The ramblings of an athlete who can't retire...

Long time between updates, but we've been pretty hectic. Nic somehow manages to juggle seemingly endless work days with swim/bike/run/paddle sessions. I meanwhile have had head down bum up and managed to piece together the most complete 7-8 weeks training in a LONG time. Injury free even!

It can be pretty draining with the end goals such big ones, but with our respective international trips just a week away (me - XTERRA Worlds, and Nic - Cape2Cape + Anaconda Adventure Race) things are tracking along ok.

Last big hit out was last weeks Motu Challenge. We raced as a mixed team, but there was no competitive strategy behind our day. I simply wanted the long MTB +Run hitout under my belt, and that left the final legs (Road Cycle and Paddle/Bike/Run) for Nic. Which wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that some epic weather hit and Nic was left with by far the most brutal stages (and consequently 3/5 of the race time wise). While it wasn't that plesant for my legs, by the time we sent Nic away it was torrential rain and massive gusting winds that had people getting off their bikes in places and holding them down. Some even walking descents.

Pretty gnarly day, but Nic coped pretty bloody well, and bought us home 7th overall after I put together a bike/run combo that left me pretty positive ahead of Maui. Big congrats to the bushman Sam Clark on a rather memorable breakthrough win in the individual. Well deserved that man. He teams up with me tommorrow as we split the MAgellan Whaka 100 MTB as a team in my last hitout before I fly to Maui. Should be good.

Early on in the MTB was a relatively relaxed affair. Guys on CX bikes smashing it off the front, whilst I sat in the comfort of the bunch and watched the "Jones watching Jones" show, and waited to follow their inevitable attacks

Insert appropriate Mark Watson comment about "going to a dark place..." 1400m+ climbing will do that to you.

Finishing off a run I was pretty happy with. Flying first 12km, struggled with the last 5. Not so bad as XTERRA is only 10. The end of the run highlighted how bad thewind had got as I narrowly avoided running straight into the side of the bridge behind me, such was the force of the gusts.

Feeling a bit guilty as we send Nic off into the unknown! Well, not totally unknown. We knew there was torential rain, a rapidly rising river, gale force headwinds, and 27km to paddle... hence the guilt.

And the unknown was somewhat as expected... brutal. Wave trains heading back up river, demonstrated here as Nic tests the submarine properties of her sprinter.