The last of the big weekends leading up to IRONMAN NZ was a doozy!
To start things off I made sure that I got in a good 4km swim on Friday. Managed 13*300m so all good there. Not as fast as I would have hoped for around 4'35" for each one.
Saturday dawned was surprisingly cold compared other the rest of the week and I did not dress well. Was in Hamilton on my own so decided to head over the divi and then Big Naike. Got over the climb and at about 1hour only to get a puncture! Not biggie until I realised that I did not have a pump! DOH. A quick call to Iz took a bit long due to lack of cell coverage... but finally got through... She was still asleep and had to feed Sam first...
A guy finally came along on his bike and I was able to get a bit of air in the tyre so I could at least get riding again and warm up!
Iz past me just other side of divi and got some more spares and pump etc...
Decided to head back to Hamilton, started to rain too. Found a bit of clear sky and headed past Temple View to find it, then Peacocks road to home, grab some food and then over to Pukemoremore Road. Started to really rain on way home. But did get in some good steady efforts. Finally ended up with 160Km and 5h15min. Not too bad and please to get it down if a bit short.
Then got home and drove into town to get Sam's 4 drawer dresser ! That took a bit of lifting.... back home and off for 30min run all done!
Sunday. I drove to Auckers sat night. Started with a ride from Titirangi with the Super Coach group. Tony took the lead to start with and I followed Hamish at third wheel with Bevan behind me... Like this for a while then I decided to take the lead and up the tempo a bit as it was a little to easy... About 43mins out and ended up with 1h20m so a bit quicker back. Bevan put in a big effort on one of the shorter climbs in the big ring... very impressive I did not even try to go with him... Tony tried but did not make much headway... He did comeback to us as it did look very Solid! Max power Me 900w, Bevan 950w Tony 850w. Ave Me 233, Bevan 300+w (!!!) Tony 244w. Not sure why Bevan's was so high as he was following mostly. Tony thought that he had breaks on and pedalling down hill...
Then onto the run. I must admit, I thought that the run was going to be my strong point for a change, and everyone was going to try and stick with me. Well I could not have been more wrong. Not Tony but Bevan, Hamish, and Hannah were all running well. We ran together for about 40mins until Bevan started to wind it up... given that this was going to be about a 3hr run and I have done nothing more than about 2hr20m I really did not have the confidence to run with him and let him go... Plus the calf was playing up a bit... I tried to go past him and control that pace but Bevan did not want to play that game... I did try to stay in contact an going up Opanuku road was in touch.. nearly caught Bev but he saw me and took off! Just at the top there is about 300m of stupidly steep driveway... this was really tough and I just got up as best I could... I did make some inroads and caught up a fair bit.
Stop for a coke and gel and off along Scenic drive. I rain with Bevan again for a bit and then he started to motor again especially on the downs... my calf was not up for that and I let him go again... of course I was also not sure if I could make it at that pace... Hannah was just behind. We went out for about 25m and then turned around and back to Tony and the car for more coke and gels... Bevan just left as I arrived so no chance to run with him again. I waited for Hannah and we rain together for a bit. I upped the pace on the downhills and along past the Info centre... The plan was to open it up a bit along the pipeline track... I bonked should have put some coke in the fuel belt I really needed it! Oh well... the last 3 km just got slower and slower...
Still a very good run for me and the legs though sore have not broken! Bonus. 2h50m and about 38Km !!! I do not think I have run that fast for that long on those hills for a very very long time...
I can only think of 2 or 3 occasions, once when running with Alison Roe in the 80s. We did not want to be beaten by a girl, even one who had the world marathon fastest time... That day we ran 24 miles in the Waitaks in 2hr25m...
Very impressed with both Bevan and Hannah. I have never run with Hannah before but she is a very classy runner. Bevan has morphed into a new athlete too. Incredible what you can do if you put your mind to it!
NOTE: Bevan's ave power was not 300W but 228W. That seems a little light for him but he did not do much on the front!
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