Still on track…….just!!!

Just over a month has gone by and the training hours have increased yet again which is now mixed with the early season races that help towards the preparation for the "A" race. 

After the success of the Marathon, the Martinborough 115km fun ride was a different matter. I was looking forward to riding around the beautiful Wairarapa on smooth, unpopulated roads and very little wind compared to Wellington. What I didn't expect was the large pelotons (large groups of riders working together saving energy through drafting or slipstreaming), and the inevitable crashes that occurred. Over the winter months I watched the Tour de France while on my turbo trainer and saw a lot of crashes; it was only until the Martinborough fun ride when I saw the crashes right in front of me and the subsequents cuts and bruises did the attraction of riding in a big peleton fade away very quickly. 

As a result I elected to drop off from the peleton and enjoyed my own race playing a game of cat and mouse for the final 30km. The peleton, typically going 5kmph faster as a group would slow down on the hills where I would catch them before they regrouped and broke away again. This game was played out for the final 30km was  hard work but ended in success as I finally caught them to cross the finish line together.

The Kariprio Half Ironman on the other hand, was a good race; my nutrition plan worked well and a big improvement on my first half ironman race in Auckland in March, over 30m minutes faster which was reassuring to see the hard winter training paying off. The run was a good time even though it was an extra 1.8 km longer due to changes in the course. The bike is still my weakest discipline so the next month has to be bike, bike and more bike!!! 

My support crew enjoyed the weekend mini-break in Cambridge with little Mia keen to get in on the action trying a different approach to using the aerobars

In summary, while I had a good race there was also the realisation that I have to do twice as much in 2 months time...some serious traing is needed!!!! 

My training is now at the peak period…..swimming session are now up to 2 hours, bike sessions upto 6 hours and run sessions and now upto 3 hours….the weekends are getting harder as 5:30am starts on a  sunday morning just so I can be back at a respectable time for family time…...fortunately these are key sessions each week and not every training session. It is always a relief seeing the next days training session when it is a "45 min recovery ride". As the hours increase so do the aches and pains. Slight niggling injuries are starting to emerge so I am having to stretch as much possible and an ice pack is not far away. Fortunately running is my strongest discipline so I can swap the occasional run session for a bike session to rest any injuries. 

There's always time for some fun though…..some of the easier training sessions are mixed up with a little bit of mountain biking along with open water sea swims as the sea temperatures warm up. This weekend is the December Scorcher  and rather than doing the whole triathlon myself, I am part of a team. We have managed to get 3 teams together from work along with Theresa to each have a go at either the swim, bike or run leg for the first time which will be great fun. As it is early in the season, there are already mentions of participating in over events…but lets wait and see how the first event goes!

Supports Crew's View

Ian has done great this last month.  Mia and I enjoyed supporting him for Karipiro and treated him to a big fat steak after.  I had a glass of wine whilst ian had orange juice.  How times have changed ha ha.  We are doing a team triathlon this weekend, not sure how i got roped into that.  A 10km run for me.  This will no doubt remind me once again how far Ian really has to go on the big day!!!  He has been a bit slack these last few days so am finding myself waking in the mornings to kick him out the house :D