Silly mistakes

I woke up with the legs feeling stiff.
Not suprising, but worrying nontheless. Skipped the gym in favour of 20min more of sleeping and bolted to work. I sat there all day catching up with stuff, staff and emails. when I realized it was 1pm and I had drank nothing. While I had lunch on my desk I thought which are the kind of things I do that are undermining my training. Here is my list:

Mini stretching sessions, most times I do between 5 and 10min of stretching, which is not enough, specially after long rides.
Driving after training or events: as an example, I jumped on my car after a 2.30 hour ride at high intensity yesterday afternoon. Not the greatest choice.
Don't watch the diet: again, too many times I am the self indulging triathlete, I heard somewhere that each kilo is about 1min on a 40km ride.
Little late nights, many times I don't go for a full 7.5 hours of sleep (that's my magic number, but I many times fail to reach it)
Lunch at the desk: not great.

I aim to get better between now and the mid july, I've calendared a review date to see how things are progressing.

the day ended with a 10km backyard run, the legs were happy supporting me as long as I didn't try to go fast, so I took it easy.

Date: 7 June
Sport: Run
Time: 54min
Dist: 10.7km
Comment: recovery run

the long way home

Today was the final stage of our race, the Tour of Taranaki. Overnight it kept raining, but the morning was OK and we endured only a few showers through the race.
The day's race was 83km over some serious hills on the Tarata saddle. After yesterday's adventures, I was most happy to start and try to keep up with the bunch. It proved to be not a difficult task until the second or third downhill, when gusty winds shook me scared. I let them go and decide to solo my way home, about 40km.
I stayed a few hundred metres behind for another 10 to 15km and then I lost sight. Over the course I picked up some guys and girls who dropped, but none had any legs left so I pretty much rode through a wonderful countryside scenery over green ridges looking at sheep, and more sheep and some serious beef as well. Riding solo gave me time to think on the good and bad thing of this weekend experience.

The good

travelling with someone else is a big plus, we managed the logistics fantastically well.
the atmosphere was great all days
legs are feeling great and I can take the week of training with no problems, meaning that my fitness is good for this period.

The bad
weather gods weren't good on us, but that is a minor mishap
my descending skills needs a lot of polishing
gordo's new way of getting off the bike (he's OK now, tho)

What I learned

Being a roadie is quite different of being a triathlete, and there is a lot of trust on the other riders skills that goes into it. I thought I did trust many of the riders, but the bad weather proved me wrong.

That tour riding is soooo much fun, even with the crappiest weather in decades, back to back stages are tough, but is great mental prep for racing.

What I take
This race got me some good miles at high intensity, most of the stages I sayed around 85% of my heart rate, with a good max effort on day 2. It can't be bad for upskilling my bike leg for triathlons.
I'm rather proud to have finished my first tour.

Date: 6 June
Sport: Cycling
Time: 2.32
Dist: 74km
Comment: glad to finish, pissed I did not win!

Tour of taranaki, Day 2 - paying the price

Stage 3 - Strattford to Strathmore
there was not a lot of clientele in the lodge where we stayed, so the first night the host didn't turn the heaters on. Luckily for us, the Saturday night it was packed so we enjoyed some warmth on the night.
We woke up to a miserable morning. there was a weather warning for the region, which is not uncommon, though. It probably rained 60mm overnight and kept on raining for most of the day. After sign in, I sat and reflected on the situation. I was not in contention for any of the jerseys, I do have a couple of heavy months of training coming my way, and it was raining hard. So I decided to take it easy on the downhills, play a bit of chasing if needed and stay upright.
the course had a big hill in the middle that we had to do twice, plus three more small hills, I was OK with the bunch until halfway and pretty much until 5km before the second time on the big hill, but the pace started to go up and on a 3km downhill section I let the bunch go and chased for 5 minutes on my own with no luck. I sat and waited for others and we continued merrily to the end.
It was a decision that I don't regret, and I pay the price by finishing probably 2 or 3min off the pack.
My mate Gordon had to pay the price a nastier way, his backwheel slided downhill on the way back and he came off with some scratches and bruises. The good thing is that the bike is OK (just kidding, you never think on the bike in these situations) he managed to finish the stage and do the afternoon one. He's on his bed now, with some pain.

Stage 4 - Strattford - Stratford

The afternoon stage started two hours and a bit after we finished the morning one. I managed to come back to the room, get a shower, scoop some bacon and eggs (not the greatest, but I couldn't manage to do anything faster) and ride back to the start line.
It was an ondulating stage that went through the first 10km of the morning one and then on some rural roads with small bumps here and there. there were 8 railways crossings, I managed to spot them OK and my crotch is safe (ha ha ha).
Again, the last downhill was a race I did not want to take part of (speacially after hearing from Gordo). So I had to chase, but I realized I had no legs, and did the last 5km on a secondary group, doing most of the work as they were in worst condition that I was.

All in all it was a good experience, but the weather proved to be evil enough to deter me from doing any serious racing.
I don't have any photos, I could not manage, but I'll get some tomorrow.

Date: 7 June
Sport:  Cycling /// Cycling
Time: 113min /// 108min
Dist: 62km /// 50km
Comment: managed to stay upright, that is a big plus.

Tour of the Naki, Day 1

AM: TT 7.km (flat-ish)
We woke up with enough time to have a good brekkie and prepare for a cold day out. I went for muesli and two toasts, and double serves of coffee.

There was a race briefing and registration. I’m number 139.

From registration till my time of the TT there was plenty of time to kill so we hang around and went for a long warm up.

The TT was 3.5km out and back, with tailwind and downhill on the way in and the hard way the way back, which is hard enough when you are all anaerobic. I did a 12.40, which was a bit disappointing 22nd place in the grade. I don’t know why I just couldn’t fire my legs up on the last 2km.

Gordo did a 13.13, that got him on the top 10 of his grade.

PM 62km flat-ish

The afternoon race was 60km on a flat-ish course and I did better. It was all aggressive to start with, then it settled and then it went again for all the intermediate sprints and king of the mountain. I had a crack at one of the sprints but went too early and got passed by the expert. The finish was a mass sprint (‘bout 50 riders on a partially closed road) I managed to finish on the first dozen wheels, but I haven’t seen the results yet.

Back to the lodge for a pasta Bolognese and trying to call Nat.

Stay tuned

Date: 5 June

Sport: Cycling /// Cycling

Time: 12.40 /// 1.45

Dist: 7km /// 62km

Comment: first day of the tour, it’s all about conserving for the hills.

Tour of the Naki, Day 0

Got on the car at 4pm from Auckland. It took us 1 hour to get out of town and 4 more to get to Strattford. Strattford is a mini city in the south of the Taranaki region, farmlands and a huge mountain that dominates the landscape, the weather and the hydrology of this country (aka the king country).

I was OK with one bag and one big container, Gordo was a bit overprepared and brought all sorts of bas (one for sport clothing, other for casual clothing). On the last minute we decided not to bring windtrainer, which proved to be a mistake.

We had also planned to get to the lodge and eat there, but had to re think our plans and go for a good ole kiwi tucker from a small fry shop from a smaller village, 1 hour from our destination.

Got there late, went to bed and spent a cold night trying to get ready for the first big day. While putting the bike together I manage to stick a swiss army knife onto my tyres (by the way I didn’t have spares), and had to improvise with a superglue repair.

Date: 4 June
Sport: Swim
Time: 45min
Dist: 2.7km
Comment: Season’s best 400 (5.16)

Quick long awaited update

It has been a hectic week. When I started this log I was aiming to get a daily update, but, as always, things got in the way.


The good thing is that training has been great and I am now in R&R mode from my two stages of the tour of Taranaki.

Wednesday was all about getting the swim and the run out of the way the sooner the better.

Thursday was family day, as Nat is away on a tramping trip.

Date: 2 June
Sport: Swim /// Run
Time: 60min /// 100min
Dist: 3.2km /// 18km
Comment: last serious training. I’m on racing mode from now on.

Going the long distance

Ironman New Zealand sold out. It looks like it is the first time it sells so fast, only a couple of months after it went public. That kind of takes one big one off my bucket list for the short to medium term, which is good and bad. It is good because I don't have the presure to commit and do it and can focus on the world champs in september without worrying on building a huge mileage on the bike and run (specially on the run). It is bad because I'd love to give it a try to the big boy some time soon.
But I still haven't planned my next season, that is a must do for the next month, and I'll make sure I sit down with the boss (aka Nat) and we go through it.

Other than IMNZ, i'd love to race IM Brasil, close to home and with plenty of friend and family on the course or on the sides. It's a real shame that Argentina doesn't have a IM sanctioned event, it would be so cool. IM Brasil was last weekend and an Aussie bet the three best long distance athletes of south america. I reckon it is good to be kicked in the butt every now and then to fire a bit of anger in you, and make you work harder and harder so it doesn't happen again.

Last year I did a sprint race, and half way through the bike, coach went past me and gave me a telling off. I still remember how annoyed I was and how I made sure I kept him on sight to pass him as soon as I could.

On other occasion I was too sure I was going to kick ass in a shorter sort of swim run race and, again, I was passed by people that I did not know but was sure was not suppossed to pass me.

That anger can be a positive thing, if you know how to channel it.

I am a bit cautious that everything is ticking pretty well and something of the like may happen soon...

we'll see
It's a softer kind of week, my mate Gordo and I are doing this stage bike race and want to make sure I am fresh for it.

Date: 1 June
Stretch and core strength.