New blog
You will have noticed this hasn’t been updated in a long time….
…. so try http://www.nicandcabin.blogspot.com instead. You might find some more recent info there!
Cheers
Cabin
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
September musings
Having got a little slack on my blog updates, and September rapidly coming to an end, thought I’d better at least post an update on the months events?! Excuse the long rant. I need to get back to weekly updates. Read on. Or not….
Day/Night Thriller
A fortnight ago as Team Delmaine, Nic and I were able to race together and win the Mixed section of the popular Day/Nighter Thriller 12hr in Taupo. We were joined by good friend Sonia Foote and super keen Delmaine road specialist Sam King-Turner to make a formidable 4. We were missing a 5th rider but figured we could sub in Motorcycling legend Aaron Slight (riding for a Delmaine social team) if need be.
Day went well. We just took it in turns to ride solid two lap stints and paid no attention to results. Which was smart, as if we’d looked we would have seen we were down by 8mins+ with 1hr20 to go. As luck would have it I ended up doing 3 of the last 4 laps, and we won by a couple of mins. Along the way I posted close to (if not the actual) fastest laps of the event in both daylight and at night. So that was encouraging. Lap of the day goes to Sonia for busting out a 25min night lap riding only with my tiny 3watt headlamp for ‘vision’. Nice.
Big disappointment was the prize giving. We were announced and presented as 2nd, despite the laps/time stated saying otherwise. Not wanting to create a scene I quietly questioned things backstage, and asked for a correction announcement to be made. Instead it was left to after the prize giving, and not announced. And we were left to seek out a prize/medal swap. I feel this was incredibly poor of the organisers and not the first time I’ve had ‘run-ins’ with this particular promoter. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise very enjoyable day.
Cyclocross comes to Palmy
Last weekend saw a solid and varied training block of about 9hrs in two days capped off by a great 50min short track, come cyclocross, club
MTB race down at the riverbank 5mins from our house. Partly from my urging, a great wee circuit was laid out zigzagging up and down the stop bank, through some ditches, and even some barrier fences were erected necessitating some swift dismount skills.
It was great fun. I was a bit tired (arriving at the race after a 3hr30 MTB ride) and a bit lethargic at the start. But soon made it my mission to try and lap the field on the 5min loop. Managed to up the pace to 4:30’s at the end and finally lapped 2nd lace on the last lap. Promptly calling it a successful weekend.
Am starting to think about organising a ‘proper’ Cyclocross could be a good idea. Maybe the weekend prior to Xmas. “Cabin’s Christmas Cross.” Beer’s and Barbie afterwards. Any takers?
Magpies
No need to explain this. The worst thing about training at this time of the year in NZ. Magpies are out. They’re vicious, and seemingly with a vendetta against me. It’s resulting in more than a few unscheduled sprint efforts!
XTERRA
I’m going to say it’s a month away, as that sounds like I have more time. With just four weeks until XTERRA World Champs, training is shall we say, solid at the moment. One of those phases where at no point in time am I really feeling that flash. Fitness definitely on the up. But without much rest and/or sharpening going on yet, I wouldn’t exactly say my race form is brilliant. But that’s what the next few weeks are for. Right know I’m feeling strong so that’s good.
The only hiccup has been a distinct lack of running after the injury in China. Lead to 3 weeks of basically no running, and only managed my first 40min run yesterday. Still…With a couple more races (The Whaka, and PNP MTB series) four weeks is heaps of time. I hope?!
Podium Shot from China… When I could still walk properly!
Monday, September 8, 2008
Opportunity Knocks
Apologies. My blog has been rather obviously dormant for a wee while. Thing was I got a bit pre-occupied a couple of weeks back when Stu Lynch came calling out of the blue with an attractive offer, and my XTERRA preparations got sidetracked for a wee bit.
“Do you want to come to China and do an adventure race with us? Cost’s covered. Wayne’s hurt his ankle so we need a fill in…..” Doesn’t take a genius to figure the answer to that one out. Hell yes. I always said I’d be keen on an adventure race one day when I get old and crusty. Guess I’m old and crusty?!
I’ll do some sort of detailed writeup at some point, bu the quick version of events is…….Race was fast and hard. More than 120km of MTB, 68km+ on foot, 66km of paddling, some abseiling/caving,and canyoning. Around 5000 vertcal metres of elevation gain (and loss), and after 21hrs+ of racing my team (Orion Health) finished up 7th.
It was a little dissapointing in that we had held 4th going in to the last day, but were hampered by punctures, one very crook team member, and one crippled team member: that would be me. A painful knee injury seeing me hobble my way thru the days opening 2 1/2hr run. There were tears, and I am suprised I have teeth intact after grimacing/grinding my teeth so hard for so long.
I was amazed at how hard these guys/girls go in what is quite a long event. Yet pleased with my abilities to handle it (knee aside!).
I was fascinated and privalaged to see the ‘real’ China as we raced thru high mountain villages, farming routes, rivers, dams, and rural towns. The contrast between opulance and absolute poverty is startling. We were treated like kings. Whilst all around us people slaved away, laboring intensively, earning a pitance.
I am quite cynical at the best of times….. but after this trip I have to say Beijing’s Olympics did a magnificent job of presenting China as they would like us to see it….. and that the reality is quite grim. i’ve attached a few pics of everday life in Wulong (where we were). No race pics…. was too busy racing.
Anyway. On the plus side I had an amazing (…ly hard) trip. Hopefully I stop hobbling soon enough, and another weeks sleep should see me caught up?!
Monday, August 11, 2008
Who needs gears?
It would seem the ‘disease’ (or should that be virus) that is Single Speeding continues to spread. Yesterday we made the trip up to Taupo for the Life Cycles 3 1/2hr teams race, and I swear, every 2nd bike was a SS. At least thats what it seemed like out on the trails anyway!
A great chance to cut loose on the fast flowing trails on offer at Craters of the Moon, and use a competitive situation for some training motivation. After all, its much easier to drag yourself out for a race with a designated start time than it is to procrastinate all morning about whether to get out on a training ride.
As per my current promises, I decided to not just to forgo the privalage of gears in favour of the simplicity (and strength training) offered by the SS… but also to lineup as an individual and do the whole thing myself. Seem’s I wasn’t the only one with similar ideas, and it was great to see a healthy field of individuals deciding the full 3 1/2hr was better value for their $15 entry.
The first lap turned out to be argueably the most fun ever. Our wee leading bunch (Mikey Northcott, Andrew Bott, me, and junior guns Dirk Peters and Patty Avery) responded favourable to my calls for elbows out moto style racing. Every tiny lip was pumped for maximum air, and was delighted when my agressive attempts at passes were met with wide elbows and being wide into trees by Dirk. It was awesome! I responded with a sweet late braking block pass. Nice.
Soon enough we settled into a solid pattern of 25min laps, staying together. After 3 of those I decided I was a bit bored, and dropped the hammer for a bit. Punching out a 23min lap that only Mikey responded to, and soon got rid of him on lap 5. So I was left on my own to keep it steady, and roll around for 9 laps and a comfy win. Legs were a bit smoked by the end. As are my arms, hands, and lower back. ah well, I guess 81km on a SS will do that to you?
So that makes it 3 from 4 wins on the SS now, with the only loss having come at the hands of Weinberg in SS Nats. Think I’m getting the hang of this now. However, No…. don’t expect to see the SS at XTERRA. As fast as it seems to be I don’t imagine I’d be running too well off the bike. Who needs gears? I do.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Road Racer?
Despite my absence of postings in the inter-webby world of late, yes I am still alive and pedalling. Currently I’m recovering from my latest outing at round 5 of the Benchmark series, held near nelson on Sunday. The Benchmark is NZ’s premier road race series…… yes you read that right, road race. So what the hell was I doing there?
Well I was asking myself the same thing. It’s a good 18mths since I last jumped in a decent level road event, and 130km with NZ’s best domestic roadies seemed like a bit of a silly idea. But it was a chance to hang out with the Delmaine road boys and do my bit to help them out. Despite my best intentions, due to a combination of work, bad weather, and lack of daylight hours, I hadn’t actually pedalled outside for almost 10 days prior to the race, so was a tad nervous.
Turns out I had a great day. With mud splatter still on my helmet and wearing MTB shoes I did my bit to stay ‘true’ to the dirt. Thankfully it was only my new partner in crime Gordy MaCauley that really noticed and took glee in giving me grief over that. Turns out that riding for a team is great. Joe and Ed went up the road in the early break which made things far better.
Meant my job was essentially to preserve the break. Meaning don’t do a lot, and try and cover any other breaks. Sit in, eat and drink, wait for the last lap. … So occupied my time jumping after Jeremy Yates, Gordy, Tom Findlay and the like when they tried to go. And took great satisfaction from the fact that when I was on the front I could cruise without any guilt as we had guys up the road. Awesome! Felt pretty good, did some useful things, and was strong up the climbs. I could get to like this.
All was well till 20km to go when the lights went out. Oops. Despite Ash’s constant reminders, I’d neglected to drink much at all. Just forgot really. So suddenly legs went weak and I watched the bunch roll away. Ah well, job done anyway. So I cruised round the last 16km lap on my own quite slowly…. finishing 30 something.
All in all a bloody useful day’s training really. I then had to jump on a plane to Auckland for work purposes, where I was due to attend and present at, wait for it, the 2008 NZ Walking Conference.
Riveting stuff?! Definately felt a bit ‘fish out of water.’ To quote my mother….. “You can’t go to a walking conference. You hate walking!” Which wasn’t helped when another presenter just before me declared that walking is for life, and that the problem with runner’s is that when they stop running, life ends. WTF?! Yup, I really fitted in!
The conference dinner and subsequent late night wine consumption/social networking was pretty entertaining though. Pleased to be home now though, and back into some consistent training. Next up on the event hitlist is the Taupo MTB clubs 3.5hr team relay this Sunday. I’ll just do it solo (as will Nic), and probably go for a wee gallop round the forest after. And probably on the SingleSpeed. It’s looking a little sad and neglected in the corner of the garage….
Team mate Joe Chapman sporting the sort of facial growth I only wish I could match!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Legal performance aid’s
In the last 2 weeks I’ve been forced into taking more than a few of that famed supplement……. the “harden the f#$% up pill.” Seems they work damn well. So well in fact that I won the latest 50km of the ever popular N-Duro series at Rotorua on Sunday: on my Singlespeed!
Two weeks ago, after enjoying a full two weeks off of doing pretty much nothing at all, daytime tv was wearing thin and I’d managed to pry myself off of the couch and into some training. Unfortunately this coincided with a weather bomb hitting NZ that had me running in hail, cycling in weather that literally had ice-icles forming on my legs (reason #56 to shave your legs. No hair = no ice-icles), and seriously struggling to motivate myself to go to the pool.
Any training I did do wasn’t exactly intense, so I figured what better way to snap myself out of it than do a race? Not wanting to have to clean the Superfly, I decided to drag out the Rig. Big fat/heavy training tyres and all, for its first MTB ride since SS nats. At least I swapped the 16th sprocket for an 18th this time. I figured I could use the strength training.
Being that I still haven’t registered my car, I had to ride 25km on the main road to meet Big Gav at Sanson. Usually a pleasant ride when you have gears, but on a SS MTB in cold rain it was anything but. Can you spell f r u s t r a t i n g?
Anyway. Race day, and I took the lead at the top of the start climb. I really had no choice if I was to keep the gear turning over. After briefly giving up the lead to Gav and Patrick Avery, I decided to put my head down and open a gap as surely I’d get caught on the open going? However that was the last I saw of anyone. Eventually clearing out to a 5min win.
Was it painful? Yes. I just keep thinking Craig Gordan in 24 solo. “Its in the dog. love it love it love it” But that took some convincing. Was it fun? The muddy rutted Downhills certainly were. There I used Sam Hill’s advice on his “greatest DH run of all time” as motivation. “just rode it like it was dry.” Kinda worked, till I hit some trees. Confirming it wasn’t dry at all.
Will I do it again? Hmmm. First reaction, no. With the upcoming Highlander being extended to 80km the SS isn’t that appealing. But I’m getting a wee bit of lets say ‘encouragement.’ I’m told that ‘pain is temporaray, fame is forever.’ But trying to win an 80km MTB marathon overall on a SS seems a bit stupid right now. Then again, its not like I haven’t done plenty of stupid things before……
My hot line cyclocross styles across the creak. Truth be told I just didn’t fancy trying to get up the bank on the other side on SS gearing….. And at this point my feet were still dry. What a woose
Friday, June 27, 2008
Killing time
We’re sooooo mature here at Redwood Grove. Nic and I were going a little stir crazy today. The weather has been rubbish all week. Neither of us are back at work yet, we’re on a break from training, and we’d been indoors all day doing computer work.
we’d just read Craig Pattle’s new column in NZMTB mag. “Do a little skid for me” said Craig. “Oh, I know,” says Nic, “let’s go do skids for Pattle.” Brilliant. So off down to the riverbank for childish, immature fun. Splashing round in the puddles. Best ride in ages !
So mature I know. Tommorrow we thought we should go to the pool. At this rate it’ll probably be handstand races…..
Monday, June 23, 2008
Back to Reality
It’s official. I’m allergic to not racing. At least not being able to do the racing I’d love to be doing…… well that’s the conclusion I am drawing from recent events.
After reluctently departing the USA just as their summer racing season kicks into high gear, we’made it back to Palmee relatively trouble free. By complete fluke we’d booked connecting flights that went through Atlanta in the US rather than northern connector hubs…. all of which had closed dueto weather and caused major travel chaos for many of the XTERRA family heading on from Richmond. Otherwise we may have had some serious issues.
Home safe, and looking forward to a relaxing week before work kicks off again, I remembered I’d volunteered to be a subject for a friends exercise physiology masters thesis involving cycling performance. My commitment involves two rather nasty 2hr30 lab bike efforts.
So when he hunted me down and arranged the trial for Monday I was, umm, really excited. Pre-trial required a controlled one hour session at the lab yesterday. Outside it was raining heavily, and freezing cold. My car is currently out of action and nic was away. So no choice but to put on multiple layers and man up for the 5km right out to Massey. 1km down the road and I got a flat front tire. Someone was trying to tell me something. It was cold, wet, and I was late, so I rode the flat out to Massey.
Onto the exercise. an hour at 220 watts. Not super hard at all, yet 1/2 way through I suffered a rather alarming episode that I can only pressume was some form of reaction to something. Light headed, couldn’t breath etc… Needless to say session was stopped and no trial today. I’m fine now. So I’m put it down to an allergic reaction of sorts…..
….. to the fact I’m its winter, I have to go to work, and I’m not in the States racing where I’d rather be! Ah well, back to reality. The pic below is outside our place at 3pm this arvo. Beautiful huh? Just a wee change from the 30 degrees of Richmond
Monday, June 16, 2008
XTERRA East Champs….. still improving
I have a wee problem. This XTERRA thing is kind of a big deal over here in the States. Which means things just keep getting more competitive. And results tougher to come by. So when yesterday, on Richmonds gnarly urban assualt course also known as XTERRA East, I improved my own performance by nearly 10mins over last year (when I was 13th)….. it was only good enough for 11th.
So that US Pro tour top 10 still eludes me. Just.
Richmond is simply a cool race. Cool enough it really is worth flying halfway across the world for. The short 1000m swim has to be seen to be believed. Held in the James river, its a water borne obstacle course. Shallow enough in places to lead to numerous beached whale impersonations, yet such a rock and debris strewn bottom to make dolphin diving (or even running) not really an option either. Richmond is probably the only triathlon you can expect to come out of the swim cut and bruised.
This leads to an amazing MTB course. Tight twisty and demanding singletrack. With staircases, railway crossings, culverts, storm water drains. You name it. Followed by a fast 11km including everything from roads, to single track, stairs, old river beds and even ladders. Like I said, its gnarly. And you’d better bring your A game.
Unfortunately, I was sick after last week, and pretty much did nothing all week. So I was a little unsure. But I’ve learned to trust my ability and the training that has come before, so was on a mission for that top 10. Sadly, I messed up the ’swim’ a little. With a seperate pro start it was a great opportunity to get that elusive tow on the strongest swimmers feet. But after a bad choice in starting technique in the waist deep water I lost those feet in oh, about 10m.
I salvaged something at least, but was dissapointed to still give up 3min to the front, and came out one of the last of the 24 pro men. This was certainly a missed opportunity. Out onto the bike course and time to go to work. There were a few exciting moments as I made error after error in the first 20min. even managing to ride off the side of a 6ft high concrete ‘bridge’ that i’ve never even thought twice about in the past. Amazingly, I got away with that without major damage, and eventually got things moving, picking my way back through the field. Moving well, but cautious to save a little for the run.
In a reply from last week Ryan Ignatz and I rode the last third together after I finally caught him, and worked together to transition. After a 6th fastest bike split I was a little dismayed to learn we’d only made it up to 11th. Frustrated I chased Ryan out onto the run, and was moving well. I soon lost contact with Ryan which wasn’t too surprising, as he proceeded to post the fastest run of the day. I foccussed on turnover an d kept things going, pushing all the way and closing with a 39min 11km trail run almost 4min than I did last year.
11th. 7min off the win, and less than three from the podium. In fact, 5-8 were within about 40sec of each other. As I said, this field has some depth these days!
So I’m pretty encouraged looking to Maui. I’m now in the mix in these races. I’m putting myself in solid positions and giving myself a shot at a top result. The only dissapointment is that its time to go home. Whilst the XTERRA crew have invited us to race the next two pro tour events (Utah in August, and Tahoe in October), and a top ten pro series result is a realistic target; the credit cards aren’t too happy with me at the moment!
So it’s back home to work, to winter, and a focussed buildup to the World Champs. Training won’t be easy, but the carrot of World Championships dangling should provide motivation enough.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sweet home alabama?
More like brutal Alabama… Yesterdays XTERRA was tough. Temps in the mid 90’s farenheit, with high humidity making it feel like 100. Even the swim, normally kinda refreshing was uncomfortable. The lake water was measured at over 80 farenheit at 8am.
Warming up wasn’t something you needed to do. simply setting up transition was enough to get a sweat on.
Long story short, I managed to put together a pretty solid race. end result was 11th in pro, 20 sec or so out of the top 10. And while 11th was what I got last year, this was a much better quality 11th!
In all three disciplines I was faster than last year, and finished approximately 10min down on winner stoltz, which on this course, showed huge improvements.
I was pleased to swim a couple of minutes faster than last year, so headed onto the bike with confidence. The first 25min was frustrating as its all singletrack and unlike last weeks MTB race…. fast swimmers in the way (as oppossed to fast MTB’ers) make things a bit difficult. Eventually I caught up to Ryan Ignatz, one of the faster XTERRA MTB’ers and we rode solid together throughout the ride, steadily picking up spots. Quick enough that it wasn’t until the last km that B’Man Smith caught us.
Heading out onto the run in about 15th with Ignatz and Smith (XTERRAs fastest runner) I thought things were good. But I soon struggled on the brutal undulating run whose 6+ climbs in the last 5km pack in about 1800ft of elevation gain. In the heat I felt I was creeping. Turns out plenty of others were too. I soon lost sight of BMan and Ryan who ran up to 6th/8th…. but made my way steadily forward to finish strong and post an 11th.
I was promptly ushered to the mist tent which looked like a warzone with the first 10 all sprawled out either on IV’s, under ice, or simply lying under the sprinklers. Alabama kicked everyones arse!
I am pretty encouraged by my form though and can’t wait for Richmond which suits me even more.
And Nic? She put in a bloody gutsy performance for 10th women overall. She picked up a nasty bug last week and on saturday was really struggling. I wasn’t sure racing was a smart thing to do but shes paid a lot of $ to get here and was determined to compete. After all she’s here to learn, and competing under such adversity has gotta to teach you something?! So to come through that strongly was impressive. Onwards and upwards from here!
