Brasil

Tracy and I arrived in Brasil a couple of days ago. It was a 30hr door to door trip, drive to Auckland Airport, fly to Santiago - Chile, then onto San Paulo - Brasil, then the final flight to Goaina and a little drive to my dads house. We where pretty lucky to arrive at 11.30pm at night so as soon as we where home it was straight to bed for a good sleep.

My first day was a little interesting, my bearing where obviously not working as a 45min run turned into a 90min effort! and getting used to cycling on the right always takes a little while to get used to.

Day two and we went out to visit the farm my dad has helped to convert into a New Zealand style dairy farm. They have approximately 750 cows at the moment and two central pivot irragators so everything is very green. They have a man made lake to feed the irragators so I had a swim in the lake in my new Orca wetsuit.

Today I ran, swam and biked and tonight is Bevan's stag do so it should be a big one! dinner at 8.30 then off for some shenanigans......

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Noumea International Olympic - Race Report

Time flies fast, I have been home 3 days, and the race was nearly 5 days ago!
So back to the start, Friday afternoon, Tracy, Graham and I drove to Auckland and stayed at the Madgwicks house for the night. Azelda and Tracy made us a great dinner and I got introduced to chocolate eclair ice cream, I still prefer my vanilla though.

5am Saturday morning off to Auckland airport, arrive, plane delayed 1hr so we have a lot of time to kill. Get on the plane, and its a old school version, no inflight entertainment. I was looking forward to catching up on some movies. Arrive in Noumea at 12pm, wait for the bus shuttle, and get unloaded at the hotel at 2.30pm. Quick spin to check out the bike and run course and a little swim and its bed time.

Next morning rolls around and we wake to very pleasant race conditions, nice and warm so good preparation for IM Brasil. I have a very average start to the swim and lost contact with the race from the start, on to the bike and I have ok sensations in the legs but make no time on the leaders, Vernay, Ogrady, Farlow and a few others who are riding strong. Then comes the run, I get held up in transition with a lot of yelling in french at me, realise they want to see my number and I am let out of the gate :)
My legs get better as the run goes on and I end up in 6th place. A nice little hit out. I should really do these races a lot more, as I struggle with the top end speed (compared to IM pace) so they are really beneficial. The last time I raced a olympic distance was over 2 yrs ago!
Graham gets third, and we go off for a 40min run to get some volume in to the legs. Aaron Farlow gets a good win, with Vernay 2nd.

So by 11am we are all finished and then spend the rest of the day looking around Noumea and doing the tourist thing. Monday morning Graham and I finish the legs of with a 2hr run and a cycle. Tuesday we have a quick swim then back to the airport and home again.

Tracy and I are back to the airport this Tuesday, off to Brasil for Bevan and Dayanny wedding and then IM Brasil. Looking forward to punishing myself there :)

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Noumea International Triathlon

This saturday I am off with Ogrady to a race in Noumea on Sunday, a olympic distance triathlon which should put some speed into the legs. Its perfect timing coming 3 weeks out from Ironman Brasil, in a hot climate with a strong field predicted. Thanks to Graham Park for organising the trip for me and GOG.

The training has been ticking along, I have been doing some acclimatisation training on the indoor erg and dressing up super warm for some run and bike sessions outdoors. I haven't raced since Ironman New Zealand which is nearly 8 weeks ago, so it will be good to feel some adrenalin and race day nerves... Otherwise its training as usual, building on the week before, and the week before that and making sure all the systems are trained in each training cycle.

Once I get to Brazil it will be all on for a couple of months, with a trip home for a couple of weeks then off to Europe for Challenge Roth and Challenge Copenhagen.

I also just had a interview with Brazilian Magazine Mundotri, you can check out the article here, page 33

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