Abel Tasman - Labour Weekend

Well, ive been a little slack updating so I'll try and get a couple of retrospective posts up.

Over Labour Weekend we (Elin & I, Freya (our flatmate) and Brent & Belinda) headed into the Abel Tasman to stay at Brents batch at Awaroa. The weather report didnt look great, and on the drive over the clouds were thick and heavy.

When we arrived at the carpark (you have to park up and either walk across (at low tide) or boat across the estuary), the sun seemed to magically come out and thats the way it stayed for the rest of the weekend.

On the Saturday Elin and I took the borrowed double kayak out to Separation Point. We even got to see a dolphin. It was a little lumpy but still nice. I headed out for a quick run in the evening.

The next day we were up and out reasonably early. Belinda and I headed out for a 3 hour run along the trail south. The running was great! We almost got to Torrent bay, so it was a decent length run!
When we got back, Freya made her family tradition sour dough pancakes. They are awesome. She makes a savoury one, with salmon and herbs, its bloody good.

On the Monday we packed up all our stuff and Elin & I paddled south to Kaiteri. Freya ran out through the park. Brent was good enough to drive through Marahau and Kaiteri and pick us all up. The paddle back was spectacular. The weather was great and there was hardly a breath of wind.

The Abel Tasman is unbeatable on a nice day, we really lucked out with the weather!

Tramp

This past weekend we headed out for a good tramp in the Richmond Ranges.

For those that don't know the Richmond Ranges are between Nelson and Blenheim. They aren't glacially formed, so the hills are steep, the ridges are up and down and the valleys are tight.

We left town on Friday night, and drove over to the Wakamarina Valley. This valley is just behind Canvastown, which was a gold mining town way back when. We walked for about an hour into Devils Hut where we spent the night.

Saturday

We were up at 6, and walking by quarter to 7. The track headed down briefly to the river, then straight up to Mt Royal. We'd only been walking for about 25min when I noticed some moisture coming out of my pack. I opened it to find, one of the beers I was carrying had burst. Bastard. It went all down the back of my legs, sticky! Adam finished what was left of the can.

On arriving at the top a fantastic view greeted us. We could also see the routes that we would be traveling along. They didnt look to bad from where we were standing.

We headed off after a quick munch along the untracked ridge to Mt Fishtail.

Arriving on top of Mt Fishtail at midday was good timing and lunch was very much enjoyed. We could see the next ridge where we would be heading and it wasn't looking so friendly. Plenty of bluffs and lots of up and down.

Mt Fell-where we are heading is the tops in the distance.

The hut on Mt Fishtail was the only place that we could get water, but unfortunately getting to it would involve a descent and a further climb. Ged talked us into it, which ended up being a bloody good thing. I stripped off and cleaned the sticky beer off my legs and shorts.

We left a bit of skin on the scree slopes getting off Mt Fishtail. It wasnt long before we were descending and climbing as we traversed the ridge. It didnt take much longer before people started getting tired. Breaks became a bit more frequent and there wasnt a whole lot of talking.

After pushing through some tight scrub and climbing Mt Fell we arrived at the hut.

Ged with Mt Fishtail in the background, and the ridge we walked along.

Unfortunately there was a father and his 2 children there already. This meant 7 people and 6 bunks. Adam, Brent and I managed to share 2 and a bit bunks but it wasnt particularly comfortable!

We did enjoy beers, steak with blue cheese, a cous cous salad and a green salad. Not your ususal tramping tucker.

Sunday

The next morning we were greated by another great day. We were on our way by 7:45. A quick climb out of the hut onto Mt Fell and we began our descent towards Pelorous River. We negotiated one rocky gut, and Adam just avoided getting his legs taken out by a falling rock.

Shortly after we were met with a fixed wire. The wire is so you can descend a narrow steep gut and ledge. Below both is a big bluff. It was a little hair raising.

The rest of the tramp was mainly downhill with one reasobable climb. By the time we arrived at the Maitai Dam my quads were toast!

All in all an awesome weekend. Saturday was about 12 hours on the go, with 3400m of climbing. While Sunday was 9 hours on the go and 1500m of climbing. Good times.

Musselman

As I said, I'm catching up with posts.

This sunday I raced the Musselman. Its a great event put on each year by Chris James.

The race goes from Picton to Nelson,

• 10k paddle
• 41k road bike
• Lunch stop
• 40k mtb
• 8k run

The paddle went well, John and Dan were off. Trevor and I worked together, we got a bit of a gap on everyone else.

The road bike started well, I had a good first transition. Trevor got held up by cramps and I got a gap. I had planned on working together through to Pelorous. The ride was going well and I had brought John and Dan back from over 2mins to 30s. However I got a flat, and this prob cost me about 7 or 8 minutes.

After an awesome lunch that my flatmate, Freya (she also did the race) put together. We headed off on the MTB. It was raining and cold at Pelorous Bridge, so I wore a jacket. (big mistake)

George Baxter took off, sprinting away right from the start. I stayed as close to him as I could, pretty quickly it was down to George, myself, Trev, and Dan. We starting heading up the climb, and i started getting hot! The clouds were clearing and the sun was coming out. I took off my cap under my helmet and promptly dropped it. It took me quite a while to catch the others.
About 2/3s the way up the climb, I got a gap. It sort of happened without me meaning to do anything, so I just kept riding. Getting to the top of the hill, I zipped up my jacket, pulled my top and thermal down (I had them up like a midriff top, FOR THE LADIES!).

Barring one mishap where I ended up unclipped lying on my seat superman styles the downhill went well. I hammered down the road from the dam and then proceeded to sprint the last run down to the finish in town. I was on the limit the whole way down. Sitting here now, 3 days later I still have heaps of fatigue from that last effort.

In the end I finished 1 minute behind Trevor. Its always a fun race, and I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to chase back after the puncture.

Freya ended up in third place in the womens, a good result for no real training!

Abel Tasman Weekend

I'm a bit behind with posting so I'll do a few individual posts.

Two weekends ago Elin and I went kayaking in the Abel Tasman. One of the guys here in town lent us his double hypernova.

I headed out for a ride first thing in the morning. It was a bit of a miserable ride as the first half was uphill into a light headwind. Second half was a bit more fun though. Put it in the big ring and ground it out on the way home.

Once i got home we had a big lunch loaded the car up and headed to Kaiteriteri. On arriving at Kt we had a half hour nap, then got into it.

We were lucky enough to strike the only bit of bad weather the whole weekend. The wind came up quickly and we were not making much headway at all. Elin got cold very quickly. When we stopped on Adele Island for her to warm up, she was up to her waist in water in the kayak!

The wind passed quickly and it began raining. We were treated to a great rainbow. Elin also saw her first penguins. We stayed at Te Pukatea Bay. Very nice.

Next day was beautiful. We had a big breakfast then paddled out round Tonga Island. Plenty of seals, some big boys out there! We stopped off in Sandfly bay for a lie down.

The final paddle back to Kaiteriteri was great, we had a howler of a tailwind. It took us very little time, catching heaps of runners. I was pretty ruined as we turned into Kaiteri, trying to pull a laden double over the backs of waves isnt easy.

Great weekend...where training meets romance!

When Good Training Goes Bad

The title to my post today may seem a bit arse about face, but its what happened last night.

Wednesday night is a 2.5hr road ride, with one decent climb, two smaller climbs and the remainder is flat. Either 2 or 3 of us head out on these rides. I've been heading along for about the last month.

When I started back I let the others take off on the hill, but everyweek I have been feeling a little better. However last night was something else. I've been a touch stressed with getting everything done, and this has been effecting my training a bit. Yest I seemed to release from that stress and everything clicked.

I was feeling great, riding on the front the whole time, climbing so well I dropped the others without trying and still riding steady.
It was raining however, and I hadn't bought quite enough clothes along. On descending the big hill (~10min descent) I was cold. Then about 5km later I had a flat. Stopped to change it, the others continued to ride as it was a little out and back. After a long time changing an inner with cold hands, I pumped it up to find it had a hole. So I used my other spare, but broke the valve off. So after 10min jumping around trying to stop shivering, the others rocked up, used one of their spares and we were off again.

I hammered up over the little hill, and was back on the front on the flat feeling great. When I got another flat. Arse. Andrew and John must've thought I was bad luck. I called Elin and she came and picked me up.

It felt great to be riding so efortlessly, but was a touch average to flat so many times then need a ride home!

Have a photo session with Nelson Mail tonight for the next article. Pretty lol.

Base Training

Hey hey
Its great to see the season start to turn. The farm animals have multiplied and the trees are covered in blossom. Winter has been wet this year in Nelson, and although it doesnt bother me too much, I am looking forward to spring and summer!

Training has been ticking over well. Kayaking has really come on quickly, from not being able to keep up even during easy paddling, Im paddling comfortably at a steady pace. The bike has really come along well. I've been getting some good mid week rides in with some of the guys. 3 weeks ago I couldnt hold their wheel, now Im keeping up fine.
Ive backed off the amount of running, as Ive brought up the other sports. My running is also going well.

This weekend just been we spent the weekend in St Arnaud, Nelson Lakes. It was our yearly work function. There are so many trees down, that there is little choice as to where to walk! Nelson Lakes way it is due to heavy snow to low levels, in the Richmond Forest Park, and Kahurangi NP its from wind. A pity cause it will be a long time before many tracks are open again. I guess its part of mother natures plan to make room for new growth.

Had mum and dad down last weekend. Was great to have them down. Took them for a walk up Mt Duppa, just as we arrived at the top, the cloud rolled in. What a bastard. Its a fair grunt up, and its a fantastic view when you get there.

I had a business writing course in Wellington last week. It was really well run and more interesting than I wouldve thought possible! The most interesting element, was the presenter was into a lot of NLP and hypnosis type stuff. Ive been looking for something to help with race visualisation and confidence etc... Ive started looking into this stuff and it looks great.

This weekend we have a quiet weekend at home, Im really looking forward to it. Ive got some stuff to get together for sponsors.
Now that the other sports have come up to speed, we'll be hitting some base training. Unless Rich wants me to do something different, there will be lots of easy steady and a little dose of tempo.

Keep it tight.

EQC Work.

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, with all the storms of late we've been involved with assessing the damage. The work is very interesting, always good to see landslides and to see why they slide etc. I was hoping to get into some structured training but that got delayed a week.

I had a pretty good week of training last week, 3 bikes a couple of kayaks and plenty of runs. My left ITB has been real tight, and Liz Stroud (as osteo in Nelson) has been helping me with that. She really does have healing hands!

First of 3 or 4 articles was published in the Nelson Mail on Friday.
http://stuff.co.nz/nelsonmail/blogs/fitnesszone/2008/08/15/coasting-towards-the-coast

I'm looking for sponsorship for Coast entry fee. Its more expensive every year, a very good business me thinks.

Have mum and dad coming down this weekend, looking forward to having them. Mums keen to go to the market, so we may send her and Elin off to that, and I might take dad kayaking.

Going to see Richard sometime this week about setting up a program. I've got a pretty good idea of how to build a good base, but it gives me more confidence having some help from someone who knows a thing or two. I think its going to be important to make every session count.

Saw Ben Fouhy on tv being interviewed after finishing well behind Adam VK in the K1. He really didnt look or sound good, its always a pity to see some one in peak condition not bringing it together mentally. I struggle with racing positvely and being relaxed, so I can relate. Self belief and relaxation are two powerful things!

Stormy weather!

Hey everyone

Hope people are still in one piece. Despite Nelson being normally pretty tame, we've had some good weather coming through here too. The best being that video that lots of people have probably already seen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PtCzlZogjZQ

Great.

Elins parents left last weekend after spending time in Te Awamutu and with my parents in Whangaparaoa. They seemed to really enjoy their time here. On their last weekend we took them up to Nelson Lakes for the day. The weather wasnt great but we were hoping for the best. We walked up Mt Robert, which is easily accessible and has great views in good weather. Arriving at the top we were greated with clouds and snow. Being Swedes Im sure they felt like they were at home.

A group of us headed out yesterday for a trek up the Wangapeka Valley yesterday, once again the weather wasnt great but we hoped for the best. We crossed the Wangapeka River and headed up Chummies Track. There were breaks in the cloud so things werent looking to bad. However when we were to start sidling around the ridge before heading over the top, we were greated with waist deep, wet snow on a very steep slope. Dangerous. We pushed on for a bit, but it was getting a little too much, so beaten by mother nature we turned around and headed back. Crossing the river, we were lucky that it had only risen marginally. Bit of a bugger not to do quite what we had planned, but its all good experience.

Structured training starts this week. I'm going to have a chat with Richard Ussher this week. Hes only a few doors up the road, and is going to be helping me with programmes.

A big thanks to CLM fitness who have given me a 6 month gym membership.
L

First update

Hey ya'all
We've had Elins parents staying with us for the last week. So far they've had a good look round Nelson, taken a wine tour and a tour into the Abel Tasman and we've shown them round Golden Bay.
This weekend we'll probably head up to Nelson Lakes and maybe nip out to the Marlborough Sounds as well.

They seem to be enjoying themselves, its my first time meeting them. According to all the guys at work, its pretty important I get my tick from the parents!

As for training at the moment, its the off season! I'm doing whatever I can fit in without getting stressed out or missing spending time with Elins oldies.
I'm running everyday to work, normally running the long way home, yoga class 2x a week, yoga and core most nights of the week (whenever I can be bothered, normally with Elin) and gym twice a week. Everything strictly aerobic! (as per http://www.markallenonline.com/heartrate.asp, gordo etc) I ride the odd day to work, but I havent been in the boat since Rollos, plan is to keep most of the kayak fitness through gym work, (lots of pull ups!).

Stay cool

First Post

As you can see this is the first post. I decided to do a blog as I thought it may be useful to keep everyone up to date with what Elin and I are up to. Adding to my decision to do a blog was the extra exposure it may help to get sponsors. I'm currently in the process for applying for sponsorship towards the next multisport season.

My goal is to keep boasting to a minimum as many blogs seem to end up being full of it. Hopefully this little excersize is successful.