Caned

The Rice Mountain Classic is one of the ‘big’ races for the PNP Cycling Club and I was keen to give it a go.   I nervously entered B grade - 140km (C grade’s race was much shorter) as my cracked ribs were still giving me issues.

Surprisingly the pace early on was easy going, in fact too easy as C grade which started 3 minutes behind caught us like we were standing still.  The pace picked up with some of the young C Grade kids taking off and having their 5 minutes of glory.

On the first major hill the real contenders went to the front and set to work.  Hill climbing has never been my strong point so it was a matter of survival.  I hoped I would be able to catch them on the down hill – wrong!  As soon as I crested the top the skies opened up and it poured down.  This neutralised my plan and actually slowed me down as I hadn’t spent much time on my road bike and wasn’t prepared to take any risks.

After a few agonising kms along the flat, a few of us formed a group and managed to rejoin the lead group.  We stuck together through the turn around point and were making our way back, when I experienced a low patch around the same time the bunch started a long steady climb into a head wind.  Slowly, ever so slowly, I drifted off the back.

Once I lost the bunch I eased up to wait for the next bunch.  Unfortunately an experienced triathlete named Peter Kane caught me before the bunch did.  He asked me if I wanted to do a 2 up TT with him for the rest of the race – 60km.  I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to keep up with him but the idea of riding alone into a strong head wind wasn’t appealing, so I decided I would give it a try.

I took my turns when I could and we slowly ticked off the Kms.  The rain eased up but the headwind remained relentless. Peter and I stayed together until the finish line even though he towed me near the end. I ran out of fluids with about 20km to go.  What surprised me the most was I consumed 4 bottles of fluid and needed 1 more, Peter did the entire race on 2 and finished with a few sips left.

Once I crossed the finish line I gingerly made my way into town, bought a nice cold bottle of Coke, sat in the shade and cherished every single drop!

Note:  In New Zealand, caned means to be beaten by a large amount, in this recount, I was caned by Peter kane.

There’s Adventure Then There’s ADVENTURE!!!

Mike from the Bike Hutt organised a 200km ‘fun ride’ in the Wairarapa.  It all seemed easy on paper; turn up with a bike that can handle gravel roads and be fit enough to ride for 6-8 hours.  Most of us turned up on cyclocross bikes with slick tyres, a few people rode road bikes with 25c or 28c tyres.

We started off together but soon split into small bunches.  I found myself at the front with two guys (Andy and Thomas).   All was going well, we arrived at the first check point (the support van was there with all our gear).  After a quick bite to eat and putting on some warmer clothes as it had started raining, we set off in high spirits.  The gravel roads were fantastic and the heavy rain just added to the excitement.

Everything was going to plan until the map lead us on to a farm.  The road forked, the right went to a heavily locked gate and the track on the other side didn’t seem used.  The three of us discussed our options and as the first gate seemed to go nowhere, we took the track to the left.  We all were unsure of where to go, unfortunately for me, I spotted road makers beside the gates heading into the hills and thought that was the public access route.  Biking through sheep and cow paddocks on road bikes was a little strange. 



Thomas just after he went flying over the handle bars

 

Lost while making our waythrough the farm..



We persisted with pushing our bikes and at the very top, Thomas decided that we were LOST and it was time to turn around to find some of the other riders.  By this stage we had lost Andy.  I started off being very cautious on the downhills but to no avail.  Near the bottom my front wheel locked up due to too much mud causing me to crash, rip my derailleur off and crack three ribs.



This is where the adventure really began, lost, injured and with a broken bike, the priority was to get back to Martinborough.  Thankfully I had a chainbreaker and was able to make my bike a single speed.  Thomas and I agreed the best plan was to get me back to the first check point and wait there.



While waiting we decided to clean our bikes



Waiting

After an hour of waiting, we agreed Thomas would bike up the road the rest of the riders would be coming down while I made my way back to Martinborough.

After biking and walking for about an hour or two I made it back to the main road and I decided to wait there for help.

About an hour passed when a car pulled up with cyclocross bikes and a bunch of riders clambered out.  Turns out everyone had their own adventure and no-one was able to complete the full ride. 

Once we all gathered back in Martinborough, war stories were shared.

I am looking forward to next year!



There is Always Someone Crazier!!!!

 An email went out asking who was interested in running in the Tararuas.  I was super keen as it's my favourite place to run but didn’t think I had the fitness, so I thought I was crazy taking on this challenge.

We started at the top Kaitoke car park, ran up Marchant Ridge, down Omega and out via Smiths Creek Shelter.

I found it a challenging run, it was raining and cold along the tops and it took 6 hours. One of the runners managed to do the whole run in his Vibrams – CRAZY!!!!!!

Alex Revell On A Mission

For the last couple of cyclocross seasons, there has been one rider to rule them all......Alex Revell.

Photo copied from his website

I've had the privilage to race in the same cyclocorss gragde as him and like everyone else, to watch him ride off into the distance. He is fundrasing to get to the World Cyclocross Champions, you can help him by donating through is blog (Click here).

My Triathlon World Championships Video - Complete

Here is my finished race video, ENJOY!!!

2012 World Triathlon Championships Video

Write up to come

Here is a video of my first lap.  It is at x 8 speed to keep the clip short.

The second lap looks the same, hopefully this weekend I will be able to trim the whole ride down to the best four minutes.


&

Three Races In Three Days - 21st,22nd & 23rd September 2012

Friday Night (Race One)
Okay, the first 'race' wasn't technically an official race. Greg and I decided to go for a spin up Cannon Point and take it easy on the downhill, the perfect way to get ready for the duathlon the next day. Once we started going down, neither one of us wanted to come second so it became a 'race'




Saturday morning (Race Two)
This was my second duathlon on the same course in as many weeks but this time it was the Ironmaori. I was very impressed with the atmosphere, great support for all the athletes. Full results here

Sunday morning (Race Three)
As we seem to do every year, whether it's for the Vets/PNP four up or two up time trial, Kevin and I paired up for this year's two up time trial. The weather was absolutely perfect!!! Sadly I don't have a video but our goal was to go under one hour and we achieved that. Full results here

Art Imitating Life

I have always been impressed with all the life like scarecrows scattered around the Wairarapa (Google Wairarapa scarecrows) and thought it would be neat to build one. Fortunately, our major focus for this term was art with an art show at the end of it. I suggested to my class (9 and 10 year olds) that they have a go at building their own life like scarecrows.  They jumped at to opportunity and did a magnificent job!
Can you spot my one?


Old Gran Minnie



Tibeerious The Old Photographer

  

Sam The Soccer Star

 


Kelly The Shopper



Bruce The Biker



Bruce The Biker



Scaremower Joe



Ali The Artist



Matt The Student

Catherine The Masterchef

Follow your nose Nigel

With the Olympic Distance Triathlon World Champs only a few weeks away, I probably should have been doing intervals on the bike and gone for a run today but the weather was screaming 'Go for a long ride.'

Last week I created a 'Bucket List' of training rides and runs I'd like to do this season and saw today as the ideal opportunity to tick one of the rides off.

The ride was into Wellington, loop around climbing all the major hills and back out through the Western Hills (Belmont).
I did it today, 125km/ 5.20hrs/ 1940m of climbing, all safely in the bank.

I didn't have a clear plan on where to go, I just followed my nose and as long as I was climbing, I was going in the right direction.  I had no idea there were so many steep streets in Wellington!!!

Route:
Up and over Mt Vic, around the Prison, up Hungerford Rd through South Gate dropping down to Berhampore, up Britomart St to Brooklyn and carried on up to the wind turbine, up Aro Valley and finished off by climbing up Wrights Hill in Karori.

Nothing Wrong With Coming Last....Or Is There?

Even though we are technically still in winter, yesterday's weather was absolutely beautiful, you would be forgiven for thinking it's late spring.   Today was a different story, the low cloud and heavy rain was reminder that it is not spring yet.

I rocked up to the 5th round of the Bike Hutt's Cyclocross Race Series only to find a select few had turned up to race A grade.  As the track was so muddy, I chose not to pre ride the course to ensure my bike would work properly, at least for the first lap.  Mike (the organiser) has a habit throwing in a surprise or two on the start line and this week was no different.  As everyone was lining up guessing what the surprise would be, there was some talk about riding topless; Ken seemed keener on the idea than the rest of us. As we were ready to set off, the starter asked us to all turn around and told us we were going to ride the course in the opposite direction because "the course was getting cut up."  It made no difference to me; I took my position at the back of the bunch and stayed there.  I was duelling it out with Gary (on a 29er mtb with cyclocross tyres) until half a lap to go when my legs finally gave up.  I rolled across the finish line in dead last with a much better understanding of cyclocross racing.

It's nothing like road racing where you can hide in a bunch until the finish line or mountain biking where you can recover on the downhills. It's certainly nothing like triathlon where you save your legs on the bike for the run.  Looking at how the fast people race, I think it's closer to BMX racing on road bikes with mountain bike skills. 

WHAT A FANTASTIC SPORT.  I'll definitely be back next year!!!

Full results here

No video this week as the camera lens cover got a few drops of mud on it.

Thanks to Danielle for the great photos.

Race Three of The Bike Hutt Cyclocross Series

4 Weeks - 6 Races. Wellington's A Great Place To Train.

The winter season of racing has started and the weather has been fantastic.

First up was the Kapiti Cycling Club's Winter Series. 
A great series and I highly recommend it!

Saturday 30th June - 60km Road Race
Saturday 7th July - 60km Road Race
Saturday 14th July   - 60km Road Race   Sunday - Cyclocross Race
Saturday 21st July - 60km Road Race     Sunday - Cyclocross Race

Mel Hamer-Hurst has been taking some great photos of the cyclocross races here


  There is plently more racing coming up, check out some of the club's calendars.

Kapiti Cycling Club here

Bike Hutt's Cyclocross Series here

PNP Cycling Club here

PNP Mountain Bike Series here

Fun Run and Races here





Cyclocross Series, Race Two

This was a lot of fun, the pictures are of A Grade racers.

My Precious

It’s funny to think that this was one of the best downhill bikes in 1994/1995. How things have changed!?!

During my ‘off season’ I set myself a goal of restoring ‘My Precious.’

The hardest part was restoring the front forks (Rock Shox Judy DH) as the elastomers had disintegrated.  I got there in the end, thanks to someone selling a pair of Judy XC SLs that had springs in them which I was able to use.

Servicing the damping cartridge



Comparing elastomers to springs









New springs!

While this bike isn’t 100% accurate to when I raced it, it’s pretty close.  The tyres, Panaracer Smokes, were my favourite in the early 90s and I couldn’t resist putting them on.

Specifications:

Frame – Specialized FSR – First generation.

Forks – Rock Shox Downhill Judy with a whopping 3” of travel.

Forks - Rock Shox Mag 21s with 2 1/2" of travel.

Components – mix of Lx and Xt, 8 speed with a few anodised bolts.

Brakes – Magaura Race hydraulic brakes with break beefers to save the frame.  They still feel great.

Tyres – Panaracer Smokes.

Pedals –Shimano XT – First generation.

DCD – Dave’s Chain device was used to keep tension on the chain.

Chain – Sachs, great chains in the day.

Grips - ODI mushrooms.

Do you still have your downhill bike Mr Steve Owens?

Custom Cycling Apparel (clothing)

Late last year I decided I wanted to design my own cycling gear so I started shopping around.

I looked at what Ultimo, Tineli, Champion System and Amapop had to offer.  In the end I went with Amapop and was very impressed.

The whole process was very simple.

I came up with some ideas for my design (big thanks to Andy Brown for designing my kiwi) then emailed it to Toni.

Toni turned my ideas into a design and emailed them back to me.

I modified the mock design and emailed it back.

The whole design process was extremely easy!  The hardest part was deciding on which material to use, either:

Cooldry - a high quality material which is extremely light and has fantastic moisture wicking capabilities.

Coolfresh Extreme – also a quality material but slightly heavier / thicker.

Thermal material – This material is almost too good to wear on the road, let alone mountain biking.  It feels like silk, beautiful!

I went for one of each.

Once the design, materials and sizes were confirmed, I received my gear.

Toni aims to have the gear delivered within 2 - 3 weeks.

 If you think you’d like to have a go at designing your own personal cycling gear or get some designed for you, email Toni at cycletoni@live.com  or visit his website

Wellington Scottish Athletics Club 3 Peaks, Event 1

The Wellington Scottish Athletics Club holds a series of races where you are given a map and three hill tops to reach. Any route can be taken. For event 1, the hill tops were Johnstons, Chartwell and Tinakori.  Click here for the results and information on the next two races. 

Cross Fit Training – Only Four Spaces Available

After many years of researching and experimenting I have devised a set of exercises that target specific muscles for runners, mountain bikers, triathletes and multisport folks.

These exercises should not be attempted unless supervised by a highly skilled coach such as myself.

The first exercise targets: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower & Upper Back, Shoulders and Biceps.




I need these moved to the wood shed

Lifting Logs  

First you stand with your feet apart, crouch down, put your arms around the log, (some logs require two people to carry them) stand up and walk from the driveway to the woodshed.

For advanced athletes, you can lift the log to shoulder height or above your head. 

The second exercise targets: Quads, Glutes, Lower & Upper Back, Shoulders and Biceps.

   



Greg working hard

Chain Sawing Logs  

Again you stand with your feet apart, holding the chainsaw, cutting the wood into appropriate size rings.  For best results, push down with your lower back and engage your abdominal muscles.




Me having a go





For advanced athletes who want to get an extra challenging back workout, once the chainsaw is in full revs, hit a stone which will take the edge off the blade causing the chain to be less effective which requires more back strength.


The third exercise targets: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower & Upper Back, Obliques, Shoulders and Biceps



One day we will look like this

Splitting Wood With Axe 

Once again, you stand with your feet apart, lift the ring of wood onto a chopping block, pick up an axe and proceed to chop the wood into suitable size pieces for your wood burner.

For advanced athletes, either use a blunt axe or focus on rings with large knots.  Both of these will require extra strength, physically and mentally.



The fourth and probably the most important exercise targets: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower & Upper Back, Obliques, Shoulders and Biceps.



Great form

Stacking Wood

Again, stand with your feet apart, bend at the knees, reach down focusing on the side ways twist which targets the obliques, pick up one or two pieces of wood and stack in an orderly fashion.

For advanced athletes, either reach further for the wood and/or focus on heavier pieces.

Greg's weekend run about



You may expect to pay hundreds of dollars for this sort of workout or even thousands if you joined a gym but I am offering four lucky readers the chance to take part in this Cross Fit Training Session for the small price of a couple of cans of coke and that includes my professional guidance and motivational speeches when you want to quit. 



 

Off season

  

This unique training session will only take place once a year, normally the first weekend after Crazyman or as some may say the start of the off season.