what is happening, it's supposed to be coming off the market at the end of the week, so we may need to move. Living with Maria is fun though although I'm having to make myself a lot tidier... I'm a work in progress on this one. So who knows what is to happen with this, we might be moving again soon but with the current landlords paying for us to move, they better be ready to pay for shifting 4 bikes very carefully! My other thing that I've wanted to sort for a while is making steps forward, so we'll update when I have more news on that. Sport When I last wrote I was going into meltdown with sport the wind around Wellington meant that I was beating myself into the ground to get near the training hours coach had wanted and then beating myself up for not getting near it. Thankfully some sensible discussion with coach has rectified that and after a week of "rest" (a 12 hour week with really easy cycling) we're back into it with a couple of 20 hour weeks to start and then some more to come. Thankfully we caught it when we did and we're now heading towards feeling more confident for the race which is only 5.5 weeks away... I find it hard to think about right now, it seems a world away. Next week I'm going for a training weekend on the course including most aspects of the race and I think that will help get my mind into racing at Taupo. Other sporty things that I've undertaken have been watching Maria take part in the Port of Tauranga half ironman champs, it was great fun supporting there from watching the Elites to watching numerous age groupers who I knew that were taking part in the race. Maria had a great race and finished in 5:25 which was her stretch goal time. I think we've made her a lot more confident on the bike in the last 6 months and she seems to embrace Open Water swimming in the same way as me (it's better than pool swimming!!!) Watching Cam Brown trying to run down Duncan Milne after a long puncture issue was great, shows the class of the man. What Sam Warriner did in the girls race was also very impressive and she seems genuinely very nice. So there we go, lots going on... as the mighty Northern English chap would say... onwards and ironwards Previous replies Poet - yep, still tickles the fancy. Sue - cheap Scottish golf courses tend to be in the middle of nowhere, by the time you factor fuel in they are expensive... but so worth it. And I heard about the wind at your first TLD, it sounded gruesome! Paul L - indeed. Savaloy - apparently not riding in top gear all the time helps. GreenDragonfly - nice to see you back. Pete - it hardly rains here, so much better than Auckland! _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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Summertime and the weather is windy... Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:55 am T-rex of Tri

I'm sure that's not how the song goes... but hey ho, you choose to live in Wellington and it gets windy. How do blog readers, I hope you are well in the new year. It has been a while since I blogged, so I guess I should keep you up to date with all things Andy... Done Went to Methven, met up with Maria's parents / family. They were really nice. A lot was made of some games played on xmas day and potentially being a bit uncomfortable but not at all, it was good fun. Played a couple of rounds of golf. My short game seems to collapse with not having my favourite putter (33" Ping Zing 2) or my favourite 2 Snake Eyes wedges. It probably also doesn't help that we've played park land courses, one was Methven, which was lovely, on a great day. The other was Karori which was OK, but at $500 for a year's membership it was taking the proverbial a bit. Did some training, quite a lot of open water swimming with Maria, which is definitely helping her with her race coming up this weekend, the national half ironman championships. It sold out in a day as otherwise I'd be doing it. Going up to spectate instead. Did one 5 hour ride where I went quite quickly for it over a lot of hills which was pleasing. Not Done Not done nearly as much training as I've wanted to. A pattern formed over the last couple of weeks of smacking myself into the ground cycling on Monday and then barely being able to do anything for the rest of the week. It's been so windy here that on the flat you would struggle to 10mph on the bike and it was ripping it out of me. An SOS message to coach went out and he has given me the rest of the week off and an easier load next week. What this will do will be to ensure that I can do the training on the schedule so as I don't dig myself into a hole over it. We can build from there. I've not found a new job yet, I really should look around. Right now I'm in a bit of a career hole not really knowing what I want to do longer term, who knows. I'd really like to not work in an office though I've not found a new place yet. Maria and I are going to move in somewhere, hopefully soon, this will be good and help me plan things a bit. Other stuff Anything else is probably a bit dull and "lifey" for publishing in this blog, I just thought I'd write up some of my current annoyances to get them out. And my iPod is out of battery power so my usual distractions at work are out the window. Previous replies Savaloy / Sue - cheers Poet - not lonely at xmas, that's for sure. Vics - thanks... upbeat about some things... need some settling at the mo though. Paul - happy new year mate, have a great one. _________________ 'Mon the Biff
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