Runner?

So I won a running race on tuesday. WTF? First home in the very popular local Super 7 series. 7km fun run that happens for 7 weeks. I'm not going to claim anything special as I hardly ran any faster than last week. And.....under my current training plan I have no desire to run 7km hard, so cruise the first 4km and speed up at the end.

So what can I deduce from this? There were less people there than previous weeks. Either that or people just run slow in the wind? The positive signs are that I'm still running it 1min faster than this time last year, at which time I did the fastest run split at the NZ Sprint Tri Nats (age group). All good then.

And in other random news I threw my Superfly on the scale at Crank-It this morning. 9.6kg! Its a 29er remember. If no one buys it soon I might just have to transfer some $ from the credit card and just keep it?

Australian National Champs

Nic's progress in the world of Elite XC MTB continues on track after a fine 8th place at the Australian National Championships in Canberra over the weekend.

We're just back from a whistlestop 4 day trip, and despite the race being very early in Nic's season, the fact that the race was being held on the course for 2009 World Champs, we decided that was a much better investment of precious travel funds than March's Oceania Champs.

As cheif support crew I decided to take my Singlespeed to give me an excuse for not racing. Truth be told I actually looked at the fairly hefty costs of travel insurance and figured my SS wasn't worth enough to worry about specific insurance for.

The track is interesting. Very rocky. Some very technical climbs requiring strength and skill to conquer. All tied together with some very fast flowing Singletrack. And even a few gap jumps thrown in for those keen. With limited passing opportunities, starting position will be crucial come Septembers worlds.

Anyway... Nic raced well. Midfield start. Then rode strongly and consistently throughout. Only 20sec difference between laptimes all race. And impressing more than a few Australians in the process. A strong 8th. Confidence growing. All positive.

Me? I rode a few laps. Did some jumps. Went for a couple of runs and swims, and enjoyed being coach/mechanic/feeder. Made sure I did a race pace tempo lap to see how it compared to the Elite Aussie men. Turns out quite favorably in fact. It was a good training weekend.

Also of note was the performance of Adrian Retief for 3rd in the U19 men. I was very impressed with his speed, maturity, and all round well judged race. His head is in the right place, and is definately one to keep an eye on.

Officially Elite..... Nic 2nd at Mt Vic

Nic and her shadow (Katherine O'Neill behind)

Looking pretty comfy on the Mt Vic terrain?

First race... First Podium. Not too shabby says Coach?!

It's official. Nic has now had her first 'nationals' race as an Elite and more than proved her worth with a strong 2nd place at the final of the NI Cup series on Mt Vic after a race long duel with Katherine O'Neill. Wellington local Samara Sheppard put in a stormer of a ride for the win.

It would be hard to chose a tougher place to debut. Mt Vics approx 8km lap contains around 400m vertical of climbing, and is littered with root infested, steep, technical descents. Its hard.

As her first real 'lap' race, Nic probably suffered a bit from poor track position early on, so took a while before she was able to get clear track and ride her rythym. But settle in she did, and moved from 5th 2/3 thru lap one into 2nd, where she stayed throughout the race. Holding strong consistent lap times, and shaking Katherine with a gritty last lap.

Podium on Elite debut? Not too bad eh? The Coach is happy anyway! Things are nicely on track.

Old men and Zimmer frames

So I decided to race Masters category at the Mt Vic final of the Nth Island Cup (Nationals..)series yesterday. There were a few reasons. 1) I wanted to race for training. 2) I figured hitting up 4 laps at race pace was a good way to preview the course for Nic and help formulate her race plan. 3) Hisky needed some competition. and 4) We thought it might be fun to see how many Elite's we could beat on lap time average :)

After heavy rain overnight the track seemed like it would be a mess. The steep technical descents would provide carnage a plenty. So I went with plan B, the safety option. Don't use the bling race wheels/tyres. And sit in with Hisk to pace each other.

That soon went out the window. I got a lead, and 'ran away' to a good win. Good thing I did, as Hisky finally woke up and came back at me on lap 4 doing his fastest lap of the day then! As it was, my lap average was good enough for top 5 Elite, even though they had a dry fast track. So no need to call for the zimmer frame yet...

Different uniforms, same old story. Stuck together by the invisible bungy

Lap 1, and what were technical chutes in the dry, had gotten more than a tad dicey

Clear in 1st and abused... I mean cheered on.... by the infamous Oli 

Podium time with team Hiskys.... "wheres our medals?!" Too right Cohen, you tell 'em

For Sale

One Gary Fisher Superfly for sale. One careful owner... only ridden on sundays.....

The 2009 model has arrived and is waiting so this one has to move. Anyone interested flick me an e-mail cabinracing@gmail.com

2008 Gary Fisher Superfly - Size MThe ultimate 29er hardtail.

Race proven in NZ's premier MTB events throughout 2008. Light, fast rolling12mths old. well maintained in v good condition

17" (M) Carbon frame

Fox F29 RLC ForkSram

X.0 derailleur/shifters

Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes

Bontrager Carbon cranks

Bontrager Carbon seatpost

Bontrager Race X-Lite Wheelset (Tubeless) or Superlight Stans/WTB Wheelset

Choice of tyres

Wild Moa in pictures...

Thanks to Will Kelsay for the photography..... here's Saturdays Wild Moa Off-Road Tri in pics. They're all pre/post race 'cause we were too fast for pic's during the event. Seriously. Cabin even overtook the guy who was suppossed to be putting out the timing stands during the run.... and arrived at the finish to a half inflated finish arch; so just dive rolled thru the small opening instead!

Wild Moa Offroad Tri 2009

Mens: 1st Cabin 2hr29 New race record, MTB record, indiv run record

Wmns: 1st Nic 2hr52 New race record, MTB record, indiv run record

Cabin, Cam, and Nic. Pre-race consultation. "How do you swim again?"

Looks fast... It's because my feet are on land and I don't have to swim anymore

L-R: Graeme Pearson (1st Vet men... all round legend), Cabin, Cam Durno (2nd overall. XTERRA star in waiting), Patrick Harvey (3rd overall, and 2008 XTERRA Age-group World Champion)

"Ready to race again tommorrow?"

Geez, its been a month since I posted anything. Oops. Not so good of us. We’ve been kinda busy doing, um, stuff?! Check out http://www.willkelsay.com/ for reports on his travels to NZ, which covers a lot of what we’ve been up to. However, the last month in brief

Cabin resigned from work. Finishes up mid-Feb. Moving to Ohakune with Nic. No job yet. Might have to pick carrots?!

Raetihi for Xmas. Cabin rode 160km+ in the rain to get there on Xmas eve.

Fleeting trip to Temuka (way down south) on boxing day for a wedding. Back home to sleep it off.

Will Kelsay (Mr XTERRA 2007) arrived from USA for a month of NZ summer goodness

Headed to Rotorua for 12 days (ish) of relaxing, training, eating ice-cream etc…. Multiple days on Rotovegas singletrack = Nic being scary fast on MTB now. Roll on nationals.

Cabin stole Craig Pattles Intense M6 and riding gear for an evening of DH shuttling on Rotorua’s mint DH trails. Demonstrated “Mad hucking skills”. Or maybe not…. Did some cool jumps though?!

Ate some more ice-cream….

Raced Wild Moa Off-Road Tri. New race records resulted in wins for us both. Cabin posting new MTB leg record (overall), and individual run record. Nic doing the same in the women’s and finishing 6th overall!

Backed up the next day with summer N-Duro 45km XC. Cabin and Scott resumed their never ending battle, and gave the N-Duro guys timing gear a real test….. Scott grabbing the win by something like 0.06sec. Stu Houltham was 3rd a few minutes back. Nic was riding strong in the women’s behind Annika Smail. Too strong for the bike as a bent hanger, munched chain/derailleur ending her charge.

Today…. Both back at work. Boo. Nevermind. Long weekend this weekend and the final of NI Cup XC series in Wellington to look forward to. I love summer….