Luke Chapman

Changes

2009-08-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Elin and I have a few changes coming up. Two big changes to be specific:

We are having a baby in Jan (elin is now 20 weeks pregnant, the pictures of the scans are attached).

We are moving up to Auckland.

About a week after telling people in the Nelson Office (where I have been based for the last 3.5 years) I was told that there was no longer the work to keep me occupied. Tonkin & Taylor have been great and have organised to transfer me to the Auckland office. Elin and I had been thinking about moving to Auckland as there is more opportunity for work and also the support of my family for Elin.

Before that news came through I had a 6 week secondment planned to Auckland, so I am currently working out of the Auckland office now. The 6 week stint ends in 2 weeks, I'm then back in Nelson for a week, then back up here pretty well permanantly.

The work has been real interesting and very challenging. I'm pretty stoked about this as it will allow me to get registered with the next few years.

As for training Ive been doing loads of running. I'm currently having a pretty cruisey month however my plan is to bust out some old Lydiard style weeks. 100 miles. I've got to about 80 miles, so not too much further to go.

Coast to Coast

2009-08-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

The very good people at http://www.sportzhub.com/ are putting together a 3 part video of the Longest Day, Coast to Coast.

Check it out here...http://www.sportzvibes.com/vibes/

Trev looks dashing in the add at the top of the screen. He has since told me he had to put a little effort in for photographers as he wasnt feeling so chipper (he obviously came right). & yes, I am putting my hands down my pants running through the boulders. I had my drink container in there.

Lees Creek

2009-06-21T18:37:00.000-07:00

Some months ago my brother came down from the big smoke and we went tramping. We headed up a small valley Lees Creek, about 25min drive from St Arnaud up the Rainbow Road.

Magic spot.

Elin and I lining up.

Jack and I lining up.

Sensational.

Marlborough Rogaine

2009-06-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Trev and I had a good run around on Sunday at the Marlborough 6hr Rogaine.

The day started early 4.45 am. We arrived at the hash house 20km up the Awatere Valley behind Seddon at 7.30.

When we set off we were the only ones to go our route. That made us a little nervous. We didnt have the best start and realised that we should have planned our route a little different, approaching a high scoring control from a better angle.

The rest of the day went pretty well. Our nav wasnt real sharp, but we managed to sneak ahead of a few of the other teams to win. I think the 2 greatest contributors to that were our grunt over nav finesse approach, and Nathan Faavae being unlucky enough to pick 3 controls that were misplaced inhis route. After spending some time looking for them he'd had enough.

Highlights of the day were:

Fog lifting to reveal an awesome day as we started,
Coming across other rogainers while I was in full pursuit of a small herd of sheep (I was within a metre of catching the bastards!)
Almost catching a turkey for dinner
Seeing about 10 bulls panic and run through a fence
Mooning a helicopter that was hovering at our level about 100m away
Earning a pie for the ride home!

Rogaines are fun.

Belinda's Pilates business

2009-06-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine Belinda Wimmer has set up her own pilates business here in Nelson.
Belinda knows her stuff, having practiced and taught pilates for almost 10 years.

I'll wang her details up here when I can.

I was her model for some publiicty stuff shes having done...

dont think this one will be used, but I reckon its awesome.

Wal and Me

2009-05-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Funny story that goes with this photo. Better told with the spoken word though.

ps I want a hat like the one Wal is wearing. If anyones got an old legionaires hat like this I'll buy it.

Polar RS800CX Bike

2009-05-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

I'm selling the Polar watch I won at Coast.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Cycling/Other/auction-220248043.htm

Almost glad Colombo St beckoned, Trev is having a little trouble getting the kayak that he won for second place. Seems the fella who sponsors his kayaks to the race keeps having them crashed into while they're on the roof of his wagon!??!
Something smells fishy (& its not my paddling gear this time).

Stewart Island Panoramas

2009-04-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

A few panoramas from Stewart Island.

Panorama over Smokey Beach

Elin at Smokey Beach

Smokey Beach.

Above East Ruggedy

Big Hellfire Pass

Trev & Rachs Wedding

2009-04-30T19:26:00.001-07:00

Finally get some photos up. unfortunately there were none of Trev as you'll never want to see him again at his stag.

Rach & Freya (our flatmate) at Rachs hens night.

Nelson multisporters photo. Have a close look. See whose hiding in there.

Nigel, Freya, me & Elin pre reception.

Stewart Island

2009-04-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

Elin and I have recently spent 10 days on Stewart Island. We spent 8 days tramping and 1 day kayaking/fishing. Awesome place. I've put some photos up below. More to follow.

Panorama on Rocky Mountain, above Freshwater Hut.

The group we tramped, talent quested and massage trained with. Good times! L 2 R; Dorien (Holland), Elin, Me, Ed (USA), Abby (USA), Heather (Canada) and Kira (USA).

Abby and Dorien on Lucky Beach.

Elin on Smokey Beach.

Ed and Kira on West Ruggedy Beach. (Where we saw kiwis fighting! Will hopefully post a video of that later.)

Heather and Kira on West Ruggedy Beach.

Training

2009-03-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back doing a bit of training, nothing crazy. Just what I can maintain reasonably around work and my commitments to people.

We went along to Trevor and Rachaels wedding on the weekend. Had a great time. Hopefully get some photos and wang em up here.

I thought I'd write a post about what training worked for me heading into Coast and what I could have done better at. As much for myself as anyone else who is interested.

THINGS THAT WORKED

Turning off my heart rate monitor and listening to my body

Your body knows what it needs and it knows how hard its going, (I also found it increased my enjoyment of sessions and seemed to reduce the pain of a hard session. i.e my heart rates 170 it should be hurting...)

Lots of aerobic training

Any endurance sport is nearly 100% aerobic so that needs to be the primary focus of training. Doing hard anaerobic training is good at the right time of the buildup, but in moderation. When I did lots of hard training it meant that I was tired all the time and the day to day consistency and quality of my training was reduced.

Training relaxed

I made a concerted effort to do my sessions in a relaxed manner. I found I could go faster and my muscles didnt get as sore and I reckon this helped prevent injuries.

Light on the feet

This is a carry over from being relaxed. I made an effort to be really light on my feet when running. (It also works for kayaking and cycling). You shouldn't be pushing really hard when your going fast, it uses more energy.

HILLS

Ran lots of hills. This was key for my run. I hadnt done much hill work since I moved to Nelson. When I started doing a few this buildup I remembered how well they had worked for me before. When I've been running lots of hills, I can run at a faster at a steady pace and I'm so much stronger at the end of a long run (Goat Pass!).

Steady paced long paddles

In our long paddles on sat mornings we never took it out very easy. The 2hr paddle was always at a reasonable pace that you knew about by the end. Because recovery is so quick with paddling I reckon you can do a lot of paddling at a fairly good effort.

On these long paddles we also did some max 20 stroke efforts (counting 1 side only) every 5 to 10minutes. We did this when we wanted. Its a great way to make sure the muscles were feeling it.

Rock running

I did lots (at least once a week, more during easy weeks) of running on sea walls around Nelson. This was awesome and come time to run Goat Pass I was sorted.

Easy weeks

I organised my training into 16 days on (2 weeks including weekends at each end) then 5 off. The days off were very easy. I'd normally have Monday and Friday as easier days during my on weeks. This left me so much fresher for my sessions and I never felt like I was falling behind on recovery.

Good break following last season

I took a good 6 week break after Rollos last winter. I started running after 2 weeks, ran to and from work most days. This was good to keep things rolling. I was also hitting the gym a lot over winter. (This time off wasnt all good, I took too much time out of the kayak)

Consistent buildup

The most important thing about sport is consistency. I felt I was very consistent throughout my buildup. The long-term consistency really helped when I needed to lay down a big final push.

Big weeks

I did one really big week (32 hrs, 40hrs including the weekend before) and a couple of reasonable weeks (23hrs+) in January. This sort of training makes me feel strong.

Good training partners

This is so key. Its great here in Nelson. I had Andrew Martin, Dan Busch, John Harris and Trevor to push me along in the boat. Andrew, John and Trev for the bike. The run I did mostly by myself (the hills were my training partners). I think there needs to be a balance here, somewhere between compeditiveness and not blowing each other to bits!

THINGS I COULD'VE DONE BETTER

Strength work on the bike

When ever I've done heaps of strength work, either in the gym or on the bike, my cycling seems to go a lot better. I did a fair amount over winter and I hit the ground running (?) when I got back on the bike. But I didnt carry it on through the buildup like I should've. (I think if your doing a lot of hard anaerobic training, this takes care of the cycling strength, but if your doing a lot of longer miles you need some more specific strength).

Intensity in the kayak

I kinda wussed out of the early season intensity in the kayak to keep aerobic across all my sessions. I regret this now, as post coast Im actually continuing to get faster in the boat. I reckon its alright to go hard in the boat as it takes so little out of you, you dont comprimise your other sessions.

More river time

Didnt get enough river time. Wouldnt have hurted to get out in the surf more to!

Too much time off - kayak

I feel I took too much time off over winter when it came to the kayak. I think I should've kept it at 2 sessions a week. With one of them reasonably full on, and both thinking about technique.

Worry and lack of self belief

I worried way too much. This really affected my training as I missed a lot of sleep! Worry wastes a huge amount of energy and leaves you with what feels like a hangover. If I'd just believed in myself and stayed in the present (not negatively anticipating) I would have been so much better off.

Thats all I can think of for now. At some point I'll put up my training log leading into the race.

Whoops

2009-03-02T17:39:00.001-08:00

To all those who recieved my bulk email, my bad for sending it more than once.

Race report up on Sportzhub

2009-02-26T18:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.sportzhub.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6349&Itemid=1

Thats it. I'll put it up on here as well.

More photos from Coast

2009-02-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

Mad props to Lorraine from http://www.photochick.co.nz/ for the following photos

Photos taken around an hour into the paddle, at Gooseberry Stream

Photos from Coast

2009-02-19T13:51:00.000-08:00

Big thanks to Steve at http://www.sportzhub.com/ for the photos.

Middle bike ride, having a munch from my lunch box, nom nom nom

Pulling a sweeping turn into the beach at Gorge Bridge

Legs only just working, Adam giving support

Repping the old skool Scotts on the final bike ride, Pre Colombo Street detour (Stopped to get milk for Trev)

Judkins and I screaming in terror, about to be taken away by aliens

(Finishing and waving to friends and whanau)

The twins: Trev and Luke: Doing it for Nelson, turns out Trev didnt need the milk!

Coast to Coast

2009-02-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hi
I've been Mega^2 slack at updating this.

I had a bit of a crazy day on the weekend, 3rd place in the longest day. It totally blew my expectations as I was hoping top 10 and I was unsure of that!

I'm going to put together a race report and will get that up within a week.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out, those who sponsored me, everyone who cheered and everyone who officialed at the race.

Awesome

Abel Tasman - Labour Weekend

2008-11-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-08-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-07-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

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.