This may seem like a very silly thing to do but I'm always up for a challenge. A 160Km bike ride on the Saturday and then a Sprint Tri on the Sunday. I knew I would not be setting any records but it was a nice sunny day and it was fun to race to and catchup with some of the old crew...
Maraetai is always a good location and with the weather as good as it was it would be ashame to miss it!
Swam pretty hard, just over 7mins. Tony thought it was short but I do not. I should be able to swim at an average of 1'30" per 100m. It was quite a tough effort though... go out of the water and straight into transition there was not even enough time to get wet suit to the waist as I was so close to the entry... oh well. Got a split, Tony was 30s in front.
Took a bit to get the shoes on but once I got going realised that this was going to be tough! The short climbs really bite. I even got passed, so sat it for a bit then the legs seemed to come right and got going again dropping everyone that was with me. Saw Tony not that far up the road at the turn around. He was going pretty fast and I closed in a bit more but could not catch him...
Into transition 2 Tony was leaving as I was racking my bike. Anyway a quick change into the racing flats (not perfect as the insoles moved) and off for the chase! Closed down very slowly on the Super Coach! He was still in front at the turn around and really nailed it down hill... I held on and past him on the flats just before the hill... put in a bit of an effort up the steep climb and then caught Mark Bowstead at the top... look ahead for the next target but ran out of race.
A good first effort for the season and there are a few things to work on. Looking towards the next one at Mission Bay.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Taupo Cycle Challenge 2007
Well another ride around the lake. This makes it 5 for me... was the best one so far too. The day dawned wet and cool but the rain eased, the road dried up and in the end turned out to be a perfect day for riding.
I started in the 1c group, the 3rd one to start and hit the turbo boost right from the first hill! The legs were not feeling that great this year so did not stay away, but tried again and got away just as we were passing the group 1b. I kept on going but was not able to get away from 1b. Sat in for a while and then spent the next 20km lapping it out in an attempt to catch the 1a group.
We caught 1a group at about 50k. Things then slowed down for a while... a couple went of the front. After a while I decided to go with them, then a couple more went off the front after me on a climb... Including Blair Taylor. The three of us lapped it out to catch the front two. We stayed away for about 40Km but things went bad from just after Turangi, nothing left in the tank. We did not work that well together and there was a bit of hammering going on... oh well.
Once we got caught I stayed on the front or close to it to stay out of all the bad bunch riding... but once we got to Hatepe I went backwards fast! Thank fully there were lots of people in the bunch! I just held on and was able to claw my way back up to the front.
Then things got pretty fast and furious and I was just holding on... up over Airport hill I went to the front, then down into Taupo. Got swamped by the bunch and made the decision to go to the back... took a while and there were a few scary moments when I thought things might go bad.
Sure enough a crash happened just as we were coming onto the waterfront - bikes flying in all directions. I avoided it but ended up caught behind the crash and by the time I got around it the bunch was quite a ways up the road. Nothing for it but to TT to the finish... 4hrs 8mins 55secs for a new record and 7th fasted time! Yeah!
I started in the 1c group, the 3rd one to start and hit the turbo boost right from the first hill! The legs were not feeling that great this year so did not stay away, but tried again and got away just as we were passing the group 1b. I kept on going but was not able to get away from 1b. Sat in for a while and then spent the next 20km lapping it out in an attempt to catch the 1a group.
We caught 1a group at about 50k. Things then slowed down for a while... a couple went of the front. After a while I decided to go with them, then a couple more went off the front after me on a climb... Including Blair Taylor. The three of us lapped it out to catch the front two. We stayed away for about 40Km but things went bad from just after Turangi, nothing left in the tank. We did not work that well together and there was a bit of hammering going on... oh well.
Once we got caught I stayed on the front or close to it to stay out of all the bad bunch riding... but once we got to Hatepe I went backwards fast! Thank fully there were lots of people in the bunch! I just held on and was able to claw my way back up to the front.
Then things got pretty fast and furious and I was just holding on... up over Airport hill I went to the front, then down into Taupo. Got swamped by the bunch and made the decision to go to the back... took a while and there were a few scary moments when I thought things might go bad.
Sure enough a crash happened just as we were coming onto the waterfront - bikes flying in all directions. I avoided it but ended up caught behind the crash and by the time I got around it the bunch was quite a ways up the road. Nothing for it but to TT to the finish... 4hrs 8mins 55secs for a new record and 7th fasted time! Yeah!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
First 5K of the summer
Was up in Auckland on Tuesday so I decided to get down to the Loaded Hog and sign up for there 5km run.
Started out quite slowly and picked up the pace... was going quite well for Km 3 and 4. Started to hurt a bit for the last Km. 16'42" in the end so quite pleased. Not a BP though.
Would like to do another one or two before Tauranga but most likely will not be in town again. Will have to do them here in Hamilton instead - that will be quite different as the river walk course will be tougher.
Started out quite slowly and picked up the pace... was going quite well for Km 3 and 4. Started to hurt a bit for the last Km. 16'42" in the end so quite pleased. Not a BP though.
Would like to do another one or two before Tauranga but most likely will not be in town again. Will have to do them here in Hamilton instead - that will be quite different as the river walk course will be tougher.
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