Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith? I guess I could be talking about my training?!

So its been pretty hectic the last couple of weeks. For me, Dec 1st marked the start of training officially and its been pretty simple..... Swim before work, run at lunchtime, and get on the bike after work. A few weeks of that steadily and I'll be back in shape to train properly.

Meanwhile Nic's collarbone is pretty much healed up, and shes punching out some quality training on the MTB ready to smash some people come National Champs.

We didn't race the Eastern Express on the weekend, instead cramming together a fairly hectic social/training/adventure weekend. Try this schedule

Friday arvo: 80m bungy (Sport Manawatu Xmas function)

Friday evening: Xmas drinks in Ohakune (Nics workmates)

Sat 6:30am: 2km Swim in Taupo 1/2 ironman

Sat 8am: 3hr MTB around Craters (Taupo)

Sat arvo: lots of coffee, hanging out, drive to Auckland

Sat Night: Xmas in the Park (Auckland)

Sun am: 'Rugged as' Trail run in Waitakeres

Sun arvo: Physion Rehab Group Xmas party/Tennis Tournament

Mon am: Fly home, and straight to work

Glad to be home for a rest and to recover from the weekend! For the record, I won 3 out of 3 matches at the work xmas tennis tournament (I'm not competitive at all!?!)

Role modelling?

I can't help posting this. I work for a Sports Trust. Promoters of all things active and healthy. We should be role models. No? Check out the below pic of food in our staffroom this morning. 30mins ago the basket was full of chocolates.

Grapes, Rice Crackers, dried fruit still there now, barely touched....

Do as I say, not as I do.... ring a bell anyone?

So I guess we're training again. After a mint 3hr+ ride on Saturday with a group of 15-16yr olds I coach, Nic thought It'd be a nice idea to ride up nearby Wharite Peak. She'd never been up it, and it was over 2yrs ago I last was there. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Can I now say that my new 2 x 9 set up on the 29er hurts sometimes when you are trying to ride easy?!

Wharite Peak..... 12km & 1000m up

20 min into the climb. Still no where near the bushline....

35min in and the windmills are starting to look pretty small

Nearing the summit....about 60min in

At the top. 60min up..... and just 14min to get back down! It was loose! Even better, we found a tramping track off the top from this trig. Reckon its a pretty gnarly 8km or so rugged 'single track' down. Should make for a pretty epic loop. Can't wait to explore it.

Get excited!

Triplecross!!!!! The dates been set, and I'm excited. Note the date down now: March 21st 2009

MTB 25km, Trail run 12km, and XC Motorcycling leg of 80km. Hands down the funnest 'multisport event' on the calendar. Theres already lots of talk about who'll front up this time. It's gonna be big, so make sure you're a part of it. This time..... I'll sort out that gas mileage

The imposter

Couldn't help laughing at myself and posting this photo. Poor confused school kids.....

As Sport Manawatu guy I've spent the last few days organising school visits around the region for our Olympic heroes Kris Gemmell and Jesse Sergent (Track Cycling medallist). Cramming them into as many schools as we can to help inspire our youth. Its been fun, and its been educational.

Poor kids today I think were a bit confused as I ended up spending 1hr solid signing autographs! Ok, so I'm a decent athlete but they didn't know who I was (Actually a few had seen me on TV3 news after XTERRA NZ so I must be famous!).Wait till they realise, or their parents ask who it was who scribbled on their hats. Damn imposter!

Orion Wins!!!!

Orion Health just won the Adventure Racing World Championship! Awesome. I'd be clutching at straws to claim any part of it.... but its awesome to be able to say I raced as part of the team in China, the year they became World Champs.

Magnificent effort, and I'll look forward to the invite to the ice-cream eating challenge with Orion when it happens

Go Orion

Whilst I sit on my arse at home and do very little.... Team Orion Health (http://www.orionadventure.com) are getting very little rest as they continue to lead the ecomotion in Brazil. Also know as the World Adventure racing championship 2008.

3 days in and NZ'ers dominate the leader board. But its these guys, the team I made a guest appearance for at the Wulong Mtn Quest, who continue to lead the way. Fingers crossed they can hold on.

And I can assure you I they'd be going considerably slower 3 days in if I was there!

XTERRA Worlds

Well.... it's all over. And after the dust had settled, I managed to survive Maui, and grab myself a top 20 finish.

It was a strong race for me. PB swim by a long way. Solid bike time, flying early, before paying the price later. And the run? Lets just say I survived! Whether it was the heat, or I pushed too hard early in the bike, or I just wasn't on form.... the run was a struggle.

Never the less. I held on for a top 20 finish, amongst the classiest pro field yet for an XTERRA Worlds. Coming out of an NZ winter, first tri since June, training around a fulltime job, I'll happily take a World ranking of 20th. Right now, its time for a few pies

As hard as it must have been for her to travel with me to Maui, knowing full well she couldn't race the event she'd been preparing for all year.... she seemed to enjoy the whistlestop trip. And I'm certainly glad she came along. At the very least just because I wouldn't have enjoyed the trip as much if she wasn't there.

Seems it motivated her enough though, and she refuses to let the broken collarbone slow her down..... much. As I type this she's at the Pool, doing kick sets. To be followed by lower body weights in the gym. I already feel lazy

Mt Vic: The Good, and the bad....

Unfortunately, this isn't as positive of an update as I'd hoped to provide. Whilst it would seem I'm in great shape ahead of XTERRA World Champs.... Nic has taken herself with a broken collarbone. Ouch.

On Sunday we looked forward to what was to be one of our final key training days prior to Maui. The ever popular PNP MTB series in Wellington was hosting race 3 on the tough Mt Vic course.
3 laps for Senior Men of a gruelling 9km lap (with 400m+ climbing per lap) was perfect. So a 1500min swim before the race. Race, and run a lap of the course off the bike would provide great prep. The day started well enough, as we both enjoyed a good solid swim.

On to the MTB race and despite tired legs I was soon in a great battle with Hisky, when midway round lap 2 we came across Nic, walking her bike towards us with weird expression on face. Kindly yelling she was ok so as to not concern me, I figured she'd busted the bike, and recommenced battle with Hisk.

In good signs for Maui, I was able to ride away on the last lap for a 'comfy' win, followed by a good run. Not fantastic, but very positive signs for Maui. So for me. All good. Mission accomplished. For Nic.... what was hoped was just a very sore shoulder now looks like 4-6 weeks healing. Frustrated is one word to describe her mood. I'm sure you can all think of many others....

Hisky's Speech.... "It was great to have a yarn with Cabin. Plenty of talk lap 1. Not so much lap 2. And none on lap 3." Kind of summed up the race and effort really!

The man

Just got to give "mad props" to my teenage dirtbike riding partner in crime (thats many yaesr ago now....!), and his latest exploits.

Paul "The Axeman" Whibley, who this morning took his 3rd win of the 2008 American GNCC Championship. All but cementing 2nd in the Championship. Now a factory pro for the FMF Suzuki team. Great example of hard work and perseverance. His road to the top hasn't exactly been short, or easy. I couldn't be more stoked for him.

And how fun does that pic look? Dirtbikes in the mud. Nothing better!

Whoa, check it out....

Amazing. We got some prop's finally from the local media! (Thats a bit harsh as they do publish a story now and then). But this appeared tonight in the Sports Editor's weekly editorial... Nice to get that sort of credit in a paper usually chock full of rugby 'news'. Maybe our under performing professional rugby team is finally starting to wear thin on a few people?

 Oh yeah, and the Whaka 100km? Yip, it was tough. Yip, we went fast, and no, I didn't win. And no, I don't think I've recovered yet. Race was a big step up from last year. A bunch of us drove a pretty brutal pace that not only obliterated the field (including us), but the race record by 20mins+

 Once again my good friend and arch rival Scott Thorne got me. Scott has amazing endurance. He won an age-group ironman world title so thats no surprise. The problem is he now has some pretty mad bike handling skills to go with it. National XC Champion Stu Houltham was 3rd a few minutes after me.

 Nic had a great ride in the 50km. Battling hard to get the better of Monique Avery. Only to have her race messed up by a few non-racers who decided to ride with the girls and 'assist' them. WTF? Why do guys think girls need help in a bike race. They (Nic and Monique) are both bloody strong athletes. Leave them alone. 

Anyway, long story short Nic had established a solid lead late in the race when the guys went down a bit of track that wasn't on the course and she followed. She crossed the line first but realised the mistake and DQ'd herself. So she's a bit pissed about it. The easy 30min run off the bike ended up being a bit quicker than prescribed me thinks?! Nevermind, she's looking strong for Maui!

Welcome

So after getting grief for not mentioning Nic's racing enough on cabinracing.com I figured it was time to start a new blog tracking our adventures. Hopefully we'll remember to update frequently, but no promises!